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Smiles Galore as Mohammed Assaf visits IRUSA Projects
Written by Fareeha Amir, IRUSA Multimedia Manager who travelled with a group of staff with Mohammed Assaf to Jordan in August 2019. Edited by Kelly El-Yacoubi. Mohammed Assaf’s smile is contagious. So it’s no surprise that when he visited Islamic Relief USA projects in Jordan this past August, his positivity came right along with him. The Palestinian singer is most well-known for winning the second season of Arab Idol in 2013, the precursor to his immense popularity as a singer and celebrity figure in the Middle East. But Assaf’s influence extends beyond the microphone. As a child he grew up in a refugee camp in Gaza, an experience that has…
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What Will Happen to the Children?
by Christina Tobias-Nahi, Director of Public Affairs at IRUSA I have just come back from Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey with an inter-agency interfaith team tasked with looking at child protection and welfare issues of emerging concern in the region. Even though I have a background in early childhood education and vulnerable children’s issues – truly I was not prepared for what we saw. Our main takeaway was this: If there is no cessation of hostilities in Syria, the children around the region will continue to suffer like we have never seen before and the effects will be multi-generational. Not just for those fleeing Syria but for the children in the…
