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For 18-year-old Muhammad Yahya, the change is a part of his dream since he was in the middle school. At that time, Muhammad was so interested in the school theater and he performed a few simple roles in theater shows that were organized in some occasions.  He loved this work and he wanted to go away in this area.

“I have a passion for theater since childhood and it has grown with me day after day until now,” Muhammad declared.

Muhammad together with 25 trainees participated in a training about the interactive theater and educating peers in Deir-Ez-Zor.

 

Tragedian Displacement Tour

In 2015, Muhammad’s family who are 5 members, fled Deir-Ez-Zor due to escalating violence around them. Their plan was to travel to Damascus, and they indeed arrived there but without their father who passed away on the way.

“Since that, my confidence has increased more than ever. I want to make my father happy in his grave, and prove to him that he is alive in my heart, so I do a lot of great things for him," Muhammad said while he was struggling not to cry.

Growing up in Damascus

In Damascus, the cultural life was richer than Deir-Ez-Zor, and this helped Muhammad to cultivate his theatrical skills through participation in various trainings and joining a couple of sessions about the theater under supervision of famous actors and directors. As a result of this development, Muhammad had chances to perform important roles in some new plays in Damascus.

“I played all the roles successfully. Our interactive impact on the audience was evident from the first moment of the performance and at the end of each show,” Muhammad recalled and added:

“Then, I decided to reach more people. Therefore, I started to look for charities and humanitarian organizations that have a lot of messages and ideas to spread them among people”.

Muhammad together with his colleagues perform a play on unemployment and corruption in the recruitment process.

 

The Best Role

Muhammad has participated in numerous plays in Damascus and Deir-Ez-Zor to highlight some urgent issues such as health care, living conditions, violence and unemployment.

“The best role I have ever performed until now was about drug addiction and its impact on the lives of youth,” he confirmed.

Muhammad had to read a lot of references about the drug addiction to know exactly how addicted persons act in their daily life and then he practiced hard to do this role professionally.

“Whenever the performance is successful, the impact on audience will be stronger,” he mentioned.

Muhammad together with 25 trainees participated in a training about the interactive theater and educating peers in Deir-Ez-Zor.

 

Interactive Theater and Educating Peers

Muhammad had two successes during the past years. The first is improving his drama skills and collecting good experience about theatrical performance. And the second is completing his high school study successfully, and enrolling in the sociology science faculty in Deir-Ez-Zor.

For this fact, Muhammad’s family returned to Deir-Ez-Zor last year. Then, Muhammad returned to practice his passion in playing theatrical roles for the audience.

Recently, he, together with 25 trainees, participated in a training about the interactive theater and educating peers that was organized by UNFPA and Youth Peer –Syria, and the European Institute for Cooperation and Development (IECD) in Deir-Ez-Zor.

The first part of training focused on educating peers about some topics such as Gender Equality, Gender Based Violence, Reproductive health, and family planning. While the second part was on interactive theater and how to use it in educating peers.

“Tools and methods of educating peers are different according to their ages, genders, and environments. Therefore, you have to be careful about your speech, words, and messages because some words don’t fit to this environment while they are so good for another,” Muhammad explained.