DUBAI: To mark the UN Refugee Agency’s 70th anniversary, Syrian-Palestinian cartoonist Hani Abbas has created seven images that will be sold as digital assets to raise funds for Afghanistan.
The cartoonist was born and grew up in Yarmouk, a Palestinian refugee camp in the southern suburbs of the Syrian capital Damascus.
His work tackles themes of injustice, loss, and the human cost of conflict and now he has partnered with UNHCR to launch the agency’s first-ever non-fungible token (NFT) fundraising sale.
Ten copies of each of the seven cartoons will be converted into unique digital assets and sold as NFTs on the OpenSea online marketplace to raise funds for UNHCR’s Afghanistan crisis response in a sale that began on Nov. 4.
The images are part of a series called “Windows,” which the artist spoke about with the UNHCR’s editorial team.
“What is the meaning of windows in my heart? They are our windows to see the country, to see people – to connect with them and hear them. In 2011, after four months of the conflict I drew the first window – a destroyed building with just a window still standing, and a young man waiting outside with a flower to see his love, who was gone. It represents what we’ve lost. I’ve drawn other figures who have left everything else behind but take a window with them, because the window is their memory. I have my own ideas and feelings about the images, but I hope everyone who looks at them can see the effect of war on people,” Abbas said.