At Daarna, our passion lies in helping people settle into their new homes far away from home.
Here are a few ways we’ve done that.
“This Is Home” was created in 2017 to provide refugees settling in urban cities the resources to ease their transition, integrate, and, very importantly, feel at home. The info graphic style operation manual is presented in two languages (Arabic and Spanish) to introduce the new-comers to the specific characteristics of the new home in which they now live in.
In 2020, the book was translated into Spanish, Farsi, Dari and Pashto to cater to any newly arrived refugees to the United States. Today, “This is Home” is used by all the Syrian families who have moved to the Pacific Northwest in the past 2 years. The book has also has been used by a Middle Eastern and Migration Studies class at the University of Michigan as well as other college courses to assist refugees.
Ahlan is a NEW educational mobile application designed to offer refugees settling in urban cities the resources needed to ease their transition, integrate, and, very importantly, feel at home.
The app is based on “This is Home”, a guidebook designed by Rania Qawasma which was created as a response to the Syrian refugee crisis. It introduces the newcomers to the specific characteristics of their new home and offers transportation and shopping resources.
Most amenities within individual homes greatly vary across different cultures, not to mention daily life activities outside our homes that we take for granted. This however could be overwhelmingly complicated for newly arrived refugees and immigrants.
Ahlan is currently available in three languages ( English, Arabic, and Spanish) and covers three major cities in the US (Seattle WA, Houston TX, and El Cajon CA). Future application updates will focus on expanding our coverage of cities in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and potentially the rest of the world’s refugee hosting countries.
Users can download Ahlan from their app stores beginning on June 20, 2020 (World Refugee Day).
Color My Home is a community-based educational and architectural design program which takes participants on a journey to trace, dream, and imagine their personal concepts of home. The program is a collaboration between Rania Qawasma (Daarna) and Yasaman Ismaili (Studio Chahar).
Color My Home workshops guide children who have recently immigrated from their countries to re-imagine the architecture they have inhabited and left behind. Participants also write poems about their homes and transform their memories of home into tangible artwork by building their first ever architectural collage based on their recollections.
The visuals and poetry help share experiences that might otherwise be difficult for children to express between languages.
