Sama Wareh on the Power of Art in Helping Syrian Refugees

Last Tuesday, my fellow Global Scholars and I had the great pleasure of hearing documentary filmmaker, educator, and activist Sama Wareh speak to us about her work with Syrian refugees and the power of the individual to make change. Her story was truly inspirational. Though she grew up in Orange County, Wareh always felt extremely connected to her Syrian family, whom she would visit whenever she could, and she gained an appreciation for nature from her uncle, a skillful practitioner of homeopathic medicine. Though she initially traveled to Syria to film her master's thesis (a documentary on the Syrian water crisis), her engagement with the country changed after the bloody Syrian Civil War began displacing thousands of Syrian citizens to nearby nations like Turkey and Lebanon. Outside of any governmental organization or nonprofit, Wareh took it upon herself to sell her art and raise enough money to Turkey and share medicine with refugees in need. As she became more and more connected to Syrian communities, she saw a need among young refugee children with PTSD and began to help them treat their trauma through art therapy. She was amazed to watch their art turn from graphic crayon drawings of beheadings and mindless depictions of the Syrian revolutionary flag to colorful flowers and pictures of their dreams of being doctors and mechanics. As of now, she has opened multiple schools in Lebanon and a community center for refugees in Greece, and she has presented her message of the power of individual action in affecting change on lectures around the country and even a TED Talk at UC Irvine.