Karam Foundation

In March, the Syrian conflict marked its ten-year anniversary, a milestone we hoped never to reach, and it shows no sign of stopping. Despite its magnitude — Syrians comprise 25% of the global refugee population — the crisis remains absent from the news cycle. The Elevate Prize will allow us to bring public attention back to the displacement of more than half of Syria’s pre-conflict population, and scale our programs, thereby widening our impact. Over the years, we have supported tens of thousands of Syrians, and, aiming to build 10,000 leaders by 2028, have 2,855 youth on the pipeline. This year alone, we are empowering 88 families, sending 463 children to school, providing 162 youth with Innovative Education, and supporting 163 students pursuing higher education. But we are just getting started.

When we opened our first Karam House, our innovation community hub, we dreamed of building one in every Syrian refugee community. Since then, and due to COVID-19, we’ve begun to envision a new blended model where technology enables us to welcome refugees across the globe to our work. The Prize will bring this idea into reality for virtual and in-person communities, bringing opportunities to thousands more refugees.

I’m a Syrian-American who was born in Brooklyn and moved to Aleppo when I was 12. I fell in love with the timeless city and its vibrant people. As an architecture student, I studied my home city’s layers of history and culture. I left Aleppo to continue my education at Rhode Island School of Design and MIT, honing design-thinking skills I assumed would lead me to a career of building buildings. I never imagined these skills would lead me to building leaders and rebuilding communities instead. 

Watching the war from afar as my beloved city turned to rubble was devastating. I had to take action to help. After the loss of home, I realized that the future of Syria lives in its people, no matter where they are. That is why at Karam we are building 10,000 Syrian Leaders — refugee youth who we have empowered with education and skills for competitive employment. While I cannot end the conflict, I can ensure that the people of Syria fulfill their potential and follow their dreams in spite of their trauma and displacement. Resilient Syrian refugees have taught me that home is where you’re going, not just where you came from.

There are over 6.7 million internally displaced and a further 6.6 million Syrian refugees from this crisis. For the more than 2.5 million Syrian refugee children, education and mental health services are often inaccessible. In Turkey in 2016, 80% of Syrian refugee children were not in school. In all, only 3% of refugees pursue higher education. Without education, how will they be empowered to sustain themselves let alone build the future of their country? 

Karam’s answer: three interconnected and individualized refugee-led programs offering education, guidance, community, and mental health support to Syrian refugee youth and families.

• Karam Families provides a monthly stipend to the most vulnerable families in Turkey when they send their children back to school, avoiding child labor and early marriage, and connects families with resources to lift themselves out of poverty.

• Innovative Education offers an elite curriculum, designed in partnership with NuVu Studios, to refugee youth. Creative studios like graphic design, journalism, and engineering teach students to respond to real-world challenges.

• Karam Scholars provides gap funding and tuition support to young adult refugees pursuing higher education, solving the problem of costs like course fees, books, laptops, and transportation that keep many from being able to attend university.

Karam has turned humanitarian aid on its head, bypassing insufficient models that perpetuate cycles of dependency, providing the bare minimum to vulnerable communities. The Karam model is built on the concept of radical generosity — giving everything to those who have lost everything. This means giving refugee youth access to a cutting-edge education, a safe space to address their emotional needs, and a team of mentors to guide them to leadership. It means connecting families with jobs, skills training, and mental health support in addition to a financial stipend which keeps their kids in school. And it means accompanying university students as they navigate volunteer hours, internship opportunities, and job placement. The bare minimum is where our work begins, not ends.

We further disrupt the traditional model — wherein external entities are the decision-makers — by prioritizing lived experience with a team that is more than 80% Syrian refugees. When students see themselves in the mentors, they see their potential to be leaders. So while the narrative of the refugee is often one of neediness, we have written our own, one of dignity, power, and resilience. When we empower those who have been disempowered, we can uplift all of humanity.

Our model is effective because it puts the power back into the hands of the refugees themselves. We are able to achieve such deep impact — empowering 2,855 youth with education and competitive employment — by tapping into the strength and potential already present in these communities. We all want to be able to provide for ourselves and families, to take on meaningful work, and to have a positive impact on the world. 

