The Butterfly and the Colorful rainbow: a story that talks about accepting the other.
There is a colorful butterfly which has a goal of reaching the end of the rainbow in order to obtain the gift that is supposed to be there. The butterfly flies far away. Every time she feels tired, she takes a break, and then she continues flying. When she reaches her destination she discovers that the gift is an illusion. When she tries to go back, the rainbow appears, felt pity for her, and calls on the butterfly to talk to her. They grow a uniquely beautiful friendship that would not grow between creatures who belong to different worlds.
This is a story for children between the age of 5-8 years old.
Composed by: Sama Shweikh.
Cartoon: Ali Al-Zeini
Translated into German by: Obeid Alyousef.
The story has been written in Arabic and translated into German in an attempt to integrate the refugees with the host society on the one hand, and to support the Arabic content in Germany on the other hand.
Sama speaks about learning and writing in Arabic despite the fact the she never received learning in her mother country. She says “my father and my mother taught me Arabic. Apart from being a children’s story composer, my mother is Arabic language teacher who taught me Arabic regularly, and hence I have not found any difficulty in learning Arabic. My father helps her in teaching me Arabic too as he voluntarily teaches Arabic in the city cultural center. Furthermore, my father and my mother have bought us lots of books in Arabic so that we read”.
Sama talks about her experience in writing stories saying “I started to write stories when I was 6 years old. My mother used to execute with us short story workshops where she suggests a particular idea and we develop it. That is how we became so fond of reading and writing stories”.
The book is issued by Khotoat and funded by Miso and writers. It has been distributed in Germany to kids of different nationalities.
