10,000 Leaders for the Future of Syria

Lina Sergie Attar is the founder and CEO of Karam Foundation. She is a Syrian-American architect and writer from Aleppo, educated at University of Aleppo, Rhode Island School of Design, and Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Since 2011, she has led Karam Foundation in providing smart aid, support for sustainable development, and innovative education to thousands of Syrians. Karam’s programs, led by Syrian refugees for Syrian refugees, aim to build 10,000 future leaders by empowering young people with world-class opportunity. Named one of Worth Magazine’s Groundbreakers of 2020, Lina takes on her role with passion and rigor, fiercely motivated to change the future of Syria. She is cofounder of the “How Many More?” project and is Chair of the Board of Directors for The Syria Campaign. Her articles and essays have appeared in the New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Foreign Policy, Politico, and Huffington Post.

The debilitating and violent Syrian crisis has caused millions of people to lose their homes and livelihoods. Syrians face immense obstacles to education and employment while struggling to heal from the trauma of war and displacement. My project, 10,000 Leaders, helps young Syrian refugees overcome the barriers to opportunity, restores their agency, and empowers them to reach their full potential. Through Karam’s interconnected programs — gap scholarships for students pursuing higher education, innovative education for teens, and stipends for vulnerable families to send their children back to school — we pave new pathways to leadership that didn’t exist before. I believe these pathways lead to peace and prosperity for both refugee and host communities across the world. My vision is to reverse the narratives of “refugee as victim” and “refugee as unworthy burden”  by investing in the next generation of Syrians — future inventors, thinkers, designers and change-makers. 

With 11 million Syrians - over half of the pre-war population - displaced internally or externally, we are at risk of losing a future generation and beyond of young Syrians — arguably the country’s only remaining and most valuable resource. Syrian refugees face many obstacles in their host countries — discrimination, language barriers, and limited access to resources and opportunities. Turkey currently hosts the highest number of Syrian refugees: 3.7 million people. More than 1.6 million are youth aged 18 years old or younger. While 85% of the primary school-age Syrian refugee population in Turkey is enrolled in primary education, this number drops to only 30% at the secondary level. The children and teens who aren’t in school often are subjected to grueling child labor, early marriages, or have to take on the roles of primary caregivers to siblings or elderly relatives. They lose their chance to reach their full potential and often fall into a cycle of poverty that becomes harder to break. In contrast, refugees with higher levels of education and critical skills are more likely to find successful employment opportunities. In turn, they will be able to provide for their families and uplift their communities. 

10,000 Leaders for the Future of Syria aims to undo the traumatic effects of war and displacement on young Syrian refugees and their communities by investing in innovative education, emotional and social wellbeing, access to high education, and building competitive job skills. Our goal is to build young leaders who will in turn build other leaders in the future.  I define a leader as every youth who has acquired higher education and/or competitive job skills. We build pathways to leadership through three intersecting programs. Karam Families sends children back to school by offering a monthly stipend to the most vulnerable of Syrian refugee families in Turkey. Our two Karam Houses in Istanbul and Reyhanli, offer a variety of STEAM-based courses and mentorships to advance refugee teens’ critical thinking. Karam House students attend design-based studios in diverse fields from architecture to entrepreneurship. The Karam Scholars program provides gap funding, tuition support, and mentorship to university-level Syrian refugees in Turkey and Jordan. This investment is the difference between going to university and not for many young adult Syrian refugees. Together, these programs provide the critical investment in the futures of thousands of young refugees and their communities. 

10,000 Leaders primarily serves vulnerable Syrian refugee youth and families in Turkey and Jordan. The communities we serve are victims of war and displacement. They’ve lost their home and livelihoods. Syrian refugee children and youth, however, bear the traumatic, long-term effects of the war, as they grow up in uncertainty with bleak futures to look forward to. Syrian refugees in Turkey face a variety of challenges and needs — discrimination, language barriers, and trouble accessing employment and education. We develop our work by listening first and then taking action. Our community-driven work is implemented by local Syrian refugees themselves. Building strong relationships with the communities we serve is central to the success of our programs. We consistently receive feedback from the communities and adapt our response accordingly — from more effective mentorship to developing trusting bonds with the families. We use surveys on a regular basis and in emergency-response situations to understand how to best provide support; and have developed a strong feedback process for those in our programs. Psychosocial support is offered to all those in our programs, and our programs staff attend frequent trainings to ensure they can effectively address the unique needs of each community.

