The result is the book, When We Take Off, a collection of poems and stories by 16-year-old Melora Shahabudin of Subang Jaya.
Melora said she embarked on the book as part of her school project
while she was a student at Fairview International School in 2010. The
book was completed a year later.
Her mother, Rozima Ali, did some voluntary work for the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and her experiences became the
basis for Melora's interest in the displaced groups.
While When We Take Off is a work of fiction, Melora said she got her
material from interviews with refugees from Myanmar, Somalia and
Afghanistan in refugee centres in the Klang Valley.
Melora also drew inspiration from paper planes her two younger siblings were playing with one day.
"One moment they were playing with the planes and the next, they were
immediately discarded when a cartoon came on air. Then it dawned on me
that refugees are like paper planes -- they are waiting for people to
pick them up and help them fly again. They are also fragile like paper."
Melora had not expected her works to be published.
"It was so far from my mind at the time but my parents convinced me
to do it. The most fearful part was that I wouldn't be able to convey
the message that these people are on the move, they need help and we
need to reach out to them," she said at the launch of her book at the
Islamic Arts Museum here yesterday.
http://www.asiaone.com
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