The Understanding Campaign’s main mission is to provide support to non-profits and NGOs doing aid work in and for the Middle East. We recently donated $1,000 to the Iraqi Student Project as well as Understanding Campaign materials to help them generate much needed funds. We are working on similar programs for other groups who desperately need help spreading their word.
We are looking for bloggers!
We need experts in social media and networking – we need awesome people who want to heal the relationship between the Western World and the Middle East. Contact us if you can help:
justin@understandingcampaign.org
Our history:
Haneen Alshujairy and Justin Sirois began collaborating on a novel and a book of short stories in late 2007, working entirely over email. After completing both literary projects, they decided to start a more culturally overt campaign to get everyone in the world to read just one word of Arabic. It is a gesture of goodwill between Western and Arab cultures, a symbol that promotes empathy and understanding over conflict.
Who We Are
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Justin Sirois is a novelist living in Baltimore, Maryland. His books include Secondary Sound, MLKNG SCKLS, and Falcons on the Floor, written with Iraqi refugee Haneen Alshujairy. He also cofounded the Understanding Campaign with Haneen and the small press Narrow House. Blog: secondarysound.blogspot.com
contact: justin@understandingcampaign.org
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Haneen Alshujairy fled Baghdad, Iraq, with her family at the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003. After spending two years in Jordan, her family moved to City of October 6th in Egypt, where she is currently studying dentistry.
Haneen and writer Justin Sirois began working on the novel Falcons on the Floor (Publishing Genius) and a book of short stories, MLKNG SCKLS (Publishing Genius), in late 2007. Together, they founded the Understanding Campaign.
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Ahmed Kandil lives in Cairo where he runs a graphic design and calligraphy business.
arabic-calligraphy.webs.com -
Ken Baumann lives and works in Los Angeles, California. He appears in “The Secret Life of the American Teenager,” and owns and operates Sator Press, a nonprofit publishing company. For more info, see kenbaumann.com
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The Understanding Campaign’s new arts columnist. Toufic Beyhum was born in troubled Beirut in 1974, but moved to London at a young age when his family was forced into exile by the relentless war. A visualist from a young age, Toufic first showed an interest in photography at the age of 15, refining his skills at Art College over the next few years. At 21, he graduated and immediately embarked on a successful advertising career, plying his trade as an Art Director for multinational advertising agencies in New York, Dubai, London and Berlin. www.touficbeyhum.com
