It was Sunday night, Aug. 11, at the Oregon Children’s Theater in Northeast Portland, and there was a group of adult actors on the dimly-lit stage. But the words coming out of their mouths weren’t the typical American fare. They were the experiences of Middle Eastern refugee children.
Five short plays, written by young Syrian and Iraqi refugees Nazira, Farah, Aleen, Ahmed and Mehri, transpired under stage lights to the awe of a local audience. Family members of the adolescent playwrights cheered as the last play concluded, shedding proud tears for their talented children, who have already experienced so much distress and upheaval in their short lives.
After the children took their bows, Project Untangled founder Omar Reda walked out on the stage to say a few words.
“Three years ago, these children were in a war zone and didn’t speak any English, so this is really, really magnificent,” Reda said. “Reflect on some of the themes you heard: They’re afraid of flying. They’re going through bullying. They had a family member who died. They went through abuse. All of these are thoughts and worries that come into their mind. So, we thought we’d bring healing to these children by giving them a safe space, giving them a voice and a platform. And with that, this is how they do: They blossom.”
That night, the children were given their chance to blossom. In a variety of quick sketches featuring unusual characters such as a “one-legged basketball hoop” and a “wooden cup,” metaphors of loss and pain were drawn out in short stories.
This was the goal for Reda.
Refugees who seek asylum in another country must confront a variety of psychosocial traumas when settling into their new home. Reda, once a Libyan refugee himself, founded Project Untangled as a way for refugees to deal with these issues. Reda is a board-certified psychiatrist specializing in psychotraumatology and trauma-informed care.
This Sunday night show is one example of the events put on by Project Untangled to heal the “invisible wounds” that come with being an asylum-seeker, Reda said.
With Project Untangled, Reda focuses on five key components to healing: psychosocial education, training for healthy lifestyles and critical coping skills, a resources center as a support network, “Safe Spaces” monthly meetings and clinical care. These components are achieved through workshops, seminars, speaking engagements and consultations, often with Reda.
Reda now has decades of experience with helping those who have lived through disasters and dislocation. He was once an asylum-seeker himself, escaping Libya after being targeted by local government officials because of his humanitarian efforts. After being rejected by England, he received a green card in the United States. Now he’s helped Hurricane Katrina victims, received a master’s degree in refugee mental health from Harvard, and participated in the Arab Spring in the Middle East by helping trauma patients.
“Usually in a disaster situation, we focus on the physical wounds, and I noticed many people were suffering from psychosocial issues,” Reda said. “There is a lot of dysfunction that’s caused by trauma, and many people exhibit their trauma through certain behaviors, especially the children and people who fought for or against one ideology.”
Many refugees who come to the U.S. struggle with psychosocial issues but don’t seek help to heal because it’s not a priority – not compared to the long list of problems they face when trying to settle in a new country and create stability. This is especially true for parents with families to care for.
“The biggest struggle that we’ve had as advocates for psychosocial healing is that people are more focused on their basic needs,” Reda said. “They’re like, ‘What you’re preaching is wonderful, but maybe now is not the right time. It’s kind of a luxury when I’m trying to work two jobs and learn the English language and chase the green card and find a decent neighborhood.’”
The mission of Project Untangled is to inspire and catalyze healing for refugees of all ages, genders and races. Because this trauma is caused by human interpersonal violence, Reda said, most of the healing should happen in a relational context.
That’s when partnerships like PlayWrite Inc. and Project Untangled come about. Bruce Livingston, executive director of PlayWrite, started working with refugee children at a grade school in Gresham before meeting Reda. The program was defunded, but Livingston knew how much of a difference the creative arts made in these children’s lives. He recognized the creative outlet as therapeutic. Manuel Padilla, executive director of community group Portland Meet Portland, introduced Livingston to Reda, and a partnership was formed.
This is Livingston’s second year working with Reda and a cohort of five refugee children to write these short plays.
“We bring creative arts into play in a way that other arts organizations don’t. We do it differently,” Livingston said. “I think the thing that distinguishes PlayWrite is that we challenge the writers. We push, push, push. We don’t say, ‘Oh you poor thing, life’s been so hard, you’re wonderful.’ We honor and respect them 10 times more than that. We push: You can do more.”
Aleen, a Syrian refugee, wrote a short play that was performed at the Oregon Children’s Theater in Portland as part of a Project Untangled program.Photo by Casey Miller
Aleen, a Syrian refugee in the program, appreciates this respect and tough love. She was one of many children waiting to say goodbye and thank you to Livingston after Sunday’s show.
“This has helped me a lot,” Aleen said. “The emotion was so important to this place. I was trying very hard for emotion. It was a good play. Also my coach challenged me, but I was trying very hard for the challenge.”
Aleen was in the same playwriting cohort as her friend Farah, an Iraqi refugee she met at Reda’s Project Untangled camp. This was Aleen’s second year writing with Livingston and the PlayWrite coaches and Farah’s first.
Farah’s play was one of the more emotional skits of the night. The dialogue she wrote involved a conflict between a tiger and a button – but it was much more than that. Woven into the story, whether purposely or subconsciously, was a beautiful but sad tale about making friends in a new place, trying new things and processing the death of a parent.
“I have mixed feelings. I’m happy and sad in a new place,” Farah said. Her first experience here was good, she said.
The camp where Aleen and Farah met is a favorite among children who participate in Project Untangled, as well as the volunteers who serve as counselors at the annual weekend event.
Owns Baltaji is an old friend of Reda’s who has been a counselor at the camp for two years. A Syrian born in the United Arab Emirates, he has many connections to Syrian refugees. He knew the camp was something he wanted to be a part of.
“The kids love it,” Baltaji said. “It’s like making a small community in a small span of time. In three or four days, the kids play with each other and get to know each other and make new friends. I think it’s the best thing that Project Untangled does.”
Over the course of a weekend, children from all over the world who have experienced unspeakable traumas get to be kids. They’re taken to the beach, they swim and kayak, and they even do an “Amazing Race.”
“They loved that!” Baltaji said.
As the political environment of the United States has become more tumultuous in recent years, Reda said he has seen that reflected in the lives of refugees here – and refugees still in the process of seeking asylum in the United States.
“There is a little bit of hostility. I’m glad we live in Oregon. There is not much violence, but the political environment in general is not very conducive to healing,” he said. “We were promised as a state that 500 Syrian families would come to Oregon, and we have not received even a 10th of that number.”
And it’s not just Syria.
“The travel ban affected many, many other countries like Libya, Iraq and Iran,” Reda said. “Unfortunately, the travel ban is not only limiting the number of people who are coming; it’s limiting people reuniting with their family members. It’s very heartbreaking. People are only talking to each other through FaceTime or WhatsApp.”
With Project Untangled, the most powerful method Reda has found that helps refugees deal with trauma is what he calls a healing environment.
“A healing environment doesn’t have to be a physical space,” he said. “If it is a beautiful physical space, that’s wonderful, but it’s not only the location or the physicality of the environment that makes it therapeutic. There’s also the relationship between the people in that context and that medium and the power between them.”
On Sunday night, five refugee children – who had seen their homes taken, their family members killed and their cities seized – found their healing environment.
After years of struggling to process the psychosocial traumas of their experiences, it’s time to heal.