Discovering narrative | Unleashing power

Syrian youth are harnessing the power of narrative, and confronting the pain of their past, to author new directions for the future.

By Mohsin Mohi Ud Din and Michael Niconchuk

A two year-old boy’s body lies still and lifeless on the shores of Turkey. His photo goes viral all over the digital world, forcing millions to shudder with horror and give attention — even if only for five minutes — to what Syrian children and their parents must be going through.

The world and media pause in horror at the video of a young boy being pulled from the rubble of a building bombed in Aleppo. He sits alone in an ambulance covered in dust. He stares out at the cameras almost as if to say, ‘Why are you acting so surprised?’. This is real. This is happening right in front of us.

While “shocking” images may, in an ideal world, accelerate the cessation of conflict, should that come at the expense of ignoring the innovation and defiant triumphs of Syria’s youth?

Moments of humiliation, helplessness, and loss remain the only widely consumed narrative about Syria and her youth. This dominant narrative has smothered stories of triumph, hope, and change — stories all the more impactful in light of a concerted effort to remove the resources, both physical and emotional, from Syrian youth. Syria’s youth are not unaware of this narrative; they know they have been reduced to the sum of their suffering and the sum of their risks.

The unquestioned production and consumption of stories of suffering and risk results in desensitization to Syrians’ plight. The risk, particularly among Syrian youth, is accepting a world of consequences instead of innovating a world choices for an entire generation. The story cannot stop here. We are working with brave Syrian youth to rebalance the power of narrative away from extremism, loss and helplessness and towards healing, empathy and resilience exercised by Syrian people each and every day, despite being in the darkest of places.

Heal | Empathize | Revolutionize

“We experienced that human needs can be discovered and feelings can be expressed through storytelling and #MeWeSyria let us really, for the first time, connect with what is inside of us. This plays a role to have resilience in our lives, gives us the tools of changing and gives us the hope and desire to continue changing when we are using empathy and problem solving strategies. We are choosing to connect with the world and by storytelling, also we are expressing ourselves to all people from our place.” — Syrian refugee, Age 21, with #MeWeSyria in Darb-Syr, Turkey.

Check out recent pieces produced and shot by young Syrian refugees from the Darb-Syr community organization in Gaziantep, Turkey during Youth Venture’s #MeWeSyria program. In the video samples, young Syrians step into their story and connect mind and heart with their breaths. Words have power, and and the world so often reduces youth’s voices to a whisper. These are the sounds of amplified voices, of stories told with confidence and hope, despite years of efforts to silence them.

Just as as we pay special attention to tragedy, we, as their audience, should learn to listen better, nurture and value their hope, and take their successes, and not their sufferings, as a rallying cry to protect, support, and value their changemaking lives.

Power in Narrative

A story can be a simulator, where anyone can practice control, exercise imagination, build empathy, and test a range of human conditions, failures and triumphs. Stories are, by nature, free. They are blank canvases in which the author is in control, using the past and the imagination to create a new reality.

Of course, in the real world there are things we cannot control: where we are born; the color of our skin; our parents; or the rapid pace of change in our personal lives and in our societies. In the face of uncontrollable variables, we nonetheless have power, we have an inner changemaker that, supported well, we can unleash to write the unwritten story of tomorrow.

In recent years, we have had the honor of co-creating, alongside Syrian youth at Questscope and Darb-Syr, a storytelling for changemakers program called #MeWeSyria, where we integrate therapeutic, artistic, and communications frameworks to develop self-awareness, promote recovery and wellbeing, and restore a bit of control and hope in a world of chaos. Youth are not just consumers or containers. They too are the creators and curators. #MeWeSyria harnesses the power of storytelling as a form of art and a form of healing to build confidence, empathy, and relationships to support a generation of young storytellers with a keen eye for social good.

About the authors

Mohsin Mohi-Ud-Din is the Director of Storytelling Innovation for Ashoka’s Youth Venture (@Youth_Venture) and the founder of #MeWeSyria, which is currently running in Jordan with Questscope, and Turkey with Darb-Syr. Follow him on Twitter @mohsindin, and #MeWeSyria @MeWeSyria.

Michael Niconchuk is a researcher and consultant based in Boston, MA, focusing on youth development, violence, and neuroscience. Michael worked as an Emergency Response Coordinator in Za’atri Refugee Camp for three years and worked on the pilot project for the #MeWeSyria initiative in Jordan. He is a Neuroscience and Social Conflict Innovation Fellow at Beyond Conflict.