We've raised our target after an amazing weekend of Stories and Songs for Syrians!

Dear friends and supporters of Stories and Songs for Syrians,

Thank you so much for your generous donation to our fundraising appeal for Hands Up Foundation's urgent humanitarian and medical support to Syrian victims of war.

Our Stories and Songs for Syrians event last weekend was a great success, with many participants asking us when we’ll run another!

Babel Babies founder Cate Hamilton got everyone singing and doing the actions to songs in French, English and Arabic, impressing the Syrians with her music group's own version of Arabic classic children's song Has Sasan and getting all the kids doing the animal actions to Emily Gravett's Monkey and Me, in Arabic as 'Ana wa qirdi'. 

Nadine Kaadan gave an animated reading of The Jasmine Sneeze in Arabic, with Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp reading the English version, followed by a tutorial on how to draw Haroun the sneezy Damascus street cat, and how to render emotions with his huge, expressive eyes. Many in the audience were deeply moved by her reading of Ghadan (Tomorrow) in Arabic with Ruth reading the unpublished English version, and there were countless requests about when it would be out in English. Watch this space! We finished the session with Nadine teaching the children how to draw a traditional Damascus house and the children creating a mural together celebrating the ancient heritage of the 'Jasmine City', which has been hung in the window of the Suffolk Anthology bookshop.

We were overwhelmed by the generosity of guests, bringing Haroun-shaped biscuits, falafel and baklava, and also by local cafe Baker & Graze, who donated a tray of delicious rose and pistachio donuts! Over the course of the weekend and at Monday's Babel Babies session we raised £400 for the Hands Up Foundation. All the buzz around the Stories and Songs events among friends and in the local paper, The Gloucestershire Echo, clearly boosted the visibility of this online appeal, and we exceeded our £2000 target with a fortnight still to go!

Please help us raise as much as we can for the Hands Up Foundation: this UK-based charity funds many humanitarian and development projects for displaced Syrians in refugee camps, including emergency relief to survive the harsh winter and a prosthetic limb clinic for Syrian victims of war.

We achieved our target of £2000 and have now raised our goal to £3000. Perhaps with your help and the support of your friends we can raise even more to help Syrian refugees to rebuild their lives.

Thank you! Shukran! شكرا

Ruth, Hanan and Nadine