TL students attend workshop by publishing house co-founder

On May 15, LAU MEPI Tomorrow’s Leaders met with Ms. Nadine Touma, one of the founders of Dar Onboz - a publishing house that promotes Arabic books - and engaged in a workshop with her. The workshop started by the distribution of name tags and two of Ms Touma’s books - “?شو لون البحر”- “what is the color of the sea?” and “نقطة ورا نقطة بيعملو بحر”- “A dot after another make up a sea” - and an activity where students formed a circle and each one had to say a word to be remembered by the rest of the group for the rest of the day and then toss a wool yarn to another person while keeping hold of the thread. Some of the words chosen included “warmth”-Dana Shamlan, “red”-Jinane Maksoud, and “Determination”- Mira Daher. After everybody’s turn finished, the students were asked to unbraid the spider-web-like structure that formed within the circle they made. In order to do so, each student had to return the yarn to the peer that had previously pitched the piece of wool to him or her and had to repeat the word that was said before he or she caught the fabric with the help of others in case the student forgot. The activity was an icebreaker that helped students to get to know each other better, and to improve their communication skills. Afterwards, every person was asked to make a unique noise, which ended up being cacophonous, but when everyone put their efforts into making the noise better, it ended up being a harmonious melody. This activity taught the group team work and selflessness. After a short break, Ms. Touma screened a documentary prepared by Dar Onboz in which three children from different religious and social backgrounds met and visited each other, along with a series of publicities under the title “الاختلاف منو سبب للخلاف”- “differences are not reasons for conflicts”. Later on, Ms. Touma distinguished between a role model “قدوة” and a hero “بطل” and then requested everyone to draw their role model or hero or invent a character that represents heroism. Many chose people that had struggled in their lives as their role model. For instance, Layla chose her aunt whose arm was amputated during the Israeli war but managed to get a graduate degree. Aseel and Marian chose Jamal Abdel Nasser, because to them he was able to unite the Arab countries. Others, such as Luqman and Hala, chose to invent their own role models. Finally, to end the fruitful workshop, Ms. Touma read her book “شو لون البحر” and showed the group many of Dar Onboz’ published books.