By, Mia McCauley, Student Intern, Student Affair
Middle Eastern North African (MENA) Heritage Month is in full swing here at UW. This March, the MENA Heritage Month Planning Collective wanted to dedicate an event to supporting MENA refugees in the Madison area. On March 7, more than 70 students and staff came together in the Multicultural Student Center (MSC) to prepare thoughtful care packages, including lentils, rice, and flour, and cleaning supplies, alongside handwritten notes of encouragement for local refugees.
This event was a collaboration with the North African Student Association who raised $1,400 to purchase the donations. With the celebrations of Ramadan beginning this week, many students are taking time to recognize the importance of empathizing with those less fortunate. Ramadan is th e ninth month of the Islamic calendar where Muslims fast from sunrise to sunset. This year in Madison, it began the evening of March 10 and will end the evening of April 9.
“Our history has often been the victim of foreign authorship. This month is a blank page for us to reclaim our stories, liberating ourselves from stereotypes and challenging perspectives that have often overshadowed the depth and complexity of our identities. In this, we honor the resilience embedded in our cultural tapestry,” states the MENA Planning Collective.
For many students, The Relief for Refugee event was a great opportunity to give back, but for some, such as MENA Programming Intern Dana Tabaza, this cause could not be more personal.
She states, “My family were made refugees in 1948 following the expulsion from their homeland, known as the Nakba, which shaped my identity as part of the Palestinian Diaspora. Growing up, I saw the resilience of refugees in the MENA region. The Relief for Refugees event is our chance to humanize and support refugees, like my family, and bring joy to our community.”
Event lead Lojain Adly says, “I think supporting refugees, regardless of where they are, is very important, as it is our responsibility to give back to our people and feel for them. Being able to attend an initiative like this again after many years made me so happy, especially with such a big turnout. It brought me so much joy to see all the students who came to support the event, and I’m glad everybody got to experience such a beautiful act of compassion. I hope they had as much fun as I did.”
MENA Heritage Month takes place during the month of March on our campus. This year’s theme, “MENA in the Modern World,” acknowledges an ever-changing culture of traditions and innovations that have thrived amid the ebb and flow of time.
Join The MENA Heritage Month Planning Collective for more events throughout March, such as Threads of Heritage on March 18, or A Thousand and One Nights (Alf Laylaw Layla) on March 21.