Syrian refugees comprise 25% of the world’s refugee population yet they have been left without critical support and sustainable solutions. 10,000 Leaders addresses the immediate needs of the most vulnerable Syrian refugees by uplifting families from poverty. Long-term, our innovative community hubs create safe spaces for refugee teens to thrive creatively and socially. They learn to be leaders not only through world-class skill-building but also through practicing giving back themselves. Our young leaders become agents of change within their own society, and work to uplift those around them — through volunteering, mentoring and more.

Inspired by my father, and his charity work in Aleppo, Syria, I founded Karam Foundation in 2007 with an idea to rethink the act of giving. (Karam means generosity in Arabic.) As a trained architect, I built Karam in an intuitive way. I don’t believe in the typical humanitarian aid model where the people served are at the bottom of the “charity chain.” Real change cannot happen by giving underserved and vulnerable communities just crumbs — just enough to get by, for now — whether that’s just enough food, just enough education, etc. On the contrary, massive shifts in people’s lives are made by investing the maximum into their communities. As we watched the Syrian war destroy the lives of millions of families, we were determined to build in the time of destruction and cultivate hope in the time of despair. My idea for 10,000 Leaders came from a single question: What if we gave everything to those who have lost everything? Maybe we could create and nurture an alternative outcome to this horrific war: a new generation of young Syrian thinkers, innovators, leaders. In many ways, practicing abundance (another word for karam) is still our core value. 

As a Syrian-American from Aleppo, this cause is personal to me. Many sites of childhood memory (where I can trace back through centuries of family history) have been destroyed during the war. Friends have lost their lives in the brutal violence against the Syrian people who only desire to live in freedom and dignity. My extended family is now dispersed across the world. We are the lucky ones, through. I never forget the arbitrary line that separates me from being a refugee that’s drawn by the luck of where I was born. Any one of us could be a refugee. At the same time, as the daughter of immigrants, I know that we are not only our circumstances — that’s not what defines us. When people, especially young people, are given the tools and opportunity to rise up to their potential, they go far beyond what anyone could imagine. I see this happening every day at our Karam Houses. Ahmed, 14, wants to be a molecular scientist or an architect. Batoul, 17, wants to be a space engineer at NASA. There’s no greater motivation than witnessing the transformation of hundreds of young people like them. Confidence restored; dreams unleashed. 

After graduating from the University of Aleppo, I continued my architecture studies at RISD and MIT. During the rigorous graduate programs, I was challenged to rethink everything I was taught before. I felt my mind being reshaped. I learned how to see the world in a new way — unconstrained and open to possibility. It was in this spirit that I founded Karam in 2007 and later pivoted our work to focus on the Syrian crisis in 2011. I built a strong team of creative people who shared Karam’s vision of creating deep-impact change. Our team believes that solutions must be community-driven. We know that our most impactful work is created when we co-author interventions with the people we serve. At the Karam Houses, our majority Syrian refugee team lead the way, mentoring teens and counseling families as they navigate the difficult experience of resettling into their new lives. Over the years, I’ve witnessed kids deeply engaged in the maker spaces, huddled over their drawing tables, building flying robots and empathy machines, and presenting their visions with confidence to their mentors and peers. Their faces hold an expression I know well: that transformational moment when you see the world in a new way; when you know your ideas are valid. Though I don’t practice architecture in the traditional sense, I do believe that Karam’s work elevates the vocation of designing built environments to empowering future, vibrant communities of people who experience the world as a place of endless possibility. 

When we began working in Reyhanli, Turkey, (a small town just miles from the Syrian border) we knew our success was dependent on our ability to build trust within the refugee community. The concept of Karam House was radically different. We were prepared to be met with skepticism and resistance. The families did not yet fully comprehend our innovative curriculum (maker spaces, laptops, a library and open spaces just for youth). Some families do not want to send their daughters back to school in order to receive their monthly stipend. Others did not see higher education as a realistic goal. The conservative-leaning community was worried about their teenage girls and boys interacting so closely together in the studios. Syrian refugees had been jaded by their experiences with aid agencies that swoop in and out with ineffective programs. Our local Syrian team listened to the parents’ concerns and crafted a culturally appropriate and authentic response. Through outreach to families, schools and other organizations, they alleviated the concerns of the community. Slowly, word of mouth spread and attendance began to rise. Within a few months, Karam House buzzed with children, youth and parents alike during the first round of project presentations! 

