Refugee Artists – Ambassadors of Peace, Culture, and Humanity, Part 3 of 3

The South African singer, songwriter, and actress, Miriam Makeba, is an iconic figure in the anti-Apartheid movement. For her anti-discrimination stance, her passport was revoked and she became a stateless person. Miriam Makeba relocated to Guinea in 1968, due to growing civil rights controversy in the US. For her tireless efforts to speak up against social injustice, she was honored with the Dag Hammarskjöld Peace Prize in 1986, the Otto Hahn Peace Medal in Gold in 2001, several honorary doctorates, and the Presidential Award in 1999 from the President of South Africa, His Excellency Nelson Mandela. She is fondly remembered as the “Empress of African Song” and “Mama Africa.” Mariela Shaker was born in Aleppo, Syria, in 1990. She enrolled at the Arabic Institute of Music in 1999 and graduated in 2004 as a distinguished violinist. Mariela returned home in 2013, but her flourishing music career was halted by the war. A full-tuition scholarship from Monmouth College in the US provided her a way to escape the conflict. She then acted as the concertmaster for the Monmouth College Chamber Orchestra for a few years before pursuing another full-tuition scholarship to study for her Master’s in Performance at DePaul University. After graduating from DePaul, Mariela Shaker went on to perform with many prestigious symphony orchestras and was often invited to play at important events in front of leaders around the world. Mariela was named “Champion of Change for World Refugee” by His Excellency President Barack Obama in 2015. She was appointed United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees High Profile Supporter in 2017 and received the first-ever Anne Frank Promisekeeper Award in 2018. In a Palestinian refugee camp on the outskirts of Damascus, the capital of Syria, Mr. Aeham Ahmad, known as “The Pianist of Yarmouk,” used to wheel his piano out daily into the rubble-filled streets of the war-torn city to play comforting songs and melodies. In 2015, he risked his life to cross a stormy sea, then through Turkey, Greece, Serbia, Croatia, Austria, and finally reached Germany, where he had many kind supporters who offered assistance. In 2016, Mr. Ahmad was awarded the International Beethoven Prize for Human Rights, Peace, Inclusion and the Fight Against Poverty.