During Ramadan, Doroob collaborated with Six Seconds to initiate the Seeking Refuge campaign. It honored the United Nations World Refugee Day by urging people to express how they give or seek refuge. A major focus of the campaign was on practicing Emotional Intelligence (EQ).

Phase one of the campaign, Chalkboard Conversations, invited people to answer how they give or seek refuge in their lives. The Seeking Refuge Workshops were aimed at three distinct groups of people: the youth, leaders and humanitarians, and field ambassadors who serve refugees.

A huge part of having EQ depends on empathy and the acknowledgement of one’s feelings. The following are various reflective activities that allowed participants of the workshop to be more aware of their emotions and to address them.

1. Salam Neighbor

Salam Neighbor is an award-winning documentary that follows the experience of two young American men, Zach Ingrasci and Chris Temple, at the Zatari Refugee camp. Participants watched the documentary and responded by talking about their feelings.

2. Seeking Refuge Poster

Through words and drawings, participants reflected at the various times in their lives when they felt the need to seek refuge.

3. Giving Refuge

The brain talent profile reveals the various competencies and talents a person has. Participants used their brain talent profile to reflect on how they would be able to help a randomly selected participant at the moment when they needed refuge.

4. Reflecting on a Larger Contribution

Next, the participants discussed how they would use their talents to give refuge in a struggle or challenge that the world faces. The answers varied from bigger issues of tackling abuse to simpler ones that involved being a better informer in the community.

5. The Virtual Online Quilt

Solafa Batterjee, the leader of Seeking Refuge, encouraged everyone to share their thoughts and feelings on social media by using the hashtags #SeekingRefuge #WorldRefugeeDay #MeWeSyria. Collectively these responses would form a virtual online quilt that showed support towards refugees.

Want to be a part of the Seeking Refuge campaign? Reflect on the questions below and tell us your thoughts.

• Have you ever had an experience where you felt the need for refuge? What did that feel like? What did you most need from others?
• Have you ever felt lost or displaced?
• Have you ever felt like you didn’t fit in?
• What do we do when others seem to not fit in?