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AAAN Updates
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Children enjoyed another Arabic-English story time at the Green Hills Public Library on June 18. See more pictures.
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Muhammed Al Farra of the Gaza-based hip hop group Palestinian Rapperz gave a writing workshop at the AAAN on June 26.
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 The Arab Women's Committee invited representatives of Standard Bank on June 30 to continue their workshop on financial literacy. This month focused on the importance of savings.
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On July 1 the AAAN, as part of the Chicago Cultural Alliance (CCA), helped Brookfield Zoo celebrate its 75th birthday. The AAAN had an Arab cultural display and printed out visitors' names in Arabic. More than eight CCA organizations provided activities that day.
There was also a debka performance on the main stage, one of the several cultural performances that took place.
And on July 11, the AAAN provided visitors with henna tattoos as part of the CCA Family Day at the zoo.
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The Center for Arab American Philanthropy (CAAP) awarded AAAN a 2009 Capacity-Building and Operational Support grant award of $4,000. This is the first round of grants awarded by CAAP. Read more. |
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"It's my favorite thing in the summer!" |
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AAAN youth camp joins fun with learning
A group of six boys ages 5-9 years old stands in front of the room. They are crowded around a painting of the Earth they had worked on during the week. Each one takes turns sharing with the rest of the children in the room what they learned.
"Without trees, we would not be able to live because trees give us oxygen," Zack shares.
"If you get the Earth dirty, it will die and we would have no place to live," Abdallah, 6, says. 
Another group comes up, this time a group of girls.
"We colored it green and blue," Serena says. "Blue is the water, green is where we live."
This presentation is part of the youth summer camp of the Arab American Action Network (AAAN) and helps the campers develop public speaking skills. This is one of the many goals of the camp which began on July 29 and runs Mondays through Thursdays from 10:00am-2:00pm. Close to 50 children between the ages of five and twelve years old are enrolled in the camp, which takes place at the Bridgeview Public Library. The camp is funded in part by the Kraft Employee Fund and Ziyad Brothers Importing donated t-shirts for the campers.
"Our main goal is to enrich reading and writing, and this year, we have a unique opportunity to take advantage of having our program in a library," says Halima Bahri, the Youth Services Program Coordinator at the AAAN. "During the summer months many children do not practice their reading and writing so some of the things they learn throughout the school year are forgotten. We want to work on that."
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The Arab American Action Network (AAAN) strives to strengthen the Arab community in the Chicago area by building its capacity to be an active agent for positive social change. As a grassroots nonprofit, our strategies include community organizing, advocacy, education, providing social services, leadership development, cultural outreach and forging productive relationships with other communities.