The Human connection company
The Erbil Portal is located in the Harsham Camp for Internally Displaced Persons.
Harsham hosts more than 1,500 internally displaced Iraqi families who fled militant attacks in Mosul and its surrounding villages. Iraq has a rich history of art, music, and literature producing one of the greatest Arab poets of all time Abu Al Tayeb Al Mutanbi, renowned composers such as Hameed Al Basri, and contemporary musicians including Fuad Salem and our very own Eribl Curator Rami Khalaf amongst others. The Erbil Portal is housed in a converted gas station and is operated in partnership with UNICEF Iraq.
In the Harsham Internally-Displaced Persons & Refugee Camp, a converted pumping station serves as a portal to the rest of the world. Harsham Camp is on the outskirts of the city of Erbil in northern Iraq. The camp hosts 1,500 internally displaced Iraqi families who fled ISIS from Mosul and surrounding villages in mid-2014. Erbil is the capital of Iraq's Kurdistan Region, which hosts around 1.5 million internally displaced Iraqis and almost 230,000 Syrian refugees. Through the portal, a young entrepreneur spoke with President Barack Obama and another with Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi. The portal is made possible by UNICEF Iraq and Terre de Hommes.
The Portal underwent a dramatic upgrade as UNICEF prepared to connect Ali Ismail, a young entrepreneur from Baghdad, to a special Portal at the 2016 Global Entrepreneurship Summit in Silicon Valley, California. The man on the other end of the videoconference would be the President of the United States, Barack Obama speaking to people in four other Portals across the world. Or at least we hoped so.
What if you could talk to a stranger on the other side of the world as if you were in the same room together? Learn about the origins of Shared Studios and portals. The documentary follows middle schoolers as they step into the Richmond Portal and connect with two muralists in Mexico City. "Passion Projects" is a docuseries about turning passion into purpose and its impact on the world.
On World Refugee Day, a golden shipping container was brought on to the grounds of the United Nations General Assembly hall in New York. Inside, cutting-edge audiovisual technology allowed delegates to converse via live video chat with children inside Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, as though they were standing in the same room.
Iman, Dania and Marwa are talking about their lives in Zaatari, the largest refugee camp in the Middle East and home to more than 82,000 Syrians. Iman wants to be a journalist, Dania is focused on improving her English, and Marwa misses her three children, who live with their father in Syria.
On their way to this month’s 70th United Nation’s General Assembly, the organization’s annual high-level meeting in New York, diplomats and world leaders will pass by a makeshift glass structure—both a glossy multi-media hub, and a gateway to an entirely different world.
It amazes me just how universal hip-hop has become. Here in America it was originally created as a means to express ourselves despite the forces oppressing us. Blacks had few ways to convey their thoughts publicly so we confused creativity with passion in hopes that the words in our hearts would be felt. Today I spoke with a man on the other side of the world who said that positive hip-hop is blooming where he lives in Afghanistan. It’s inspirational to say the least. I’m honored to be able to share my voice with the world. This portal is a gift, a treasure in time that I feel will one day be incredibly impacting! Javier S
This is an amazing experience. Really works as art but as cultural diplomacy as well. Bravo!
A terribly important art exhibit that instantly breaks down the arbitrary borders we put between countries.
