Zainab, 20 years old, has a magic ability. She can draw a picture that tells a story better than words. Over the past few years, she has teamed up with our Camp Coordination and Camp Management (CCCM) team in northeast Syria to support her community using art. Originally from Iraq, Zainab lives in a displacement camp in northeast Syria that houses tens of thousands of other people from the region, many of them children.
CCCM provides essential camp services, shares important information with camp residents, and organizes recreational and educational activities in two displacement camps. Our community-facing team raises awareness on critical issues like health, safety, and more. Since September, they’ve reached nearly 25,000 people aged five or above and have held hundreds of community meetings.
Zainab was inspired to help others by teaming up with the CCCM program to create informational posters that are easy to interpret or read.
Zainab has frequented our community spaces, where residents can access art supplies and lessons through the CCCM program. Noticing her art skills, the team first asked Zainab to help with an awareness campaign to inform the community about COVID-19. Because part of the camp population is either illiterate or too young to read, visual posters are a way to get messages across easily. During the pandemic, her posters illustrated for children how to prevent the spread of the virus.
This year, Zainab stepped in to help with a critical topic–respecting public property. In the camp, families share a lot of public spaces and facilities. To keep them in working order, our team meets with children to teach them the importance of protecting and caring for these shared places. But sometimes, just talking to kids doesn’t always work. To get messages to stick, sometimes it takes something a little more fun.
Zainab is using her artistic talent to design posters that meet kids where they are. The easy-to-understand visuals help get the message across: “It’s for us, so let’s respect it.” So far, she has shared her illustrations with about 1,000 children. The drawings are straightforward enough for youth and accessible for those who can’t read. Mothers have shared with our team that their kids are responding well to the posters.
Children living in the displacement camp discuss one of Zainab’s hand-drawn posters.
Now, Zainab’s artwork is officially part of our team’s strategy. Her posters, adapted to suit different age groups, will continue to help us get messages across to children in the camp.
Zainab isn’t just inspiring good behavior and respect. She’s also encouraging other women to join art activities and embrace their imaginations. “You stimulate your imagination when you start drawing … use your drawings to embody wonderful stories,” she said.
No doubt, Zainab’s imagination and creativity has led her to be such an important figure in the community.