Ferhad, a refugee and Karam Scholar, received a laptop from Karam after his courses went online due to the pandemic. He heard that Turkish college entrance exams were now virtual and many refugee students didn’t have a computer to take them. He took the initiative and convinced a group of his friends to lend their laptops to the students for the exams. This is true leadership.

At Karam, we are building leaders who embody positive impact, unleashing their compassion for others and our shared humanity. No one can solve global crises on their own. But, as Ferhad has shown, with humanity at the core of our work, a single act of generosity can have a limitless ripple effect.

Karam currently serves 701 displaced individuals. The Karam Families program serves 228 parents and children with a monthly stipend, mandatory education for school-age children, monthly awareness sessions, and connections to resources in the community. Innovative Education currently serves 251 students through creative studios, college prep workshops, and enrichment clubs. The Karam Scholars program serves 162 students with gap funding for university costs like transportation, books, and fees, as well as mentorship and volunteer/internship opportunities. Our Scents of Syria collective economically empowers 60 women.

In one year, we anticipate serving 1,335 displaced individuals directly: 500 family members through Karam Families, 685 Innovative Education and Karam Clubs students, 162 Karam Scholars, and 60 women through the Scents of Syria collective. Additionally, our Karam Park in Reyhanli serves hundreds of people from both refugee and host communities annually.

Our commitment to remain fiscally responsible limited the addition of new families and students in 2020. Now, as we have maintained our financial stability, we have begun to invest more heavily in the staffing and planning that will allow us to take the necessary steps to grow our impact and number of people served over the next year.

Our goal is to build 10,000 leaders for the future of Syria by 2028 through programs for refugee families, children, teens, and university students. These leaders will create ripple effects of lasting change in their communities. In alignment with UNSDGs 1, 4, 5, 8, and 10, we measure our progress through the following indicators:

Karam Families:

• # of children sent back to school and removed from child labor and early marriage, separated by gender

• # of families lifted out of poverty, connected with jobs skills training, and provided awareness sessions

• # of referrals (medical, psychosocial, employment) made 

• # of women-led households supported

Innovative Education:

• # of studios held, including language and college-prep workshops

• # of students in attendance, separated by gender

• # of community members who access Karam House

Karam Scholars

• # of students supported, separated by gender

• # of volunteer hours 

• # of internships, jobs, and volunteer opportunities secured

10,000 Leaders

• # of individuals who access higher education and/or competitive jobs skills training through programs

Qualitatively, our goals are to provide a safe space for refugee communities, rebuild the dignity and agency lost in their displacement, empower future innovators and change-makers, and inspire a community-led mindset of giving back.

• COVID-19 has been a significant barrier as it forced us to develop virtual programming and exacerbated mental health needs of refugees. We’ve begun providing more psychosocial support and seen interesting opportunities ahead for virtual programming growth. Over the next year we’ll need more analysis and strategizing on how to take both into the future. Elevate could connect us with new funders and partners with experience and knowledge in these areas which are increasingly important.

• Fundraising and garnering new supporters remain integral to our multi-year plans for growth. Our approach — giving everything to those who have lost everything — is not a typical one in the humanitarian space. Despite the efficacy and lasting impact of this approach, it can be harder to convey to potential donors. This problem is exacerbated by the lack of media coverage on Syria. We see waves of support when it enters the news cycle only to disappear when it is no longer being covered. Elevate’s reach and platform would help to reignite conversation about Syria and connect us with media outlets that could provide more sustainable coverage and in turn more reliable and new financial support that supports our holistic approach of radical generosity.

We have seen firsthand the outpouring of support for our work that comes when Syria is in the news cycle. When I’m asked to sit on panels, give speeches, publish op-eds and essays, and offer insights on the news, we almost always gain new, enthusiastic supporters. Our work strikes a chord with those who hear about it because we tell uplifting stories of individuals that highlight the dignity and potential of refugees instead of ones filled with pity and despair.  The audience we will gain through Elevate will broaden the reach of these stories and therefore the support that comes with it.

