REFUGEE ART 2015
Melissa spent the month of May 2015 in Jordan leading Art and Poetry workshops for the refugees. She writes:
"It took a frightening accident and 22 days in the hospital to bring me to a place where I could speak of my time in Jordan with the Syrian Refugee children. My upcoming book, THE PEACE CHILDREN, is about our connection to one another; it is the story of art lost, art found in children, and a remarkable story of healing."
---Melissa Croghan
She spent the months of preparation beforehand creating Coloring Book drawings for the Iraqi and Syrian refugees in the hopes of bringing a little light and art into their lives. These are displaced people who have no personal belongings whatsoever, as they had to flee their homelands during the ongoing civil war with extremists. They are brave and trying their best to survive, many of them living in close quarters in churches and on the streets of Amman, Jordan.
Melissa went each day to an unknown site and met with new refugees, mostly children, but some parents participated too. The Iraqis are deeply homesick for their green homeland with rivers, and the Syrians — in Jordan now for nearly five years — are struggling in a land overburdened with refugees. She was able to work with over 200 refugees.
Melissa was hosted by CARITAS, a global humanitarian organization, www.caritasjordan.org.jo.
