25-09-2018
Connecting Hands collaborated with Studium Generale to organise a symposium reflecting on the refugee situation and post-war demographic of Syria. The symposium reflected on the question, “How to survive a war situation and make the best of it?” The first guest of the evening was Simone Gerard, a freelance photographer who went to Syria to see how people rebuilt ther lives in the destroyed city of Aleppo. She explained the stories behind the pictures she took – highlighting the difficulties people face as they walk several kilometres to get clean water. The second guest of the evening was Mohamad Mahayri; a student who grew up in Aleppo, where he studied Economics. He fled the country in 2016 and came to the Netherlands. He talked about the experience of the war and how people usually made jokes about the war to survive the daunting time. He went on to talk about his future ambitions and life in the Netherlands. Two of our board members, Maria Elmeidaa and Muhammad Hamza Riaz spoke about the activites of Connecting Hands to help take away prejudices about refugees and show what the UT community can do to help them.