Designing from Aleppo, Pro Bono
I wrote the first part of this story back in 2017, and provided an update in 2018. Syria is front and center in my mind these days — here are my reflections on what it means to give a few years later.
We founded NeedsList in 2016 after witnessing the chaos of crisis response firsthand while volunteering in the Syrian Refugee Crisis. Based on what we learned in the field, we’ve designed our software to power more efficient, sustainable humanitarian action. What I didn’t know when I got started was that a simple tech solution would come to mean reimagining what it meant to be a donor, and what it meant to be a beneficiary of aid.
Back at the beginning I was looking for a designer. We needed a logo so a colleague told me about her friend’s brother, a designer living in Aleppo, Syria — His name is Alaa. Alaa had been drawing since he was a child and was employed as a designer for a pharmaceutical firm. He also freelanced. Now we are hearing more about the attacks on Idlib, but back in 2016 at this point, it was the height of the siege on Aleppo.
I connected with Alaa via Facebook and I explained what we needed. Just a few days later, Alaa presented me with a beautiful graphic. He refused to take any payment. The whole experience blew my mind. Every day I’d wake up to the headlines, and was terrified he wouldn’t be online, but it was very clear that not only was he was more than happy to help, he needed to help. Alaa may have been living in the midst of an armed conflict, but like people all over the world he relied on his phone and computer for information, for communication, and for work.
Typically we think of people in conflict zones as the beneficiaries of aid, as passive recipients — not as partners in finding solutions. We think of humanitarian aid workers and NGOs and the private sector donors or providers of aid. Yet, in a city under siege, a country at war, here was a trained graphic designer was the donor, and me, the founder of a tech startup, was the one in need.
An Escape from Aleppo
I kept in touch with Alaa. A few months after we first connected he and his wife escaped Aleppo, traveling through Turkey and ultimately arriving in Istanbul. His brother, asked me if I could help Alaa and Baraa apply for asylum. And so we did.
It took a while, but a year later, Alaa and Baraa received refugee status. Alaa continues his work for other entrepreneurs with a thriving design business.
And nothing I have done as a social entrepreneur has come close to being more meaningful than this, the very small part I played in getting two people situated in their new home.
When we started this roller coaster of NeedsList I thought the innovation of our work was just a simple way to make sure people got what they actually needed. But really what I’ve come to understand is what this kind of technology can really do.
When you break it down, this kind of tech means that Alaa can help someone like me when I need it, and I can help him when he needs it — — and maybe that when given the chance to see what’s needed, we all really do want to do our part. That crisis, in fact, presents an opportunity for us all to connect and feel part of something larger.
An opportunity to connect.
While this story happened a few years ago, as many of you know, the crisis in Syria has significantly escalated over the past few months. According to UN, 4.5 million people are under attack in Idlib. In under ninety days, approximately 1 million people have fled Idlib. 60% are children. Over 20% are women. This is the biggest humanitarian crisis in modern history.
Please consider the following:
- Talk to your politicians and show your outrage. Demand we take more refugees, condemn attacks on civilians, hospitals and use of chemical weapons, stop the sale of weapons
- Donate to organizations like the Syrian Civil Defense Fund to support the incredible work and bravery offirst responders.
- Join a sponsorship committee if you are in Canada, or support local resettlement agencies in the US. Consider hosting a refugee and asylum seeker in your home.
- Do you own a business? Hire a refugee or encourage your company to do so.
- At school or work at a university? Encourage your university to offer refugee scholarship.
