By Iman Bakhit
Staff Writer
Mira Costa Spanish teacher Felise Shapiro, the Lend a Hand club and Manhattan Beach for Refugees club are screening the documentary, “Salam Neighbor” on Mar. 28th at Costa to inform students about the Syrian refugee crisis and to help fund refugees migrating into Orange County.
“Salam Neighbor” is a documentary based off of the lives of Syrian refugees in the Za’atari Refugee camp located in Jordan. Two filmmakers are given a tent and live in the shoes of a refugee for a month. During the month they listen to the stories of the refugees living in the camp which deal with the hardships of their daily lives.
“The other day I took my daughter to the Holocaust museum and it mentioned how many Jews wanted to escape Nazi Germany, but were unable to because there was nowhere for them to go,” Shapiro said. “The Syrians want to leave the refugee camps, but they have nowhere else to go, so what do they do in that case?”
According to Shapiro, her inspiration for the project came about after she watched a previous documentary produced by the same team, “Living on One Dollar.” After watching the documentary, she signed up for their newsletter where she later read about “Salam Neighbor.”
“It’s a humanitarian crisis and I feel very passionate about helping them,” Shapiro said. “I also brought in the president of the Lend a Hand club junior Margot Mel, because these refugees are essentially homeless people so I thought she would be a good match for that.”
The Lend a Hand club focuses on feeding the homeless on Skid Row every weekend. Costa junior Maya Macgregor and her mother, Salam Darwaza who is the producer of “Salam Neighbor”, are also working alongside the club to put the screening together by advertising the screening and organizing the donations. The ticket and raffle ticket sales from the film will be donated to the Los Angeles chapter of the International Rescue Committee (IRC). The IRC helps relocate Syrian refugees in the LA area.
“I’m really excited about this project,” Mel said. “So many different people have been able to come together to collaborate and put on this event.”
The screening will take place in Costa’s auditorium at 6 pm. Tickets will be $5. More information about “Salam Neighbor” is available on Costa’s Facebook page.
“I think this will be an important step in creating a more informed community and help show people how they can contribute to a great cause,” Mel said. “It’s important to expose the public to issues such as these.”
Leave a Reply