Healing wounds
Ambassadors
We are working on multiple projects to use music as a tool for healing and connecting people. We are currently accepting donations to help support such projects. We invite anyone looking to make a difference in the world to join us on our mission of using music as a tool for healing, hope and unity.
Ari Honarvar
Ari Honarvar
Musical Ambassador In San Diego
Ari Honarvar was born in Shiraz, Iran. The Iran-Iraq War formed the background for her childhood. Coming from a family which strongly carried the legacies of Persian poets such as Rumi and Hafez, she has been drawn to share that artistic and spiritual wealth here in the USA which has been her home since age 14.
Ari is the founder of Rumi with a View and has been invited and continues to speak at various functions. She presents at universities, churches, corporations, veterans groups, and other venues. Her work has been featured on NPR, Washington Post, Newsweek, The Guardian, The Nation, Yes Magazine and numerous other news outlets. She is the author of Rumi’s Gift Oracle Cards (2018) and A Girl Called Rumi (2021).
As a Musical Ambassador of Peace, she is committed to building poetic and musical bridges across war-torn and conflict-ridden borders. Since 2018 she makes regular trips to migrant shelters in Tijuana just south of the US border to conduct Resilience Through Joy workshops with refugees from the drug-cartel-ruled war zones in Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, and parts of Mexico. Since the beginning of the pandemic, she has also been holding weekly Zoom dance sessions with asylum seekers stuck in Mexico to maintain her connection through music.
Learn More About Ari’s Projects In Mexico and San Diego 
Abaho Gift Conrad
Abaho Gift Conrad
Abaho Gift Conrad was born in Gasabo, Rwanda, just before the 1994 genocide. He is the only surviving member of his family. With help, he escaped to Uganda where he grew up in Nakivale refugee camp. Scoring well in school, he attracted the attention of the chairperson of the village who then paid for his further education.
He went on to earn a Diploma in Business Studies, a Bachelor of Commerce and is currently pursuing a Master of Science degree in Fraud and Risk.
Abaho now devotes his life to empowering his fellow refugees. Along with a team of volunteers, he works tirelessly in the refugee camps creating events that help to unite people from tribes traditionally at war. He also holds healing dance sessions for former forcibly-conscripted child-soldiers. Abaho has represented refugees in global peace campaigns and played a great role to represent refugee views across different forums. He is a founding member of Humanity Heart Charity and serves on the boards for non-government organizations INDATWA Cultural Trust and Genocide Survivor Coalition. He is also the president of the Africa Peace Coalition in Bujumbura, Burundi.
I wish to help my fellow underprivileged people realize that guns, bullets, war, diseases and despair are not the things that define us as human beings. I will never rest until my fellow underprivileged people have food, medicine and hope.
– Abaho
Learn More About Abaho’s Project In Uganda
Rahaf Shamaly
Rahaf Shamaly
Rahaf Shamaly is from Gaza City, Palestine. She began singing at age 13 with the al-Qatan Children’s Choir. At age 15 she began attending music classes at the Syed Darwish Institute, a musical art center in Gaza, which was run by members of a local band called Sol Band. Shortly thereafter she joined the band as its only female member.
The training at Syed Darwish revived her passion for old songs that her grandmother taught her. “I feel I’m on the right track — I find myself while singing,” Rahaf says. She and the band have created the “Wasla” program, singing the forgotten Palestinian songs in the open public spaces and when they appear in concerts. The aim of the program is to find the forgotten old songs and to introduce them to the young generation. This is considered one of the most important programs in documenting the forgotten Palestinian songs.
Rahaf is passionate about teaching music to children. As a Musical Ambassador of Peace, she holds weekly music classes for children in the schools of Gaza, teaching them the notes of the scale, spreading joy and helping to revive their Palestinian heritage.
Mahmoud Abushawish
Mahmoud Abushawish
For over seven years he has volunteered his time working in relief work and helping poor families, as well as fighting for women and supporting their rights. He also volunteers his time teaching children the Palestinian Dabkeh, a traditional dance, and running summer camps for children.
Mahmoud works behind the scenes for MAP Gaza, helping to oversee and organize events, and making sure that all necessary permits are obtained.
“Helping children and young people to adapt and live a happy life is the least a person can do. Changing lives for the better is a simple thing, it is our duty, and from here was the reason for me to be one of the Ambassadors of Music.” – Mahmoud
Learn More About Mahmoud and Rahaf’s Project In Gaza
Christine Stevens
Christine Stevens
Board certified music therapist
Board certified music therapist, Christine Stevens, led the first drum circle training in a war zone of northern Iraq in partnership with ACDI-VOCA that brought together 40 individuals from Kurdish, Iraqi, and Yazidi communities for peace-making called Drum Salam / Ashti Drum. The success of this project was included in the United Nations Compendium of Peace Making through Music. Together with Kristina Powers, she co-facilitated a Refugee Women’s Healing Drum Circle Program in El Cajon, CA entitled Shiffa, which means healing in Arabic. Christine is also the founder of UpBeat Drum Circles, author of Music Medicine, a REMO artist, and a faculty at The Shift Network. She led an opening drum circle “United in Rhythm” for the Rotary World Peace Conference.
Meg York
Meg York
American composer and performer
Meg York is an American composer and performer who has lived in Turkey and India to inform her soaring solos, authentic sound and global grooves. She also has a Bachelor’s Degree in Clarinet and Flamenco performance from University of New Mexico.
Meg founded Tarab Retreat and directs the Tarjama Ensemble, a multi-discipline arts organization for refugee and immigrant artists and their allies. Other collaborations include: Denver Center for the Performing Arts Indecent, Yo Yo Ma’s tour in Aurora, Colorado, Hal Aqua’s Lost Tribe, and Kantorei Chorus. Meg creates scores for Warner Brothers Films, 5 Rhythms Dance and David Taylor Zikr Dance companies.