The Art of Storytelling in the 21st Century Arab World: An Interview with Sara Barclay
9 Jun
I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Sara Barclay, the Director of Outreach from the NGO Al-Hakawati.net. Sara’s family runs the non-profit organization that looks to provide free high quality accessible digital Arabic media exclusively about the Arab-Islamic world. Al-Hakawati has humbly found its niche amongst Arabic readers and continues to grow as an organization. The full interview followed by highlights can be found below!
Briefly describe Al-Hakawati:
Al-Hakawati is a web-based digital repository of Arab heritage and culture, written in standard Arabic in order for it to be readable and accessible by all people in the Arab world regardless of educational backgrounds.
What do you think has been the impact of the site on the social, economic, and political landscape in the Middle East and what impact do you wish the site to have in the future?
It’s hard to measure impact, but I suppose one way we have seen the progress is through the volume of readers and the comments we receive. The site now gets about 60,000-70,000 hits per day and some days it gets up to 150,000 hits. We also get a lot of letters from readers who want to contribute, or thank us for our content. In the future we would like to offer people in the Arab world a venue in which they can discover, engage, and feel pride in their culture.
What would be the ideal way for schools to interact with the site?
This is something that we are really working on right now. The current model we are using involves working with the International College in Beirut, Lebanon. The Arabic teachers use it for homework assignments or as inspiration for essays, while younger students use it to learn stories. We like to engage the students in the site. For example, we post the illustrations of elementary school students and the essays of high school students on the site. In the future we would like to formalize the interaction and offer online curricula or teaching modules that teachers can use in the classroom.
Where do you see Al-Hakawati in 5 years and what role will mobile technology play?
In the next 5 years, we hope to take the content and make it more accessible and targeted. Mobility is a very important concept for that purpose. Mobile penetration in the Arab world is higher than computer penetration. We would love to work with anyone developing mobile educational technology, even on the basic non-smart phone level.
How can listeners get involved?
One-way is for listeners to just interact with the site. Also, we are always looking for people to submit pieces on issues they are knowledgeable about. We are focusing on the Arabic right now, but we are also accepting English articles. Anyone who supports our site should reach out to us for several ways to contribute.
All in all, Bon is extremely excited by the work that Al-Hakawati is doing. We hope to continue to engage with their dynamic website, and follow their progression into the realm of mobile technology.
Keep Calm and Learn On,
Nora
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