Beyond Words International

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Beyond Words International

Our Mission: To promote healing through humanitarian aid and various forms of art. Our Vision: Art st

12/15/2021

BWI is officially 3 years old this December! What was once an idea grew to involve a Board of Directors, an internship program, a Speaker series of humanitarian aid and human rights experts, and partnerships and collaborations near and far: from our birthplace of Pagosa Springs, Colorado USA to Mexico and Greece. We have been honored to participate in conversations this year centered around hope, healing, and connection through the arts with various organizations serving displaced people.

As we wrap-up this year, we appreciate your continued support, whether you:

•attended the virtual Women Without Barriers (WWB) art gallery in June
•took time to read the artists’ stories on the WWB Instagram
•purchased artwork from these talented artists
•liked and shared our social media posts
•donated to continue to support our Irida Women’s Center arts’ partnership
•participated in our well-being survey�
Additionally, your donations make a difference! Your donation this year could fund:

•$30- 6 sets of paint brushes
•$50- 5 bottles of acrylic paint
•$75- 7 canvases
•$125- shipping costs of artwork palette for art exhibit
•$150- 6 hours of Social Worker's time for teachers' trauma training
•$175- contribution to Art Teacher salary, benefits, and vacation
•$200- ~50% of Immigration Advocate Training cost for BWI Board member
•$375- complete funding Immigration Advocate Training cost for BWI Board Member

Please use the link in our bio to donate.

We wish you joy, ease, and community as we say goodbye to 2021 and welcome in 2022!

11/30/2021

Beyond Words International would like to learn what people in the humanitarian aid field think about their well-being, self-care, and community care in their work. This will help BWI shape and plan our activities in response to strengths and unmet needs in this area.

We invite you to complete the short survey we have developed to respond to this important issue. The link is in our bio  Our team at BWI will be reviewing the feedback, and pursuing a curriculum developed by BWI in response to our findings. Thank you for your participation!

10/05/2021

NEWS! Check out our latest newsletter which was just sent out to our community. BWI sends out a seasonal newsletter, and we aim to share all of our exciting deets - past, present, and future - in this format. Included you'll find a sneak peek of an initiative for humanitarian aid worker well-being we've just started and will share more about in the coming weeks. Please go to our website - www.bwintl.org - to sign up for our newsletter.

10/01/2021

Back in January, BWI collaborated with the Irida Women’s center and launched Women Without Barriers, a project to support refugee artisans in marking and in turn, sell their artwork and products through our new Etsy Store. This project provides artists with income-generation opportunities and allows them to express themselves through art. Proceeds from the project, after all costs are covered, will go directly to the artists as well as fund a part-time art teacher to continue training women at Irida Women’s Center. To view all of the amazing artwork, please visit our Etsy shop through the link in our bio.

09/24/2021

Moria is the largest refugee camp located in Europe which Human Rights Watch deemed "an open air prison." Migrants, mostly from Syria, Afghanista, and Iraq are confined in a camp crammed to six times its capacity while they wait for their asylum application to be processed. is an account run by refugees, going by their first names only for safety purposes, that shares photos and stories about their daily life in Moria. Foam Fotografiemuseum Amsterdam launched an exhibit called Now You See Me Moria where images are shown to a broad audience. The photos provide a new perspective on reality and portray the daily life in camp. Our board member, Kelly Ziemer, was able to attend the exhibit and shared some photos. For those not local in Amsterdam, you can follow their Instagram or purchase their crowdfunded Action Book to raise awareness about these egregious conditions and call for policy change.

09/14/2021

An article written by the UN Refugee Agency details how art can be a powerful tool to communicate stories and provide a form of personal expression. There are a staggering 82 million displaced people around the world and there is a need for programs that allow refugees to engage in creative processes. The UNHCR funds several projects that provide creative outlets in their own communities and encourages individuals to express themselves through art. For more information on the work that UNHCR does, go to unhcr.org or follow them on instagram

09/09/2021

The arts are proven to be a powerful tool for stress relief, trauma recovery, and positive expression. At BWI, we partner with artists, therapists and those working in their communities to provide healing arts workshops and opportunities for nonverbal expression. We are committed to supporting projects that are community-based, measurable, and sustainable. Some of these projects include teaching healing art and dance to children living in refugee camps in Thermopylae, Greece, as well as art activities to asylum seeker children in the Matamoros encampment on the U.S/Mexico Border. To see other projects, please visit bwintl.org to learn more!

