Syrian child Celina  a promising Syrian writer

“The Promising Syrian Writer”, with these words, the 11-year-old Celina Raafat Hamed introduces herself.She  has 15 stories, some of which have been published and others in print, in addition to a number of poems and thoughts with the encouragement and support of her family and teachers.

The child Celina, who resides in the United Arab Emirates, indicated in an interview with SANA that her love for the Arabic language and speaking it fluently helped her write short stories for children. She pointed out that her mother discovered her talent and the stories she narrated had a great impact on her love for the Arabic language, then she continued reading and writing on her own to write her first story at the age of six.

Celina confirmed her keenness to write stories that suit her peers, simulate their dreams, and attract them to read, through different titles that children love.

Celina says: “The best gift I always hope to get is to accompany my father to book fairs to acquire stories and novels and to develop my talent more. My happiness is also great when I used to meet a number of writers during these fairs, and tell them that I am writing the story and my dream is to become known like them, and they give me advice and books that I should read.”

Celina, from the governorate of Al-Suwayda, won many awards, including the Environmental Prize of the Supreme Council for Motherhood in the Emirates for the short story category, and first place in each of the competitions “Transforming a story with my pen”, “My innovative story”, “The Little Storyteller” and “The Little Story”. She won second place at the International Digital and Electronic Scientific Conference for Child Creativity in the Digital Creativity Award 2021 at the Arab world level, and the title of creative writer in the “Green Fingerprint” competition for the writing category. She was chosen along with 21 to be distinguished by the UAE Pavilion during Expo “2020”.

Regarding her participation in the reading challenge held by the United Arab Emirates, Celina noted that she participated in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth seasons, and obtained advanced ranks at the level of the Emirate of Sharjah.

In a language full of ambition and aspiration for more achievements, Celina confirms that she continues to promote her talent by reading and participating in various competitions, as well as interest and excellence in her studies. She dreams of becoming a famous doctor and writer at the same time, to raise the name of her country, Syria, in international forums with science and creativity.

Celina’s mother, Dina Nader, stresses the importance of the role of parents in nurturing their children’s talents, indicating that the many questions and inquiries that her daughter was asking and her love for books, especially colorful stories since she was two years old, were the first indications of her talent. She noted that she was participating with her daughter in choosing the titles of her own library books that reached 400 ones.

She called on the children’s parents to follow up on their children and provide them with what is useful through books and reading, and to stay away from electronic games, for their negative role in limiting their skills.

She said, “So far, Celina does not have any mobile phone of her own. The book is her friend, she watches TV to follow educational channels, and she uses the Internet in her studies under our supervision and follow-up.”

Inas Abdulkareem