What started as a BAC thesis project has now become Ahlan, an app that has been launched in three languages (English, Spanish, and Arabic) across three major cities in Californa, Texas, and Washington and expanding to Germany and Sweden.
BAC alumna Rania Qawasma shares, "I created an infographic neighborhood guide book for newly arrived refugees resettling in the Northwest cities called "This is home". It started as part of my capstone project at BAC. The book was in Arabic and English to support Syrian and Iraqi refugees. The book got a lot of recognition and I started getting requests for more languages and more cities to cover."
"Creating Ahlan (meaning Welcome in Arabic) was the natural response to provide an efficient, easy, support to refugees in different urban cities in the US and around the world with as many languages as needed. The goal for the next couple of years is to cover as many cities as needed in the US based on the requests of the refugee agencies. The app has been used by international students and immigrants as well. The purpose of this project is to simplify the new built environment for refugees to help them create a sense of home again," said Rania.
To learn more about Ahlan or to download the app, click here.
The #BACbuzz blog will help to inform, educate, and share relevant and noteworthy architectural and design news happening within the Boston Architectural College and around the Boston community.
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