“Tayara Warak” children magazine– CanDo fundraising campaign

In cooperation with CanDo, Child Guardians launched the Tayara Warak fundraising campaign . (www.candoaction.org/Hurras/kites)

One way we reach children is through Tayara Warak (www.tayarawarak.com), a colorful magazine designed and edited by our team of dedicated volunteers. Produced monthly, the magazine includes a collection of educational stories, songs, games, puzzles and handcrafts, printed and distributed to children between the ages of 7 and 14 years old.

It is the only children’s magazine of its kind. By providing educational material online and in print, we aim to teach children and increase their awareness oh how to protect themselves and cope during times of shelling, bombing and violence.

The material offered in the magazine also helps children develop their critical thinking and emotional intelligence. It aims to instill values of tolerance, solidarity, mutual understanding and peace among children, and to develop their cooperation and conflict resolution skills.

To date we have produced, printed and distributed more than 180,000 copies; reaching 20,000 children inside Syria within four years (2013 – 2016).

So far Tayara Warak has relied on the goodwill of our volunteers. As war continues and resources become scarcer, our funding to produce the magazine ran out at the end of 2016. Without funding to financially compensate our volunteers and print the magazine, we will no longer be able to provide this invaluable resource.

Our plan is:

  • High-quality content: Our team will continue to develop high-quality magazine content for three issues and all content will be focused on protection during shelling.
  • Print & distribute to children: We will print 6,000 copies and our team will go into communities to hand-out the magazine to children free of charge. Many children do not have access to school or other places to learn so this outreach is essential to effectively target the community.

Print & distribute shareable magazine copies in schools: We will print high-quality laminated magazines to be distributed in schools. The laminated quality print will allow the magazine to be shared among and reach a higher number of children. We will approach heads of schools and provide them with introductory material on the aims and benefits of the magazine and gain permission to keep the magazine copies in school classrooms/library. During our visit we make enquiries about the need to set up a dedicated Tayara Warak reading corner, a campaign we plan to launch in the future.