In 2016, I had the idea to build Karam House — an innovation community hub where refugee teens had all the tools, mentorship, and opportunity to learn world-class skills that would propel them to reach their dreams. People thought this concept was too unrealistic. Why do refugee kids need a maker space, libraries, and the latest technology? Traditional models for refugee education almost always have limited aspirations. But we knew that these kids were brilliant and just needed a chance to grow. So we persevered and built our first Karam House in Reyhanli in 2017 and our second in Istanbul in 2018. Yousef is a Syrian teen who started at Karam House Reyhanli and then moved to Istanbul with his family. Last year he initiated a computer lab in his Turkish school teaching 3D design programs he had learned at Karam House. A Syrian refugee boy teaching Turkish students an advanced technology skill, in Turkish! This outcome was unthinkable just a few years ago, yet versions of this story is a reality for many of our students. Still in high school, and elected the founding president of the Technology Club, Yousef is already one of our 10,000 Leaders. 

N/A

The life trajectory for many Syrian refugees is limited. While some organizations meet the immediate needs of Syrians, long-term support is largely missing. When designing our programs, we asked ourselves: What would happen if we gave everything to those who lost everything - a question that is almost unheard of in the humanitarian space. At Karam, we set out to do just that. We walk with them in their journey as they overcome these barriers that have been forced upon them. Our aid is deep-impact and in most cases, our relationships last over the course of several years. In our Karam Families program, we meet each individual family and craft a solution unique to their circumstances through the lens of our programs. Through our partnership with NuVu Studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts, we offer the highest quality innovative learning curriculum — an elite curriculum beyond what is available to even the most privileged — to refugees and for free. NuVu’s pedagogy is based on the architectural studio model and geared around multi-disciplinary, collaborative projects. Karam and NuVu have co-developed a curriculum for Syrian refugee youth complete with language, cultural, and psychosocial considerations. Through this program, Karam provides youth the opportunity to explore various skills for future careers in subjects that align with the growing innovation of today’s job industry. The programming looks beyond the immediate needs of youth and helps place them on pathways to discover potential and passions that they may never have had the opportunity to discover before. 

The Problem

As the crisis in Syria continues, school-age refugees are without access to education and are often forced into early marriage or child labor. Many lack the resources to overcome the obstacles of their displacement, becoming dependent on short-term aid. We risk losing a generation of Syrian thinkers and leaders. 

Activities

Our solution is to build 10,000 Syrian leaders through education and/or competitive job training. We do this by enabling access to formal and nonformal education. We lift families out of poverty by delivering stipends on the condition that they send their children to school; we introduce youth to STEAM-based studios that develop critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving; and finally, we support Syrian refugee students on their path to higher education by providing gap funding for university. 

Outputs

Syrian refugee youth and families gain access to education and/or skills for competitive employment using their own agency to fulfill their potential.

Outcomes

Syrian refugee youth gain a better understanding of themselves, their skills, and their potential. They become leaders who use their education or job training to create positive change within their local communities, spreading their impact beyond themselves. Despite their displacement, Syrian refugee youth and families have access to futures they would otherwise lack. They become productive contributors to their host communities and the future of Syria.

Evidence of Impact

There are currently 2,673 Syrian youth on the pathway to leadership through Karam’s programs. We supported 154 students pursuing higher education who completed 4,032 volunteer hours, provided 101 families with stipends to send their children back to school, celebrated our first class of 35 Karam House graduates, and taught 1,467 students through our innovative education studios and workshops.

As our impact continues to grow, we keep in mind the words of a Karam House student, Mohamad, who said, “Everything I’ve learned about life, I learned at Karam House.”

We are currently serving 3,077 Syrian refugees through our programs. In one year, we project we will be serving 3,292 people. In five years, we expect to be serving 6,307 people. 

While the COVID-19 pandemic has meant that some of our programming had to be adapted, we are taking this challenge as an opportunity to reimagine our programs in this new reality. Over the next months, we plan to delve deeper into understanding and measuring the impact of our online programming. For example, we have already begun piloting virtual online design studios with refugee students in Turkey but outside of our areas of operation. We believe there is a real opportunity to expand our innovative education program to reach thousands of displaced Syrians outside of Turkey and perhaps, eventually, in Syria itself. After we return to normal, in-person operations at our Karam Houses, we plan to launch our workforce development program, called Karam Works, to support young refugee adults (aged 18-29) through an investment in world-class skills development and training. Karam Works will build upon our 10,000 Leaders goal through investing in young people’s professional development to ensure their readiness for the competitive workforce.

