Watch the video recording of this event below:< /b>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xPMX5IiKKGU&feature=youtu.be
< p>This special event was held at UBC with the White Helmets delegat ion to Canada where they discussed their rescue operations in Syria and ans wered audience questions. The event also included a short video screening a nd poetry\, with a light dinner provided by Tayybeh\, a social enterprise catering c ompany run by Syrian women sharing their rich culinary tradition and connec ting to the community.
The program began with remarks by Dr. Amira Ha lperin\, followed by a short video screening. Our panelists shared their ex periences and expertise and responded to questions from the audience. We ed ned with a poetry reading in Arabic by Rawan Nahhas\, a former Syrian refug ee who settled in Canada 16 months ago.
The White Helmets\, aka the Syrian Civil Defense\, saved more than 100\,000 civ ilians during the Syrian civil war. Several members are visiting Canada to speak about their work. They’ll be joined by a fourth speaker who is a Syri an refugee now living in Vancouver.
We heard about:
Learn more about their work in this Guardian article\, "How Syria's White Helmets became victims of an online propaganda machine."
In July of 2018\, the Honourable Chrystia F reeland\, Minister of Foreign Affairs\, released the following statement in support of The White Helmets. Please read it here. The Canadian government has worked t o resettle a group of White Helmets in Canada this past year. Read more details here.
Biographies:
Majed Al Khalf joined The White Helmets in 201 3\, and since then\, he has been a student at the University of Aleppo at E ngineering faculty. He has participated in international meetings at the Un ited Nations on the humanitarian situation in general\, on Migration and on Internally Displaced People (IDPs). He won the Emmy Awar d for his 60 minute episode. He has been nominated to attend the 2016 Young Leaders' Conference in Colombia and nominated for the McKin Institute of C ourage in America. He has participated with an international team in Kosovo for the Explosive Remnants of War (ERW).
Maysoon Al Masri was the firs t female volunteer of the White Helmets female team. Before the Syrian upri sing\, she worked for the Syrian Arab News Agency\, SANA\, for four years a s a journalist in the city of Daraa\, but since the beginning of the Syrian revolution she has been working independently to document Assad forces' vi olations against civilians. She has also helped with providing educational and psychological support to children in Daraa. She joined the White Helmet s since the foundation of the organization in 2015 as a volunteer for Centr e 1511 in Daraa. Now\, she acts as the person in charge of women’s affairs.
Jiha d Almahammed - was a civil servant who worked at the Commercial Ba nk of Syria before the revolution. Cognizant of the political injustice hap pening in his country\, Mr. Almahameed joined the peaceful protest at the s tart of the Syrian revolution\, believing in the power of civil work and co mmunity empowerment. He helped lead the peaceful civil movement before he w as then arrested by the Syrian regime in June of 2012. Upon his release\, M r. Almahameed established a service to provide repair services to Syrian co mmunities bombarded by the regime\, and the group was later merged with the White Helmets.
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Mohammed Alsaleh is o
riginally from Syria and uses the adversities he had faced in life as a ref
ugee himself to bring others hope and inspiration. After losing his cousin
to cancer\, Mohammed decided to become a physician with a specialization in
oncology. But during his time in medical school\, his entire life changed
as the Syrian conflict broke out. After surviving imprisonment and torture\
, Mohammed fled his home to Lebanon and made his journey to seek refuge in
Vancouver.
Now\, Mohammed is an internationa l speaker and an advocate\, raising a voice for thousands of people going t hrough the hardships he experienced first-hand. As a two-time TEDx speaker\ , he's an active advocate for refugee livelihood and well-being. A recent r ecipient of the 2018 RBC Top 25 Canadian Immigrant Award\, he has been reco gnized from the likes of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau\, Defense Minister H arjit Sajjan\, and Hollywood Actor and Activist George Takei. From Syria to Canada\, his journey was famously featured in the documentary "Welcome t o Canada".
D r. Amira Halperin is a Research Fellow at the Department of Sociol ogy at the University of British Columbia and a member of UBC Migration . She researches the integration of Syrian refugees and immigrants to Canada through media\, information and communication technologies. She has been researching marginalized populations and media for 15 years\, working from a community-base and using participatory methodology and an interdisci plinary approach.
She holds an MA in Interna tional Journalism\, and PhD in Communication and Media from the University of Westminster\, United Kingdom. She is the author of the book 'The Use of New Media by the Palestinian Diaspora in the United Kingdom'\, 2018.
Amira worked as an Investigative Journalist and Te levision Correspondent (1998 – 2006). The highlight of this route was her w ork\, in London UK\, on BBC 'Panorama' (2004 – 2006). She has been regularl y interviewing as a commentator on international media.
Disclaimer : Please note that by registering via thi s service\, your information will be stored on the Eventbrite server\, whic h is located outside Canada. If you do not wish to use this service\, pleas e email Joelle.Lee@ubc.ca directly t o register. Thank you.
Co-hosted by: The Department of Sociology\, The School of Public
Policy and Global Affairs\, and Development and Alumni Engagement\, Faculty
of Arts
