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COMMUNITY NEWS
Documentary on Syrian Civil War
For her honors project, junior Dunya Habash has taken one of the largest
humanitarian crises on the planet.
Habash, a Harrison Honors Scholar and history major, is working on a
documentary this fall titled “Al-laj’een: The Zaatari Refugees” to bring awareness
to war-torn Syria and the two million-plus Syrian refugees living in desperate
conditions around the Middle East. Accompanied by her brother, Majd, a
sophomore chemistry major at BSC, she spent two weeks in August filming at the
Zaatari Camp, which is located about 60 miles outside Amman, Jordan, and houses
81,000 refugees.
“We stayed in an apartment in Amman and signed up as volunteers at Zaatari,
which gave me the opportunity to create the documentary,” said Habash, a native of
Birmingham whose parents are from Syria. “My fluency in Arabic helped me gain the trust of refugees.”
A talented songwriter and pianist, she is also composing an original music score for her documentary. She put on a music
concert this past summer, which funded her travel, as did a Kickstarter campaign.
“I want this to be more than a creative project,” said Habash. “I believe a documentary is the most effective way to tell a real
story with real characters and to raise real awareness about the plight in Syria.”
To get help, Habash studied the art of documentary filmmaking with BSC Assistant Professor of Media and Film Studies Dr.
David Resha. She plans to present the film next year at BSC, UAB, Indian Springs School, and the UNA-USA Greater Birmingham
Chapter.
Meanwhile, Habash is studying abroad this semester at Kansai Gaidai University in Japan after winning a scholarship from the
U.S.-Japan Bridging Foundation. She was one of just 74 students nationwide to earn the $4,000 award, and the third BSC student
to do so.
If successful with this film project, Habash said she might do more video interviews with friends in New York and D.C. who
have been to Zaatari.
“This is just the start,” she said.
Global Peace Exchange
Nepal—home to the world’s highest mountains, the mighty
Himalayas—is a far cry from the BSC campus. It’s where BSC juniors
Saurav Bhandary, an economics and math double major from Nepal,
and Wesley Chambers, a music major and Harrison Honors Scholar
from Porterdale, Ga., volunteered this summer as Global Peace
Exchange (GPE) volunteers.
The GPE was founded in 2006 at Florida State University as a
student organization devoted to sustainable grassroots development
and is now in its third year partnering with other undergraduate GPE
chapters to work in Nepal. This year’s Nepal Project team consisted
of six students from FSU as well as Bhandary and Chambers, who founded BSC’s GPE chapter last year.
For four weeks in June and July, the team stayed at the home of Bhandary’s uncle in Meghauli and taught preschool children,
educating them about character development, public health, and environmental concepts. They also taught English to local
villagers, led a summer camp, raised awareness of safe drinking water and sanitation, distributed more than 2,500 re-usable
cotton bags and 46 trash receptacles, and supported a medical clinic that serves thousands of rural villagers. They faced many
challenges, like working in weather over 100 degrees and intermittent electricity, a common obstacle in developing countries.
“Working with the Global Peace Exchange has taught me so much about the way things work outside of developed nations,”
said Chambers. “This trip has changed the way I see the world as well as my understanding of how BSC’s GPE chapter should
operate in the future.”
“This trip was more personal to me,” said Bhandary. “I got to go back to my home country and work with my American friends
to give something back to the community where I grew up. This experience gave me a different perspective on life.”
Saurav Bhandary (left) and Wesley Chambers in Nepal
Dunya Habash in concert