A Seaside couple's creative way to help kids traumatized by war.

Syrian refugee children have lived through years of trauma, since the Arab Spring contributed to what became the Syrian Civil War in March of 2011. Many remain suspended in limbo.

“They’ve had to go from one place to another,” says Noelle Ehab. “They’ve faced a lot of stresses compared to most kids. It’s life on the run.”

Noelle and her husband John co-founded Let’s Make a Book, a nonprofit that helps such children center themselves by drawing and writing a book.

In addition to their towns being blown to rubble, and living under meager means in a strange country, the kids fall behind in, or drop out of, host schools. They have PTSD. After elementary, older kids often work to support their families.

“Their lives have been in upheaval,” Noelle says. LMB began in Egypt, where John was working as a journalist in Cairo and Noelle was teaching rhetoric at the American University. A short video summary of the program shows kids playing imaginative and group games before a book workshop session.

The playing loosens up their imagination, relaxes and energizes them, coalesces kids who may otherwise have a hard time bonding. Then they get down to the business of brainstorming, writing, critiquing and, finally, printing.

In the video, one child says her story is about a missing woman and a detective who is looking for her.

“In the end he finds her,” she says.

Noelle says, “[A book] gives them something to be proud of, something they can hold in their hands.”

And they can cherish it during their uncertain journeys. In the U.S., the creative workshop sessions focus on comic books, stop-motion animation and claymation; they’re working on a book tentatively titled Syria’s Anne Frank.

John and Noelle came to Seaside so that he could attend Middlebury Institute of International Studies while Noelle was on maternity. But they didn’t want to leave those kids behind. So they’ve tapped into the local art community to assemble a group art exhibition fundraiser/silent auction for Syrian children in a school in Lebanon.

Artists who have donated work include Simon Bull, Tom Davies, Delia Bradford, Ulf Bjore, David Potigian and Johnny Apodaca.

“The benefit is a really humanitarian one,” Apodaca says. “Kids writing about their experience can be positive.”

Collectors have donated pieces by Carl Bowman and Morio Matsui, Demetra Cafe is comping hors d’oeuvres, All Saints Church lends its main hall for free, and John, Noelle and the teachers involved are volunteers.

So the money raised for the school will arrive at full strength, an outpouring that pierces a dark place with light.

LET’S MAKE A BOOK art exhibition and silent auction opens 4-6pm Sunday, Jan. 29, at All Saints Episcopal Church, Ninth and Lincoln, Carmel. Free to attend. Programs@letsmakeabook.org, www.letsmakeabook.org