In five years, we will be nearing our target date to build 10,000 leaders. In order to achieve this, we are planning to build a third Karam House in a different city in Turkey which would serve as a hub for our programs in a new location. By increasing our geographic and community reach, we will ensure more Syrian youth are on the pathway to leadership.

As most organizations are likely facing right now, our most present barrier is the COVID-19 pandemic. Many of our Karam Families are now facing unemployment, and some are slipping out of self-sufficiency. Our Innovative Education workshops, largely focused on building and utilizing technology, have gone virtual, removing students from the innovative and healing space of Karam House. Participating in these workshops from home means many of them are without access even to computers. Our Karam Scholars, now attending university from home, were originally without the resources to continue their courses virtually, risking them falling behind in school. These challenges will persist as the pandemic continues and uncertainty remains.

Other barriers we face are financial. The lack of international and media attention on Syria has had a negative impact on our ability to raise grassroots funds for our programs. It takes an average of 7 years for a refugee youth to become a leader, which requires high commitment and patience from our supporters. Some people want immediate solutions, and while we have short-term outcomes, the long-term outcomes require a deeper investment. The COVID-19 pandemic is also expected to negatively impact our fundraising this year and next year at least. We expect some major gift donors to decrease their giving, foundations to shift towards local initiatives and our grassroots donors being unable to provide their regular support like before. While we have adapted our operations to these challenges, they may limit our impact over the next year. 

We have been working hard to mitigate the effects of COVID-19 on our programming. We worked with our Karam Families to see who was hardest hit by the pandemic and offer additional support, took our innovative education programming online, and worked with our Karam Scholars to provide chromebooks so that university coursework could be completed at home. We’ve stayed in contact with our communities through online communication and psychosocial support. Our team in Turkey responded with creativity and passion to make sure our programs were not only able to continue — but truly respond to the changing needs of the communities we serve. The past months have shown me the true resilience of not only Syrian refugee communities, but also the Karam staff. Out of necessity, we developed our flexibility muscle over the last 9 years, and now that ability to see challenges as opportunities is serving us well. 

To address and mitigate the financial barriers, our plan involves an increased focus on development of our major gifts program. By investing in deeper relationships with our major donors, we have increased the number of multi-year commitments, providing more long-term stability and planning. We are also building the size and scope of our recurring giving program to provide a more stable revenue stream from lower- to mid-level donors. We recently hosted our first-ever virtual benefit, and it was a successful fundraising effort. We have also increased communications with our supporters during the pandemic and many increased their support in response.

We partner with NuVu studios in Cambridge, Massachusetts for our Innovative Education programs. NuVu’s co-founder, Saeed Arida, was my colleague at MIT while we were in graduate school. Saeed, originally from Syria, used his PhD research in innovative education at MIT to create NuVu: a full-time innovation school for middle- and high-school students in the US. Their design-based curriculum encourages collaboration and out-of-the-box thinking among its students. Through a close collaboration between Karam and NuVu, we have co-developed a curriculum to deliver for the vulnerable refugee context, in Arabic, as well as co-designed studio content that utilizes the technology of our spaces. Students at NuVu in Cambridge participate in virtual exchange studios with students at Karam House, working together to design solutions to real-world problems like designing new prosthetic limbs for refugee amputees in Turkey, or fabricating new hybrid cooking utensils that express both Syrian and American cultures. NuVu staff work with Karam’s mentors (Syrian refugee professionals, many of them architects, engineers, and designers) as they inspire and empower students with the innovative mindset required while pursuing a design-based curriculum. Over the past three years, this partnership has had an impact on both groups of students. They benefit from hearing each other’s stories and creating bonds with individuals from different backgrounds. The growth of this partnership over the last three years has proven the impact of collaborative efforts.

Millions of Syrian lives were destroyed because of war and displacement. Karam is a foundation for the future of Syria. We seek to reverse the impact of these experiences by providing pathways to leadership through mentorship, education, and community-driven programs. 

We do this by connecting individuals and families with resources that fit their needs. For families with children out of school, we provide a monthly stipend on the condition that their children attend school. Syrian refugee youth that currently enrolled in school gain access to a supplemental, innovative education at our Karam Houses, attending studios on topics from architecture to journalism while in a safe, healing space. Not only is their creativity unleashed, they are connected with mentors to guide them into higher education or competitive employment. Our Karam Scholars program serves refugee students lacking resources to pursue higher education. We provide them with gap funding, tuition support, and mentorship allowing them to pursue higher education, and a future of opportunity. 

