Amineh A. Ayyad

Artist, Connector, Educator/Teacher, Explorer, Filmmaker, Global soul, Idea generator, Producer, Public servant, Social entrepreneur

Amineh Ayyad is a Palestinian Jordanian American public health worker, educator, filmmaker and artist. Ayyad’s work and research interests include international understanding and peacebuilding through health, and cultural & art exchange programs. She is currently working on a Peace Through Health collaborative training curriculum for community health workers in Palestine. Ayyad founded and directs Adapt International, a nonprofit organization that aims to design, deliver and evaluate community-based psychosocial interventions serving refugee youths and mothers through art & cultural programs both in USA and in the Middle East. Ayyad’s current art projects include the International Peace Mosaic, a project bringing together Muslim artists from around the globe to foster positive relationships between people of the Muslim world and people of the United States.. The mosaic will be installed in Seattle in Summer 2011 & 2012. She studied economics and public health at the University of Washington, and health and human rights, and ethics in international health research at Harvard University.

Community building and psychosocial healing through innovative art and cultural programs; working with immigrant & refugee youths & mothers. Traveling through cultures.

Intercultural and Intergenerational Community Storytelling Festival, an initiative that aims to provide a space for healing through sharing traditional tales and personal narratives to ignite compassion and build understanding within immigrant and refugee communities, and the larger community in the US and abroad. The festival was held at a youth detention dormitory in the former INS building at a historic event as part of the transformation of a decommissioned Immigration and Naturalization Services (INS) building in Seattle, USA. http://youwhostandinthedoorwaycomein.blogspot.com 1000 Flowers for Peace, a campaign that aims to build resilience among youth in the Arab world and everywhere through mental health awareness. http://1000flowers4peace.blogspot.com

Community & Public Art, Intercultural Relations, Localization, Peacebuilding through Art & Cultural Programs, Refugee Psychosocial Health, Refugee Youth Community Development, Storytelling, Technical Translation & Software Localization

writing and telling children's stories, designing & making stuffed-animals