About “The Journey of Halima” Project
The 'Journey of Halima' is a book to keep the refugee-children company on their own journey from Greece to their destination countries, a journey that may remind them of the homeland they have left behind. They may see something of their own journey in Halima's adventures; or, perhaps, even something of their new homes. The story was written by the members of
‘Mermiξ’ non-profit artists' cooperative, based in Greece. Alongside Halima and us you will find collaborating artists and professionals from around the world: all of us are volunteering and working together to bring this book to life. The project will be crowd-funded and distributed free of charge to refugee children, during their stay in Greece. The story
We searched for, found and studied traditional Syrian folk tales, and wrote about the journey of Halima who wants to reach the Land of Rain, in order to bring the rainclouds back to her land, the Land of the Sun, where there is a terrible drought, and where the people are no longer happy. In order to reach the Land of Rain, Halima has to go through many countries where she makes many new friends. With 'The Journey of Halima', apart from entertaining the children, we want to give them some moments of empowerment and hope. We have removed all violence often present in folk tales. There is no “bad guy” and all people are kind. There are no kings or princesses and there are no religious references. Special care has been taken to create a story that is modern, multicultural and intercultural, under the guidance of academics specializing in this field. What is the book like? The book is divided into five units. The first unit is illustrated and addressed to young readers (preschool – very young readers). In the second unit the story has more narrative and no illustrations, and addresses older readers or is to be read out by adults. The following units are interactive: in the third unit, children can colour in the images of the heroes/heroines; in the fourth they can use the lines to write their own stories and thoughts; the fifth unit will contain empty pages for drawing and painting. Each book will be accompanied by crayons and a pen, packaged for protection and easy distribution. The book will be made available free of charge in a printed and electronic version. The printed version will be distributed to refugee children during their stay in Greece. The story will be bilingual, written in Syrian Arabic and English (as the lingua franca). The electronic version of the story (PDF) will also be bilingual, in a combination of various languages, into which it will be translated (Syrian – Greek, Syrian – German, etc.). These e-books will be available to download from the project website – which is under construction – and could be printed in the language desired. The printed story will be in A5 page format, so that it may easily fit into a child's backpack or their guardian’s luggage without adding any extra weight. Together, we can do this! Our goal is to print and distribute many books to refugee children. In order to achieve this, we are organizing a crowd-funding campaign at indiegogo (www.indiegogo.com), which will start soon. As the 'Journey of Halima' is a project undertaken by people for other people, we intend to refuse funding from companies, in order to preserve its independent character. The printing will be carried out at KETHEA SCHEMA+CHROMA Printing Unit, which is the largest production unit of the Therapy Centre for Dependent Individuals, so that the 'Journey of Halima' can support every possible initiative for people. The crayons, pens and packaging materials will be bought from a Greek foundation for the protection of children, but we are still exploring our options as to which foundation this will be.
