Ashoka
Taha Tariq
Taha Tariq is a sophomore at Dartmouth College studying Geography and Middle Eastern Studies with a minor in Human-Centred Design. A member of Ashoka UK’s Youth Changemaker Network, he is passionate about educational inequality, ranging from presenting research on T-Levels at Imperial College London to supporting campaigns on the importance of careers education with Teach First and Action for Race Equality. At Dartmouth, he is deeply involved in student advocacy as an elected Senator in Dartmouth Student Government and a member of the Student Advisory Board, where he works to ensure first-generation/low-income, international, and Muslim student needs are represented in campus decision-making. He is also a recent winner of the Great Initiative Award at Dartmouth, Vice-President of the Muslim Student Association, Co-Chair of the West-House Council and a photographer for the college newspaper, 'The Dartmouth.' At Ashoka Arab World, Taha serves as a Fellowship and Venture Intern, supporting the search for new Fellows while also contributing to storytelling and communications that spotlight the work of Ashoka Fellows and partners across the region.
When War Follows You Into “Safety”
War does not always end at the border.
Sometimes it shows up as a sudden flash of anger from a teenager who cannot explain their emotions. Sometimes it looks like a parent going silent, then feeling guilty about it. Sometimes it looks like grief that has lasted so long that it starts to feel like an organ, indistinguishable from the body.
For many refugees in Egypt, “safety” isn’t the end of the story. It’s one of many milestones in a longer journey of healing. And often, the people trying to heal others aren’t specialists, but are adults closest to children, trying to respond without the tools to do so.
In Cairo, the Ashoka Collaboration Grant brought together Rawan Barkat (Ashoka Fellow, Jordan) and her organisation, Raneen, with Dr Laila Risgallah and her Not Guilty for Family Development for a three-day workshop with 100 Sudanese and Eritrean adult refugees. The aim was practical: to help communities understand war trauma and to develop mechanisms for themselves and the children around them. The deeper idea is that in communities carrying the burden of grief, healing cannot be outsourced only to specialists. As in displacement, the first to notice a child’s distress are often parents, caregivers and teachers; hence, the people closest to children become the first responders.
A Collaboration Built Like a Puzzle
Dr Laila came to this work through a sudden realisation. As a paediatrician, she once heard a child disclose sexual abuse and realised that despite her qualifications, she was unprepared. This gap empowered her, and Not Guilty was founded on the principle that “it’s never the victim’s fault.” As displacement into Egypt grew, her work was widened to address trauma.
Rawan brought a different perspective; her approach entails audio storytelling and puppetry to build emotional expression and listening skills. In a world dominated by visuals, Rawan believes that listening is a form of care and connection.
Dr Laila realised the potential of Raneen’s work in addressing trauma. As she reflected, it was almost as if their work fit “like pieces of a puzzle,” describing how their distinct methodologies clicked together.
A Community, Equipped to Respond
A key reality the workshop acknowledged was that in displacement, people carry multiple roles at once. As Dr Laila put it, “all the refugees are actually parents and caregivers,” whether they’re raising children, teaching in refugee schools or supporting children in community settings. The workshop leaned into this truth and treated participants as people with the capacity to stabilise a child’s world through their everyday interactions.
Keeping the group relatively homogeneous strengthened this network of adults. When people share language, culture and trauma, they recognise themselves in each other’s stories and learn as a collective. Participants took in the skills to benefit themselves and their communities, from listening better to naming emotions and creating safe environments for expression. With the right skills, anyone in the community can become a changemaker for someone else.
Simple Tools, Serious Work
What emerged from this collaboration was a set of low-cost tools that made difficult conversations possible.
Raneen had taught participants to create puppets from simple materials like paper bags and recycled items, and Not Guilty layered those tools onto trauma practice. As Dr Laila put it, puppets are a vehicle allowing people to express what they can’t say themselves. “When it’s the puppet, you can say whatever you want.” A child can describe fear, or an adult can speak about grief. For adults supporting children, this is a valuable tool to bring back to homes and classrooms. Shame loosens its grip on your voice when the words are coming from a small figure rather than “me.”
Dr Laila also loved the practicality of how Rawan “made amazing things out of very simple things,” highlighting that this is a solution that can be taken far and wide, as it doesn’t depend on expensive materials. Most tellingly, she watched grown adults as “back to being little kids, literally,” laughing and engaging with a light that trauma often steals. Joy isn’t always the opposite of pain, but sometimes it’s a doorway for expression that these adults can share with the children around them.
Seeds of Continuity
Across the three days, pre- and post-evaluations showed that many participants began the workshop carrying sadness, anger and difficulty expressing feelings, and by the end demonstrated a noticeable improvement in emotional expression and management. Just as importantly, participants described feeling safe enough to speak about their painful experiences and seek support.
Beyond this workshop, the collaboration matters because it sows continuity to carry on this journey of healing. Dr Laila recommended small, supervised group therapy sessions, and Rawan’s tools can already be replicated with minimal resources.
Dr Laila captured the success best: “I’d do it again in a heartbeat.”
Ashoka’s Collaboration Grant:
Ashoka’s Collaboration Grant is a small, flexible fund (up to $5,000) designed to help social entrepreneurs and Ashoka Fellows put their minds together to work on a short, practical collaboration that builds real capacity, not just a one-off activity. Teams are typically 2-4 people (with at least one Ashoka Fellow), must co-design and co-implement the work, and deliver it within 12 months. The grant can cover travel, research, training and producing shared outputs (e.g., reports, toolkits, etc.), with a focus on peer-to-peer learning, skills exchange and relationships that continue beyond the grant period.