The dream to rebuild Aleppo is one that Mohammed wishes to share with every child that had to flee the violence of the conflict. His process of reconstructing the city’s fallen landmarks is something that can be emulated by anyone with access to paper, paint and glue.
With the support of UNHCR Turkey and OFID, we were able to take Future Aleppo into the Kahramanmaras Container camp and work with children there to reimagine and reconstruct their fallen cities.
The Children were shown by Mohammed how they could take simple crafting materials and fashion an entire world that could be augmented with their memories and stories, so as to serve as a preservation of the homes that they loved.
We then transferred their physical works into a Virtual Reality experience which we made available on their (Parent’s) mobile devices. We gave each child a Cardboard viewer to decorate and use to immerse themselves in their very own worlds.
We hope that we will be able to continue to take these workshops into more camps and schools across the Middle East and Europe and so inspire children to imagine a bpetter future for the homes that have been so badly afflicted by the war, as well as provide them with a vital sense of agency within the world.
You can download the children’s Mobile VR app from Here.
