Art Education for Young Refugees

Resettled from Syria to the USA, Akram, Retaj, Nour, Shaimaa, Shehad, Abdelhamid and Ghena are now part of the Chicago community.

Over the past couple months, they have had dance workshops generously donated by Shawn Lent and other volunteers at Performing Arts Limited. Their hard work and commitment was viewed by a 400 audience at their end of the year recital.
What was not necessarily viewed by the audience, is the incredible impact dance has had on these children.

Our goal is to enroll them in ongoing, formal dance classes with others in the community starting September 8th.
Every $400 will cover one 60 minute class per week for the entire year.
We are asking for $470 for each kid, which would also cover new shoes and the costume for the end of the year performance. 
Anything extra will go towards enrolling more children and towards their June recital.
I am asking each of you to donate anything you can and spread the word about this fundraising.

A concise list of the impact dance has on children:
-focuses on teamwork and social inclusion
-develops a better understanding of themselves, both -physically and mentally helps understanding others and the world around them
-develops perseverance and self-motivation
-improves child’s confidence levels (especially in English)
-teaches to socialise

We will all benefit from these kids getting a dance education. And we can all relate to them. They are part of our community. They are the future of it. And now it is in our hands to decide, what future do we want.

Some info about us: 
the campaign is set by Joanna Priwieziencew.
the kids are students of Shawn Lent, who is their dance teacher at Performing Arts Limited. 
Studio's website:
http://www.performingartslimited.com
All funds will be withdrawn and managed by Shawn to the benefit of the seven mentioned students.