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| Sheila Mann of Peace on the Table |
One
of the workers at my hummus factory is a Syrian refugee. She arrived
in Brazil ten months ago, and she is learning Portuguese. When I
interviewed the other workers, all women, first of all, I chose each
one from a different religion (Jews, Christian Arabs and Muslim
Arabs). I explained that it was very important that they understand
why I was asking about which religion they belong to, and that this
factory and project is about integrating all people together, and
asked them to help the Syrian girl to integrate and learn the
language.
I
thought that they had understood, but when they began working, they
didn´t try to include her in the group and sometimes they laughed at
her because of how she spoke Portuguese. I called each one
separately and explained once more about peaceful coexistence between
people, and that I expected them to help the Syrian woman and treat
her as equal, but it still didn´t work. So I decided to use another
method.
I
called everyone, including my partner (the only man in the factory)
before the coffee break, gathered all seated in a circle. I asked
everyone to close their eyes and breathe deeply three times, then I
began to tell them a simple story about a happy family gathered after
dinner in the living room, when suddenly there were bombs falling in
the other parts of the house, and the house was destroyed. I spoke
about the fear and how all the family ran away to save their lives,
and how it was difficult to abandon everything and just run away to a
safe place. And the long route of this family to reach a shelter and
the possibility of leaving the country and beginning in another
place, like Brazil, and the effort to be integrated and to speak a
language which is very different from theirs. I asked the women to
try and imagine themselves having to learn a new language such as
Arabic for example, something so strange and different that it was
really very hard to learn.
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| Peace on the Table |
When
I finished the story, I asked everyone to breathe deeply once again
and to open their eyes slowly. Then I asked them to stand up and put
them in pairs, standing in front of each other and to each hold up
the arms of the one in front as a form of exercise. Then I asked the
one who was being helped to turn around, and the other one to massage
her back, and then I asked the one who received the exercise and the
massage to close her eyes, lean on the other and let her lead for a
small walk around the factory. When one finished, I asked the women to switch
sides and each do the same thing to her partner.
I
repeated these exercises every day and each time used another story.
It worked, they began to treat the Syrian woman better, because they
touched her, had to lean on her with confidence to be led through the
factory. Now they are chatting more with her and have stopped
laughing at the way she speaks.
I
was born in Beirut, Lebanon, I´m Jewish and emigrated to Israel in
1968, and in 1973, I came to Brazil, where I live now.
I´m
a visual artist and a specialist in Lebanese food. I had the idea to
combine these two passions and realized an artistic performance in a
well-known museum in Sao Paulo, where I made a speech for peace based
on a statement by Martin Luther King Jr., and then served a unique Arab
dish for almost 300 people.
Recently,
I decided that I was not doing enough to bring people together, so I
invited my son-in-law to be my partner and opened a hummus factory,
as I consider this dish common to both Arabs and Israelis. In
the factory, we have only women workers, each one of them from a
diferent religion.
I
hope that you´ve liked my story, and for more information, I suggest
that you access my facebook page, Peace On the Table, or my videos on
YouTube with my name Sheila Mann. It was a great pleasure to tell you
about my peace activities.
