Meet Wael in this video-portrait

Wael is a 22 year-old human rights activist from Douma, Syria who currently lives in Maarssen (the Netherlands). Wael uses Facebook to posts photos and videos to show “who we are”, and “why we are here”. Wael wants to inform fellow Dutch people and Europeans about  Syrian society and the Syrian people. In his words “We are not just like any people (who migrate). We are educated, we had a civilization. We were the oldest country in the world. I want to show this to the Dutch people – this helps also to integrate faster”. You can learn more about Wael’s investment in achieving dialogue between Syrian refugees and the general Dutch population on the website of the Integration Caravan project. Using a typically Dutch way of transportation, this project involves Syrians who travel to Dutch towns and cities in a caravan to get to learn more about the Netherlands and to establish dialogue and connection.

Credits: Wael, Koen Leurs (principal investigator),  Imre Kleinlugtenbelt – Museum Imagine IC (producer), Kika Booy (director & editor), Karim Shalhoub (camera), Music: ‘Abu Ali’ by Ziad Rahbani, 2016-2017.

Funding: NWO VENI Young connected migrants (project number 275-45-007), Utrecht University Institute for Cultural Inquiry (ICON) Knowledge valorisation grant, Utrecht University focus area Cultures, Citizenship & Human Rights (CCHR) seed funding.