ZEITOUNA is a creative therapy and physical wellness program designed to inspire and heal the youngest victims of the Syrian humanitarian crisis: the children.

Karam Foundation’s Innovative Education programs counters these traumatic factors by instilling a love of creativity and athletic sports, caring for the youths’ physical and mental wellbeing, restoring confidence by building trusting bonds between mentor and child, exposing youth to advanced technology, and developing leadership skills for the future.

ZEITOUNA SPRING 2015 will take place on April 26-30 in the Jeel School for Syrian refugees in Reyhanli, Turkey. Our fourth Zeitouna mission will be lead by over 30 mentors traveling from around the world. They will serve over 350 Syrian students, grades 1-8, who are currently displaced along the Syrian-Turkish border.

The theme of this year’s Zeitouna program is Holistic Healing. The program focuses on serving the psycho-social needs of refugee students because educating also requires healing from the trauma of war and displacement. Zeitouna’s professional, multi-talented team includes therapists, dentists, doctors, writers, photographers, artists, architects, athletes and journalists. These mentors are experienced in working with children and are dedicated to their learning and development. They are not only experts in their fields, but also in the use of their work to serve the physical and psychological health of refugee youth.

Molly Crabapple is proud to work with Zeitouna yet again this year in creating new murals for the school with their students. For more info, and the option to donate, please click here.

 

 

Photos from 2014 Zeitouna project.