This will immediately impact those we serve by helping others to see refugees as more than their circumstance — instead, they are future creatives, innovators, and change-makers. As more people begin to empathize with refugee communities, they will lend their support to empowering them, allowing us to scale our programs. Further, in uplifting Karam’s mission, outdated forms of short-term aid will be seen as ineffective. Instead, our model of long-term investment in empowerment and opportunity will be the new standard — shifting the narrative of refugees from burdens to valuable assets to their communities.

In the US, our team is women-led, and our board represents a diverse range of identities, backgrounds, and professions. In US staff and Board meetings, we discuss opportunities to improve our practices, resources to address our individual biases, and how to use our unique perspectives to make Karam more inclusive. 

In Turkey, where our team is almost completely made up of Syrian refugees, we work to build much-needed awareness around DEI practices.  We have conducted two workshops so far to address racism, colorism, and Black Lives Matter in our global society, and have been holding discussions on issues of oppression, how it relates to our work, and how to address our biases. We are also working to build a more diverse team in Turkey — more women and more diversity in backgrounds.

We believe in the importance of bringing people with lived experiences as victims of war and displacement to lead the work we do with refugee communities. As such, we aim to bring refugee representation across all leadership and decision-making roles. We have already started with our board. These goals and corresponding values will be included in the Work Culture Handbook that we are in the process of creating.

Our deep-impact work that meets the unique and dynamic needs of refugee communities is executed by a staff that is more than 85% Syrian, the majority refugees themselves; a team of leaders, the majority of whom come from the Syrian diaspora; and me, the founder and CEO, who spent 12 years in my hometown of Aleppo. Those formative years in school and university shaped my worldview that Syrian youth are full of potential but have never been given the opportunities to soar. My lifelong dedication to freedom and justice for the Syrian people is rooted in Karam’s mission to build a generation of future leaders. I believe these young people will spread innovation, peace, and prosperity whether in Syria or in their new homelands.

Our staff’s shared, lived experiences as well as regular check-ins and community surveys shape the programming to be relevant, useful, and culturally competent. Karam’s flexible and scalable model can serve as a blueprint for any community looking to uplift themselves and elevate their futures. You can see this through our two program hubs — one in urban Istanbul and the other in rural border town Reyhanli — which are equally effective but entirely different in context.

Leading Karam through the pandemic was an incredibly tough challenge. Being a refugee-majority organization that also supports refugees compounded the uncertainty. Our team struggled in the lockdown. In isolation, some relived the traumatic memories of fleeing the war. Others struggled to work from home while homeschooling young children. I wondered, will our dynamic programs work online? How do we keep everyone safe and motivated? Will we raise enough funds? 

For guidance, I turned to Karam’s values: bravery, authenticity, expertise, and generosity. First, we reduced the 2020 budget by scaling down to the essentials — no furloughs or salary cuts, except my own. We then provided mental health support and launched all-team meetings — across time zones and languages — to promote a sense of togetherness. We covered topics from meditation practices to examining our role in the fight for racial justice. Pandemic challenges became opportunities to further our impact. As of summer 2021, 25% of the students are not geographically close to either Karam House. Families and university students received technology access. We built a virtual community, and our donors responded with generosity. Our team is stronger now. What seemed impossible in early 2020 is the new future of Karam.

Speaking Engagements

• Home in the Time of Displacement | Lina Sergie Attar | TEDxUNC (2017) (14:49)

• Remembering Aleppo, A City in Ruins | NYT, 2016

• Beyond the Buzz: Finding Humanity in Humanitarian Language | Keynote Speech at the Centre for Humanitarian Leadership Conference, (2021)

• My Aleppo: When Memory Becomes Resistance – Lina Sergie Attar | Syrian Peace Action Centre (2018) (22:51)

• Lina Sergie Attar on the Syrian Refugee Crisis | Phillips Exeter Academy (2016) (35:49)

• Leadership Institute Speaker Lina Sergie Attar | Regina Dominican (2016) (37:57)

• Making Home in Wounded Places - Keynote: An Unsettled Syria | The New School (2017) (43:55)

