Leafy Thank You Note!

Thank you for being such wonderful LEAVES for the past 2 years!

We promise we keep LEAFING !

We're 2 Leaves Old this December !

Abracadabra - A magical transformation!

Ever since we were kids they taught us that our school is our second home, where we should find peace, where we have to enlighten our minds and discover new dimensions in life and in our souls, school seems to be such a magical happy place! Yet, this was not the case at Raml El Zarif School, the magical place was more of very dull and sad one, it was not a healthy environment to the kids, it was more of a devastating place, where neither kid nor adult should attend, on a regular basis.

When I Leaf Art saw the school’s condition, the team decided that they should leaf it up as soon as they can, they believed in their ability to transform this sad surrounding into a dreamy magical one. So, the brainstorming began, they started scheduling weekly meetings, artists, logistics, illustrators, alongside with the lovely American University of Beirut (AUB) volunteers, all the team got their efforts all together and focused on one important thing which was these kids’ surrounding. 

After many meetings, they decided which four illustrations fit mostly, so they set a date for the intervention, brought the materials needed and drove towards the school.

Once the team arrived, they couldn't hide their shock, the classrooms were ruined, it was sad. The kids were frustrated. However, they were so excited seeing the team’s colorful materials and smiles, they couldn't stop passing by the team, taking a peek on what was happening, noticing the way their classrooms dramatically being changed. It was heartwarming and definitely worth the hard work. 

After hours and hours of the hard work and the devotion, the team was finalizing their art work, and just when the last drop of paint was placed on the last part of the last illustration the bell rang and the students left their classes in order to go home, seeing by their own way the magical work that was done, the team saw it in the kids eyes how grateful and happy they were, how thankful they were. 

Their eyes were lightened up in a way that touched each and every heart in the team, moments like this are what make the team work harder, it’s what make us as I Leaf Art be more devoted.

Photo Credits : Moussa Habanbo & Ziad Zoubian 

Written by Mariam Mosleh

Leafer since Summer 2013

And on Monday, Children discovered their new transformed classrooms!

Colors for the Eyes & Music for the Heart

Pairs of Leafy hands walk into Hariri hospital, into the onco-pediatric unit on Adha’s eve. Two of them respectively carry a guitar, another carries a basket full of muffins carefully baked and wrapped. The other hands carry crafts and colors.

I Leaf Art team walks between colorful walls they had painted previously. 

Once the instruments are tuned and the smiles are on, strings are strummed and music takes over a place where silence reigns.

Hatem is four. He greets us with a shy smile on a pale face. 

Notes start flowing as his smile widens. He chooses to color a butterfly and names her Amar. His happiness reaches its peak when the clown enters. The boy asks for faster music and dances as much as he can with a tube connected to his arm, but his feet can only hold him for a bit so we leave him to rest.

Houssein is five. He enjoys slower music and fewer people. 

He chooses to color a horse and divides this task between all his leafy friends. He insists on the fact that the horse is a female and gives her the name of Amira. 
There’s a smart look in his tired eyes and the way he talks, but soon his focus weakens and Leafers had to leave him with enough colors to draw more rainbows in his dreams.

On the way out, I Leaf Art team passes by the nursery department and spreads music for the heart and colors for the eyes not only to entertain, but to rebuild the fragile hope of beaten parents.

Written by Sama Beydoun

Leafer since Summer 2014

Colors & Smiles

It takes one nice word to make her day, and one chemo therapy to break it down.

When talking about a 4 years old young girl, who has been battling cancer for more than two years, when doctors are telling her mom that there is no way back, they have lost hope, she instead draws a red butterfly, with wings wide open. She would smile to the camera, a smile that says: I will never surrender, see you soon.

This is Suzan, who taught us how to smile from pain, and how it’s important to have courage in the darkest days, to keep on going.

On the other side of the beautifully painted hallway, lies a room for a little fighter. Mohamad or “Hamoudi” as what he likes to be called.

You can hear his laughter all the way outside the cancer unit in the hospital, he would educate you, the moment you enter his room, how you should act around kids who have cancer: “don’t touch this. Don’t do that. No, you should wear gloves.”

He would comment on almost everything he sees, whether he liked it or not, he would express his thoughts and he would immediately speaks out his mind.

Hamoudi took advantage of all of I Leaf Art team, the way the team wanted things to happen.  He refused but playing the guitar that was part of the entertainment taking place that day, and asking how he would synch the sounds. He then insisted to paint his own mask, and after all he invited the team to play along with his new toy, and pretended to be having dinner, sea food dinner in particular and even left space for leftovers!!

Right next to Hamoudi’s room, there is Alaa’, her right leg was removed due to a severe infection in her bones. However, she still wears the Harley Davidson scarf, dreaming that one day she would be able to go over Lebanon riding a motorcycle and feeling the wind blowing in her hair, she never lost hope, even as a teenager who have went through way too many surgeries and hard times, she lost all of her hair, yet, she never lost her spirit, and she is still aiming high, I Leaf Art team met her one day earlier to her final chemo therapy before she goes home, and she told them how excited she is to celebrate the Eid with her family, no she was not thinking about cancer or the chemo, she kept on thinking about the new clothes and the family gathering awaiting her in couple of days.

