Refugee Integration into Society and Education: Project RISE Speaker Series

Refugee Integration into Society and Education: Project RISE Speaker Series

An Evening with Ala’a El-Shaar, New England Director of SAMS (Syrian American Medical Society)

– Canton Town Public Library, Library Community Room, May 17 @ 7:00 pm - 8:00 pm

A rapidly growing number of refugees are migrating to the United States of America each year. Ever since the 1990s, the amount of refugees globally has been steadily increasing. Refugees are often welcomed by a huge “culture shock”, or unfamiliarity of the culture, when they enter America.

Project RISE is a community outreach project to help integrate and involve refugees from all over the world into our society and education. Our mission is to give the refugees a sense of belonging and understanding socially and an opportunity to continue their education, as many were not given the opportunity in their hometown. We are taking this a step further by having face-to-face interactions and communication with refugees to accommodate their needs. We strive to share customs with each other in order to have a welcoming atmosphere for refugees. We hope that by the end of this project the Canton community in Massachusetts will be more open minded towards the acceptance of refugees.

You can find more information about Project RISE on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/projectrise2016), Twitter (https://twitter.com/ProjectRISE2016), and our website (http://projectrise1617.weebly.com/).

Please donate generously at GoFundMe (https://www.gofundme.com/projectRISE). All proceeds will be completely used to help refugees. Past donations were used to provide to art and science fair supplies to refugee children, cell phones and accessories to refugee families and to fund educational evaluation services for their foreign educational certificates, etc.

Speaker biography:

Ala’a El-Shaar attained a Bachelor’s degree in Biomedical Science & Psychology from Bridgewater State University in 2013. She then graduated from Boston University School of Medicine with a Master of Science degree in Anatomy & Neurobiology. Her involvement in Psychosocial mission work with refugee children over the last several years furthered her interests in areas of behavioral neuroscience and PTSD. Ala’a is currently working as a Research Assistant in the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience at the VA Boston Healthcare System, conducting research related to memory disorders, and serves as the New England Director of SAMS, the Syrian American Medical Society, a non-profit, non-political, educational and humanitarian organization whose members are medical professionals.

Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS):

SAMS operates over 100 medical facilities in & around Syria that provide general and specialized medical care for Syrians in need. Programs range from primary care to more specialized treatment in order to provide effective and needs-based healthcare. SAMS also supports hundreds of thousands of Syrian refugees in Jordan, Lebanon, and Turkey. SAMS provides refugees with medical and dental care, winterization support, and psychosocial programs. SAMS operates the largest medical facility in Za’atari Camp in Jordan, and SAMS’s members lead frequent medical missions to volunteer their skills for refugees. In 2015, SAMS treated over 2.6 million Syrians, and has surpassed 3 million individuals treated this past year. More information is available at www.sams-usa.net.

This program is part of the Project RISE speaker series in association with Canton Town Library and Canton High School

Space is limited. For more information contact: ProjectRISE1617@gmail.com