• Refugee Populations: People and Ideas on the Move | Classy.org (2016) (52:26)

• Philanthropy and Forced Displacement | Concordia Summit (2016) (54:44)

• Syria and the Global Refugee Crisis | Chicago Council on Foreign Affairs (2015) (1:18:41)

• Deep Dive: Syria | The Aspen Institute (2016) (1:22:27)

• Ten Years of Revolution: Loss, Hope, and Action for the Future of Syria | Partnered Webinar (2021) (1:25:14)

Media Pieces and Written Work 

• Lina Sergie Attar - Karam Foundation's mission and the role of small scale NGOs | Turkish Heritage Association (2017) (3:01)

• Creative classes helping Syrian refugee children | Associated Press (2021) (3:51)

• BBC Live World News (2021) (3:59)

• Inside Aleppo, a City in Ruins | NYT (2018) (4:03)

• Lina Sergie Attar on Omran and the Destruction of Aleppo | CNN News (2016) (5:39) 

• Syria's Long-Term Humanitarian and Development Challenges | Middle East Institute (2016) (1:28:22)

• The Land of Headless Girls and Topless Minarets | Essay, Foreign Policy (2012)

• Syrian Children Draw What Used to be Home | Op-Ed, New York Times (2013)

• My Grandmother, My Country | Essay, Syria Deeply (2013)

• Counting Syria’s Dead | Op-Ed, New York Times (2014)

• Syria, Etc. | Essay, Politico Magazine, (2015)

• Watching My Beloved Aleppo Rip Itself Apart | Op-Ed, New York Times (2016)

• Grieving for Aleppo, One Year After Its Fall | Essay, The Atlantic (2017)

• Where Syrian Refugee Teens Learn to Lead | Op-Ed, US News (2017)

• Homeschooling Without a Home | Essay, Newlines (2020)

TV Shows

• Karam Foundation featured on Orange is the New Black | Netflix (2019) (0:35)

Documentaries 

• Karam: Generosity in Arabic | 2020

• Seeing Brave: A docuseries | Episode 2, Lina Sergie Attar

The Elevate Prize will be a catalyst in our goal to build 10,000 Syrian leaders. After working for over a decade to serve communities in need, we believe our programmatic model of creating pathways to leadership is highly scalable and adaptable. The Elevate Prize will enable us to implement our deep-impact work on a much larger scale, delivering financial and educational empowerment to more refugee communities. Karam’s mission is fueled by the idea of radical generosity. As each leader empowers their own communities and onward, a flywheel of unleashed potential will create an endless ripple of change. 

The Syrian crisis is more than ten years old. Half the country is displaced, millions suffer, and many cities and villages are in ruins. Despair prevails among Syrian communities who have lost everything. I’ve seen firsthand how Karam’s work is a framework for an alternative future for Syria — one that prioritizes innovation, creativity and leadership while investing in our biggest resource: the youth.The Elevate Prize will not only reaffirm the need for a humanitarian commitment to marginalized Syrian refugees, it will position inclusive, community-driven, and aspirational visions like Karam’s as foundational to rebuilding after war and displacement with justice and dignity.

Karam participates in the American Relief Coalition for Syria, a group of nonprofits working in Syria and on advocacy.

Karam partners with Syrian-led organizations like Action for Sama and The Syria Campaign (of which I am Board Chair) to advocate and raise awareness on the refugee crisis and continued atrocities in Syria. We recently collaborated on a webinar panel commemorating the 10-year anniversary of the Syrian revolution with Choose Love who continues to amplify our voice by sharing the stories of Karam’s 10,000 Leaders and provides annual financial support.

The Syrian American Medical Society has also served as a funding and programmatic partner, with initiatives including mental health support for our team during COVID-19.

NuVu Studio is our curriculum partner for our design-based learning platform and studios to Karam students. Toplum için Yenilik ve Yardım Derneği is our programming and execution partner on the ground in Turkey.

This summer, we join The Walk by Good Chance Theatre in London as they launch an international traveling theatre festival supporting Syrian refugees. Karam’s students and team will be present for The Walk’s kick-off event in Gaziantep, Turkey.