Blessed the soul of Soujoud, the little warrior who left us last week, the amazing girl who helped painting the cancer unit, to make it a slightly better place for those whom their battle is still going.

Written by Mariam Mohammad Mosleh

Leafer since 2013

The Leafers & their Little Warriors

For more readings you can follow these links, articles published in the press about the event : Colors & Smiles 

Barakabits: "The Art of Healing: These Kids Have the Bravest Eid"  http://www.barakabits.com/2014/07/art-healing-kids-bravest-eid

جريدة السفير : ابتسامات وألوان في مركز سرطان الأطفال   http://mobile.assafir.com/Article/3/363564

جريدة الأخبار : "الفن العلاجي": إخراج مشاعر الخوف وبثّ الأمل  http://al-akhbar.com/node/212499

جريدة المدن الالكترونيّة : "أي ليف أرت" : الأطفال مرضى السرطان يغنون ويضحكون  http://www.almodon.com/society/dc116f86-0554-4559-8fcf-a80945bd8e47

 

Rising Youth from Refuge

On Saturday June 14th, Young Syrian Refugees shared with us their own stories and elaborated through Drama and Brainstorming interactive exercises their deepest thoughts ! On Saturday June 21st, a collective work of leafers and Syrian Refugee Youth liberated through colors and illustrations on walls. "Refuge, Home, Community, Heroes and Friendships" were keywords of the themes projected by the youth, on the 14th. All these artworks were conceptualized in collaboration with Danish Refugee Council in Lebanon at Old Saida city. Worth mentioning, the neighborhood warmly welcomed our leaves, on walls, on stairs..

" Coming from Lebanon, a country that has been welcoming refugees from Palestine since the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, I knew how bad a refugee’s life could be. Well at least I thought I knew. Even though we live in the same country, refugees in Lebanon have an appalling social and economic condition. They were forbidden to work and therefore they didn’t have access to any kind of social aid given by the government and of course no easy access to hospitals and schools. 

Today, Lebanon is not only welcoming Palestinians but also a lot of Syrian families who have been escaping the civil war in their country since 2011. 

Currently, and according to the United Nations’ refugee agency, the number of Syrian refugees in Lebanon exceeded 1 million, without counting the non-registered refugees.  This number would be definitely massive in any country. For Lebanon, a small nation, the impact is shocking. 

Syrian families can be seen everywhere in the capital. They live on the streets with their kids and try to survive day by day. "While every refugee's story is different and their anguish personal, they all share a common thread of uncommon courage: the courage not only to survive, but to persevere and rebuild their shattered lives." As the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees Antonio Guterres described.

After seeing in what conditions those people are living in, I thought about helping them. Helping them, but this time not by giving them money, food, clothes… It is certain that these refugees are in an enormous need of money. But they also need a house, a shelter, food, jobs, going to school, proper life conditions! What can we do about this? Yes we can give them money, maybe food and clothes sometimes. Still, kids are being held by bunch of Mafioso that tries to collect money from them. Kids are not going to schools and a whole generation of children just lost the meaning of being a child. They just lost their only chance to be innocent, carefree to be children once. The war took everything from them.

I had the chance to do something for these children while working with I leaf Art on two projects concerning Syrian refugees.  And this time we tried to give more than what money can give. 

On Saturday June 14^th 2014, I worked with I leaf Art’s crew and around 30 young refugees. Note that most of them were Palestinian refugees from the Yarmouk camp in Syria, which means they were already refugees back in Syria.  

We started by dividing them into two groups; a group for some brainstorming interaction to exercise their deepest thoughts and a second group to share their own stories and elaborated them through a small Drama act.
Not surprisingly, their stories and their deepest thoughts illustrated the war and their miserable life conditions. 

he small act was all about this “Abou Mohammad” who lost his son, got injured and escaped his country with his wife and daughters. He was in an urgent need for a surgery and of course no hospitals in Lebanon would let him in without paying a deposit. It all ended, when his oldest daughter came and told him that she could work to get the money for the surgery.  Every kid in the group agreed on the story. And saw in it something very personal. Most of them actually shared the same life. After presenting the scene, we held a discussion and pushed the kids to find solutions for those common refugees’ problems. Again, those solutions illustrated what those kids are dealing with everyday. They know which association can help them, who to call, what to do. And they acted as adults regarding saving the life of “Abou Mohammad”. At this point, I realized how much can the war take from a child.  

On Saturday June 21^st 2014, this time we tried to give those children a little hope after what the war did to them. Again with I leaf art, we tried to add colors to their lives.  In old Saida, “Refuge, Home, Community, Heroes and Friendships” were the keywords of the project. Superman, a warming neighborhood and some colorful stairs were added to these children’s dark memories of the war. "

                                                                                                                                Written by Lea Kodeih

                                                                                                                                                                     Volunteer Leafer - Summer 2014

Political Sciences Student - Menton (France)