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Haneen

A Collective Work of Lebanese and Syrian artists on the impact of war on childhood

Haneen Exhibition Poster
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018

Haneen, or Yearning is the outcome of a project commissioned by UNICEF Lebanon and Beyond Association through their press club.

Embedded video follows
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018

The idea of a Press Club as a therapeutic art initiative through creative writing and storytelling is routinely implemented at their Protection Centers. The aim is to alleviate stress and anxiety caused by war and displacement felt by dozens of thousands of Syrian refugee children in informal tented settlements in Lebanon. The club provides the children with a space for self-expression through writing and reading.

Illustration: Tents with angry eyes looking at a refugee child
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Fares Cachoux “Last winter, children died of cold. This winter, I am afraid it will be my turn to go.” Fatima Al-Tamer
Illustration: a girl with a balloon
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Mohamad Khayata “Here’s a wish in the face of hatred, in the face of war, in the face of blood.” Yara Al-Sofook
Illustration: a girl's face
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Laila Hamzeh “Love, truth, and kindness, over oppression shall prevail.” Shaima’ Aloush
Illustration: a child's face with war destruction integrated in it
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Bassam AlEmam “Syrian childhood’s innocence drowned with that child, and the future of an entire generation went down with it.” Fadi Al-Ahmad

The series of essays that is the core of Haneen, was written by the children, inspired by their personal experiences and the little they recall from their homes back in Syria. Their stories were then passed on to a group of artists, tasked with visualizing through visual and aural works of art, the wisdom and weight of the words of a generation of Syrians that rarely are seen or heard.

39 poems and stories written by Syrian children in different informal tented settlements in Lebanon, interpreted by 47 Lebanese and Syrian artists

The Arabic word haneen captures everything these children would have liked us to understand. Haneen means longing, yearning for something you’ve lost; a tender feeling. In this context, it is a nostalgic longing of a long-lost home, of a world that is no more. That is their reality.

This project is unique because the children were given space to freely express themselves and because the artists were given freedom for their own interpretations, resulting in a rare glimpse into minds, hearts and memories of war that both have in common.

Haneen: a generational transmission of memory though art.

Illustration: a girl hugging a void in the shape of a person
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Elly Dagher “I miss you Oh, Syria, I long for you… Oh, country of light, and house of splendor.” Shahd Wafi Al-Omari
Illustration: a family in a tent
UNICEF/Lebanon/2018/Abdulwareth Laham “A tent for a house, a swamp for a playground.” Jamal Ibrahim Al-Abboud