| In the summer of 2008 Professor Stamm of the Fh-Münster was able to inspire his design students to fully participate in this projects. At that time it was the intention of the Federal Government to continue poduction and export of cluster bombs for a further 4 years.For this reason the students designed 25 silkscreen printed flyers which they sent one at a time for 25 days to the Office of the Federal Chancellor. Additionally numerous other events took place with detailed press reports. We hope that these activities have contributed to the discontinuing of cluster bomb production at an earlier date. At the same time prototype instruments were being developed for children in the lebanon with exact step by step building instructions to enable the simple reproduction in Lebanon. (see "Art is therapy") | ||
| ||
 |
| In Lebanon Mohamad told us that he was dreaming of becoming a photographer. When he came to Germany we fixed up a camera for him with whom he started taking pictures of his new friends, his guest family, the nurses in the hospital and even some flying birds. The group that worked with him in the white room and outside tried to give him the responsibility of documenting everything photographically. | ||
| ||
|
| During our first visit to Lebanon Katja Kassem and Prof. Timm Filler, met Mohamad, a small boy, living in a Palestinian camp, for the first time. He had serious burns on his back and arms and his legs were amputated from the cluster bombs. Katja Kassem promised to take care of him just like many televisions teams from all over the world hade done while filming him. When we travelled to Lebanon for the second time, we visited him in a Palestinian camp. For the film “Zwischen leise und laut”, Mohamad allowed Prof. Stamm to film him while he was putting on his prothesis, a process that took ten minutes. This part of the film was used later to find supporters for projects in Germany. In Germany Katja Kassem organized a suitable hospital (Herz Jesu-Krankenhaus in Hiltrup) and she and her family welcomed him and took care of him lovingly at home in Rheine. On the 7th of January 2008 he was admitted to the hospital. A diagnosis was made and therapy was planned. On the 14th of January 2008, Mohamad underwent surdery. (see medicin) After the wounds had healed, he began physiotherapy and once he was finally able to walk small distances.Than we wbegan with our concept involvingt art-therapy . Under the supervision of Prof. Stamm, a group worked together with Mohamed creatively (see psychology). For this project a special room was offered to us, by the hospital. This room was to be called the white room. | ||
| ||
|
| The hospital „Herz Jesu“ provided us with a room where we could work in full concentration with Mohamad. This room was prepared as a material depot, in which all creative instruments required, could be stored, ready for use. We noticed that Mohamad was used to standing in the spotlight after his horrible accident. This made it difficult for him to participate in “exhausting” learning processes. The artistic equipment in the room was not only to have a pleasure-orientated purpose but also to convey the idea that techniques and methods have to be accepted in order to reach a pleasant and joyful result. In this case, some of Prof. Stamm’s enthusiatic students assisted Mohamad who was already showing signs of exhaustion after his very first day. This work was supported by Ruba Chati and Nadine El Khechen, two Lebanese women, who could also help with the language barrier. |
|
| At present we are focusing on setting up a pediatric hospital in Jouwaja, a small town in Southern Lebanon, about twenty kilometers south of the ancient city of Tyre. In this crisis region the nearest hospital that is specialized on the specific needs of physically and psychologically traumatized children is approximately 200 km away. Physical and psychological damage is still being inflicted upon children regularly by large quantities of mines, hidden explosives. Many who had received only basic and scanty medical treatment are in urgent need of follow-up medical care. The psychological damage has so far not received adequate attention let alone treatment. Other than the overwhelming willingness to help among the general population there is only an old and deserted local hospital that would need to be completely renovated. We are therefore carefully considering the very generous offer proposed to us by the city council to have an entirely new hospital built according to our professional ideas and treatment concept. In stark contrast to their apparent love for children the Lebanese have so far provided their child population with relatively little information regarding the dangers emanating from explosives left over from war. We therefore developed a children’s book, which informs younger children how best to protect themselves from hidden explosives. The book was illustrated by Phillip Louven and is written in both Arabic and English. In its first edition of 10 000 books they were edited at the publisher Coppenrath. We took several hundreds of them with us to Lebanon and handed them out to families living in areas that were worst affected by the war. This was, in fact, the first step we took in making our association known to a larger segment of the local population. | ||
| ||
|
| In July, we, a small delegation of four members of the association Liberi Pacifer, arrived in Jouwaja and set up base in the de serted local hospital. The building was thoroughly checked for its usefulness and a room that was found suitable was refurbished and subsequently used for initial counselling by Wahiba Abou-saleh and Michael Mangold, while Michail Stamm filmed a number of simulated art therapy scenes. Katja Kassem presented the association Liberi Pacifer at an official gathering organized by the city council who had warmly welcomed us. Also, on this occasion the film „Weeping and Laughing“ was presented and the first copies of our book„ the Butterfly Lie“ were handed out. Following lengthy discussions with local architects and medical professionals on the pros and cons of either reno-vating the relatively old and decrepit hospital, or building an entirely new one, we eventually decided that the advantages of a new hospital building would far outweigh its costs. In the meantime the architectural planning for the new building are already in full swing and plans for the hospital’s medical section have recently been completed. From Jowaja we visited other humanitarian NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) as well as injured and traumatized children and represen-tatives of all religious groups in Lebanon. Moreover, we visited one of the palestinian refugee camps and joined he work of the UNIFEL’s mine reconnaissance and clearance teams. Last but not least friendly bonds were tied with local artists who are willing to participate in the project.. | ||
| ||
|
| In stark contrast to their apparent love for children the Lebanese have so far provided their child population with relatively little infor- mation regarding the dangers emanating from explosives left over from war. We therefore developed a children’s book, which informs younger children how best to protect themselves from hidden explosives. The book was illustrated by Phillip Louven and is written in both Arabic and English. In its first edition of 10 000 books they were edited at the publisher Coppenrath. We took several hundreds of them with us to Lebanon and handed them out to families living in areas that were worst affected by the war. This was, in fact, the first step we took in making our association known to a larger segment of the local population. | ||
| ||
|