Syrian refugees are powerful, intelligent, innovative, resilient, and ambitious. They merely lack the tools to fuel their potential. By connecting youth and families with the resources — financial or educational — tailored to their needs, we empower them to create their own solutions and unlock their futures.

Karam has created multiple streams of revenue to ensure financial sustainability. Much of our funding comes from individuals. Our low- to mid-level donor base consists of thousands of individuals and an average gift size of $121. They provide consistent and reliable support to our mission at a lower level. As we implement our recurring giving program this year, we will be able to increase the size and support from donors at the lower level. We have recently launched a more robust major gifts program that has increased our communications with high-level donors as well as the number of multi-year commitments. By developing relationships with these individuals and securing their multi-year investment, we have increased our financial stability and our ability to plan for future growth in our programs. Rather than hold large events, we have turned our focus to smaller, parlor events to invite people with a particular interest and ability to invest in our mission. Increasing our focus on select groups of people has led to a better use of resources and a higher return on investment. A portion of our funding also comes from organizations. As we have developed our other funding streams, we believe organizational support is crucial in developing partnerships in the non-profit community and increasing the scale of our funding. 

Karam Foundation is fortunate to have a community of dedicated supporters and donors that contribute to our programs, along with a small number of grants from organizations and foundations. 

To continue operation and implementation of our programs, we require approximately $3.5 million a year. We receive our funds through various sources including individual donors and organizational support. As our work is ongoing, we will need to raise funds annually to continue in our mission to build 10,000 Leaders for the Future of Syria. 

Our original estimated expense budget for 2020 was $3.6 million. In an effort to be fiscally responsible and sustainable, we have adapted this budget in light of the current economic situation to $2.3 million. 

The crisis in Syria has faded from the headlines, but the war continues. The need for support has increased while the world’s attention has been averted. The Elevate Prize’s influential platform would give me the opportunity to share the inspirational and aspirational stories of the youth and families in our programs, demonstrating both their need and resilience. Highlighting the lives of Syrian refugees with the dignity they deserve will show how investing in innovative programs and abundant resources have the power to transform lives and communities in deep-impact, long-term, and sustainable ways. We know our work could benefit thousands more refugees and marginalized youth around the globe. We would use the network of Elevate’s partners to learn from other organizations and their methods, especially those that work with populations who face protracted crises. The Elevate Prize’s financial support would allow us to continue scaling our programs and impact. Additionally, access to influencers and thought-leaders will allow us to reach greater networks and open doors to more funding. Stories of our young leaders, like Batoul, Yousef, and Ahmed, would have the chance to be highlighted in prominent media publications. Finally, the mentorship and professional management program would provide me the tools and skills to be a better leader for Karam. I do believe that the 10,000 Leaders project will have a ripple effect of change for years to come. With the Elevate Prize, this ripple effect would have the opportunity to be amplified and multiplied across global displaced communities. 

As a small organization, Karam Foundation is always open to support and mentorship as we grow our work. As noted above, fundraising has been a barrier for us as the Syrian crisis fades from headlines, and so one area we’ve noted for possible support is our funding and revenue model. This similarly relates to marketing, media, and exposure, as we work to better showcase our work and spread the word to wider communities. Finally, our board transitioned from a volunteer/working board intimately involved in programming to a more advisory board focused on support and fundraising in recent years, and thus we have selected support on board management.

Karam Foundation is currently looking to expand our virtual exchange program, linking Syrian refugee teens at Karam House with students in the US as they complete innovative education studios together. By investing in these teams of teens, diverse in their life experiences but building solutions together, we promote a global community based on true collaboration, empathy, and solidarity. While we have completed successful exchange programs with NuVu partner schools, we’ve found that the institutions in the US that have access to the cutting-edge tools and curriculum are not the most in-need schools or students. We have always had a vision to hold exchanges between our Karam Houses and underserved communities in the US — thus empowering both sides even further. In light of current events in America and the strive for social justice and equality, we believe this mission is more important than ever. We’d love to partner with low-income schools in the US for an expanded virtual exchange program. 

Additionally, as we expand our 10,000 Leaders initiative, and pilot the Karam Works program for young refugee adults, we will be looking to partner with organizations and companies that can help our young leaders with mentorship, internships, and job opportunities.