09/04/2021

The pandemic of the last year has affected everyone on the planet. However, the refugee community has been hit especially hard, and, after receiving very minimal aid for basic living necessities, this could result in a huge reluctance towards the COVID vaccine in this demographic. The New Humanitarian quotes the director of the Center for Humanitarian Health at Johns Hopkins University Paul Spiegel, asking, “Will refugees – many of whom are already discriminated against and don’t trust authority – will they be willing to accept this vaccine…?” The New Humanitarian goes on to talk about how, since the beginning of the pandemic, many fundamental living needs, such as clean water, food, and basic shelters, have been denied to the refugee community, resulting in miserable conditions for those lucky enough to survive. A frustrated Congolese refugee living in Uganda told the New Humanitarian, “When I was starving, you were not there, or when I was being evicted from the house, you were not there. Why do you care about me getting a vaccine when you're not caring about my children’s food, or education, or… shelter?” The overall message is: although the threat of the coronavirus is only a portion of the challenges faced by refugees every day, providing COVID vaccine access as well as vaccine education to the refugee community is crucial if we are hoping to ever win the long battle to help the refugee community persevere. To learn more about the state of COVID vaccinations in refugee communities, read the New Humanitarian’s article, “On COVID vaccinations for refugees, will the world live up to its promises?”

09/02/2021

As the COVID vaccine situation in America calms down, the confusion and chaos regarding COVID vaccines is ramping up in refugee camps and their host countries. There has been a big push to include refugees in vaccination plans worldwide, and, according to the New Humanitarian, “Out of 157 countries UNHCR is monitoring, 150 have said publicly or privately that they will include refugees in their inoculation campaigns.” However, it is much easier said than done. A huge raw material shortage in combination with export bans in India have resulted in a limited supply of vaccine doses across the globe. The New Humanitarian brings up the idea that, “governments that have said they will vaccinate refugees might not follow through when forced to choose who should be prioritised to receive the small number of available shots.” This could end up meaning that many refugees will have very limited or no access to protection against the coronavirus for months to come. Check out the New Humanitarian’s article, “On COVID vaccinations for refugees, will the world live up to its promises?” to learn more.

07/23/2021

We heard Diala's story through the IRC and appreciate her willingness to share. For World Refugee Day, Diala Brisly commissioned an illustration that states, “Refugees are Courageous.” She said, “courage is having fears, having all this worry, having all this trauma, and still having the energy to keep going.” Within her illustration, there are representations of women and men of different ages and cultures and it signifies the solidarity among refugees. Many refugees face common struggles and understand each other’s pain. Diala grew up in Kuwait and moved to Syria when she was 10. When the uprising started in Syria, there was excitement about the changes that would come. But in 2012, it became apparent that the changes were very violent, and she turned to her art to express what was happening around her, creating a political cartoon that became very popular. The reaction towards her artwork encouraged her to do more political art. In the beginning of the Syrian war, she became involved with a resistance group and was responsible for secretly delivering medical supplies to checkpoints, which became dangerous. Many of her colleagues were blacklisted. Thankfully, Diala was never arrested,but she left for Istanbul, thinking it would only be for a few months. During this time, she lost her brother in the war and went to Lebanon to see friends and camps where refugees are living. There she met a woman who was opening a public library in the camp. Diala asked if she could create a mural. This mural had a huge impact which led to her start art therapy workshops in the camp. Now, Diala is a part of the Agency of Artist in Exile, an organization that supports and elevates refugee artists in France. Agency of Artists in Exile ( ) “works to identify artists in exile from all origins and disciplines, accompanies them according to their situations and their needs, provides them with workspaces and puts them in contact with professionals in order to give them the means to practice their disciplines and to restructure themselves.” This organization is developing their own multidisciplinary festival, visions d’exil, in cooperation with partner venues.

07/20/2021

Our Board Treasurer, Paula Miller, presented about BWI at the Bellwether Alliance’s spring conference earlier this month. We are so thankful for the Bellwether’s support and the “Nonprofit of the Month” honor that BWI received. To learn more about this wonderful organization, please visit the Bellwether Alliance website.

07/16/2021

BWI has been selected “Nonprofit of the Month” by Bellwether Alliance. With this honor, Bellwether and its thousands of members will support awareness of and contributions to our organization. Our Board Treasurer, Paula Jo Miller, was invited to present about BWI at their spring conference in Mobile, Alabama. We are thrilled to announce that Bellwether has contributed almost $5,000 to support our programming! We are so grateful for Bellwether’s support. Please visit the Bellwether Alliance website to learn more about this wonderful organization!

Address

PO BOX 2503
Pagosa Springs, CO
81147

Website

http://paypal.com/us/fundraiser/charity/3603448

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