Lakeside alumni share updates on Syria Emergency Task Force
Lakeside alumni Mouaz Moustafa, Natalie Larrison and Megan Alexander spoke to fifthand seventh-grade students Thursday about the ongoing civil war in Syria and how Arkansans are helping.
“Most people haven’t learned or heard anything about Syria,” Moustafa told the group of fifth-graders gathered in the Lakeside Middle School cafeteria. “For you all to have already been so educated on what’s happening there speaks a lot to your own character and your caring for others, and also your teachers here for teaching you about a very, very, very important topic.”
Moustafa was born in Damascus, Syria, before moving to the United States when he was 11 years old. He helped found the Syria Emergency Task Force in 2011, a nonprofit organization, and serves as its executive director.
“Across time in history, there has always been some really horrible things that have happened, and it’s important that we learn about them because when we learn about them it gives us a chance to do something about it in the future and also teaches humanity how to not repeat these horrible things that have happened,” he said. “Because evil exists, but goodness exists as well. What our school teaches us, what God teaches us, what our family teaches and what we are as human beings can make a big difference for those who don’t have anyone to defend them and speak out on their behalf.”
Moustafa said the reason the story of Syria is so important is that it began as a peaceful revolution with children around the same age as the students gathered Thursday.
“They were between nine and 13 years old — some a little older, some a little younger — who had gone out in Syria and wrote on the walls ‘Freedom,’ ‘Democracy,’ all these things that they had seen on TV,” he said. “It’s important to remember that we’re very, very lucky to be here in the United States. This is a country where we have the ability and freedom to do whatever we want and to be able to grow up to be whatever we want, and to have the freedom of criticizing our government, electing our own leaders.
“It’s really important that we
come to appreciate what the Constitution is, what the government is and our having freedom, liberty and democracy. Because this isn’t something that even though this is our right as human beings, this isn’t a right that’s afforded to so many people across the world.”
Moustafa said he remembers growing up in Syria fearing his government. Though the country was stable, he said, “there was no war, but they lacked their freedom.”
“They didn’t have their liberty and they longed for it,” he said. “Their American dream was that their country could become like the United States, a place where they have democracy and where they could protest if they wanted to, or convene in any place they wanted to without fear of being arrested … And it was children, students your age, that broke that wall of fear for the entire country by going out one day and writing these wonderful slogans.”
Those students, he said, were taken by the government and many were tortured and murdered, and their families were distraught and unable to seek justice.
“For almost a year, people started going out and protesting, calling for reform,” Moustafa said. “For the first time in their history, they were asking their government to give them a chance to vote. That’s why voting is so important … It is such a powerful right and people die for that right.”
Moustafa said Syria’s dictator, Bashar al-Assad, began using the country’s military to fight against its own people to stop the protests from happening. Many people were dying, he said, and that was what started SETF.
“My goal, in the beginning, was to bring the voice of these protesters to the American government,” he said. “After I graduated here, I got a chance to work in Congress and when I worked there I realized we are such powerful voices, American citizens, for the rest of the world. So I wanted to get Congress, the White House, the State Department to understand what was happening in Syria just like you guys understand it here today.”
According to the organization’s website, it focuses its efforts in four areas: advocating for the Syrian people to the United States government and governments across the globe; handling legal work by documenting war crimes to pursue justice for the Syrian population; providing humanitarian support for people still within the war zone; and civilian work supporting governing structures in liberated areas of Syria.
“Once people taste freedom, it’s really hard to stop them from continuing to pursue it and
that’s what’s so wonderful,” Moustafa said.
“The most wonderful and beautiful part is what Arkansans are doing and what you can take a part in.”
Director of outreach for SETF, Natalie Larrison, discussed Arkansans’ efforts with The Wisdom House Project, which sponsors a kindergarten and a women’s center in Syria.
“Two years ago Mouaz came to Arkansas and he was talking to people like he is talking to you now, just a normal group of people in the community who said ‘Hey, we want to do something that’s more than just a one-time gift or donation to Syria,’” Larrison said.
“The Syria Emergency Task Force had identified a school inside Syria. This school, the teachers weren’t getting paid, they didn’t have supplies, but they needed school so they were going to do whatever they could. So they had teachers taking care of a whole lot of kindergarten age students, age 3 to 5 years old, and these people in Arkansas said ‘OK, we’re going to support them for years to come. We want to see them grow. We want to see classes of students graduating, and we want to make sure that these students are getting attention, and that they know they are being cared about by people outside of Syria.’”
The kindergarten is an underground school, Larrison said, to protect children learning from the frequent airstrikes in the country. In recent years, she said the organization started a campaign, Letters of Hope for Syria, to let students and people in Syria know that they are not forgotten.
“We’ve just simply been gathering letters of hope from people like you, students from all over Arkansas and the country, even adults,” Larrison said. “And we take these letter to Syria and we give them away. The amazing thing is they really, really appreciate it, and that they tell us even more important than like the food supplies, and the medical supplies, the funding and the salaries — the emotional support that you guys give us in letting us know that we aren’t forgotten is even more important.”
Larrison reminded the Lakeside students that “there’s something for everyone to do.”
“No matter what your skill is, you can help,” she said. “The Letters of Hope is free — that’s the first part. Of course, we’re always asking for donations, to help us get supplies to help Syrians, but if you don’t have a lot of money, you can still help. Not being afraid to talk about Syria. Even talking about it with your family is a great thing. The Letters of Hope is a beautiful way that you can just show someone you love them.”