Web Supplement: Baking with Marwa
There are more refugee stories in Tucson than we can possibly tell on the radio. So as part of Mn Huna: Finding Refuge in Friendship, we will bring you additional stories on the website. This is the first.
Marwa, from Daraa, Syria, arrived in Tucson in 2016 with her family. Syria is famous throughout the Middle East for its food—particularly its sweets. And like many Syrian women, Marwa is an excellent cook and baker.
Beginning in December of 2016, a group of volunteers with Arizona Welcomes Refugees started organizing Syrian Sweets Sales to bring the delicious food of Syria to the greater Tucson community—and to bring Syrians together with their new neighbors. In February, Phoenix had its first Syrian Sweets Sale, inspired by the successes in Tucson.
Marwa has participated in all the sweets sales. Like the rest of the Syrian Sweets Sale bakers—including Houda’s mom, Emane—she has completed a food handling class and registered with the State of Arizona’s Home Bakery program so that she can begin selling her sweets to the public. In January, she was interviewed by Tyler Besh and Joel Foster of Five on 20 News as she baked sweets in her home.
She tells her story in the video below.
Not included in the video is that once the baking and filming was over, Marwa promptly fed all the sweets to the film crew! They report that the sweets were every bit as delicious as they look.
