The city of Damascus is famous for its unique type of fabric, called brocade, which Damascus was famous for three thousand years ago. It takes ten hours to make one meter of damask because of the delicate, complex patterns and attention to detail. Brocade is an...
We at the VIP.fund spend 100% of our individual donor dollars on the youth we support; so volunteers and their time donations are crucial to our sustainability. To understand what drives our youth volunteers, we asked a number of questions; here’s what they had to...
Transforming loss to legacy: two years ago I reached out to pay my respects to Rasha, Ammar Al-Shami’s mother. A few days earlier, I had moved to Boulder Colorado and was looking forward to meeting Ammar. Instead, I found myself dogsitting Ayala, his golden retriever...
Second chances story: Ammar’s fund was created a year after his tragic death on January 11, 2017. The fund honors Ammar’s memory by providing help to refugee students whose lives were disrupted by conflicts in Syria and Palestine. But Ammar’s fund took a life unto its...
have the fondest memories of my parents. Both were social activists, passionate about education and helping others who are less fortunate. My mother taught at a school for the visually impaired in Damascus, Syria. At the time, a person having a physical disability...
2019 was the year we began living up to our vision of building a higher education community to support students impacted by conflict. Each month came with a flurry of activities that supported our mission and grew our community. Here are a few highlights of the year:...
After two decades of philanthropy and working with the most vulnerable youth populations, I have chosen refugee youth higher and continued education as a cause worthy of my attention and support. Here are the 10 reasons I believe refugee higher education is worthy of...