Syrian Storytelling Initiative Aims to Reach 10,000 Children With Environmental Education

Lamiaa Soluiman is using children’s stories to promote environmental awareness among young people in Deir ez-Zor, Syria.

Her initiative, Tales from the Earth, grew from Soluiman’s experience using storytelling to help her two daughters cope after the family left Syria during the conflict. She later founded Dar Al-Karma, a children’s publishing house, and developed stories focused on practical environmental challenges facing communities, including water scarcity, waste and the loss of green spaces.

The initiative’s first story, A Fig Tree and an Incomplete Picture, follows a boy who tries to save a tree by collecting and reusing water that would otherwise be wasted.

In 2024, Soluiman presented the project through Made By Syrians, led by the Syria Response Innovation Lab and supported by World Vision Syria Response. Selected as one of six innovations in the initiative’s Open Challenge, the project received funding, mentorship and connections intended to help develop it into a scalable initiative.

According to the announcement, Tales from the Earth aims to reach 10,000 children aged six to 12 across 33 schools and community centres, supported by 300 trained facilitators. Reading clubs and community activities are already introducing children to water conservation and environmental protection.

Source: Response Innovation Lab