As we spent the last year rebranding Karam Foundation and building a new website worthy of the people we serve — one that elevates the stories and journeys of young Syrian leaders — we were inspired to add new colors to our OG Karam Blue.
Back in 2017, I had chosen the bright turquoise color to represent our new organization for its hopeful and culturally-rich qualities. (Part semi-precious stone, part protection of the evil eye, part ode to the magnificent Fairuz.)
Well, Karam and I have evolved since we started.
This organization has grown into something more incredible than I ever imagined. From our unstoppable staff to our innovative programs, we have built something special. Karam serves a need that I never imagined in 2007 — building up a generation of people displaced from their war-torn homeland, our homeland, our home.
For the past nine years, we’ve been navigating that fragile space between tragedy and hope, devastation and determination, heritage and innovation, holding on and letting go.
In this context, how do you represent your homeland in colors?
Using our values as a compass, we went back to the basics: What makes a country? We found inspiration in the “land” part of homeland — nature, geography, history.
Meet the colors of our Syria, the new Karam colors:
Karam Red
A burnt orange of the rich fertile soil of Hama and Homs, the fiery sunsets over Damascus.
Karam Gold
A rich yellow of the sand dunes of the south-eastern desert, Badiyet al-Sham, of the fields of wheat, and the sunlit stones of antiquity from Aleppo to Palmyra.
Karam Green
The deep earthiness of the undulating hills of Idlib covered with olive trees and sour cherry orchards of the legendary gardens of Ghouta.
Karam Blue
A clear hue of the sea that hugs the coast of Latakia and Tartous.
The four colors signify abundance — a core value of our organization. Our name, after all, is Karam, which means generosity in Arabic. What’s more generous than your homeland?
Every day in our work, we strive to think about Syria in a more expansive way — deconstructed into her timeless beauty, reinvested into her most important resource, her children.
We are forming a new map of Syria, inspired by the essence of our homeland, drawing strength from her resilience, sacrifice, growth, and hope.
This is the Syria we carry forth in our work to build future leaders — young people who are growing up in exile from their land. Some of them have never known their homeland while many others fled too young to remember it.
It’s our hope that when you see the Karam colors, you will see a new map of Syria that spreads far beyond her borders, through the millions of citizens who roam the earth, carrying bounties of their homeland in their work and aspirations for a better future full of freedom and dignity.
Whether you’re building a nation, a community in exile, or even an organization, the work is always in evolution. Our work is a celebration of home and belonging. For all Syrians, in all places, from now into the future.
-Lina Sergie Attar