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That was one of the "lessons learned" that Armenak Tokmajyan and AlHakam Shaar shared with 33 students attending the Bard/HESP Student Networking Conference in Budapest on March 20-26, 2016. The conference program was organized to provide students with the opportunity to learn some of the skills they will need to actively engage in community-based work.

"I don't have any answers, but I do have a lot of questions," explained Lena Wimmer, architect and researcher. The questions relate to the rebuilding of Aleppo, a divided city that has suffered enormous destruction, especially since mid-2012. The damage has been especially great in the neighborhoods of the old city where intense fighting has taken place. As Wimmer noted, it is not just the buildings that have been destroyed. So too has a good deal of the trust and goodwill that once existed in Aleppo.

"This course has been amazing. We are learning so much – about Aleppo, of course, but also about many other cities and reconstruction projects around the world," said Anne Hardt (Mundus MAPP '16). Robin Fraiture and Bouchra Bouchkouj, also first-year Mundus MAPP students, agree. They are three of the students enrolled in "The Aleppo Project" course at the School of Public Policy (SPP) at Central European University.

Aleppo has been destroyed many times in its more than 8,000 years of history – and each time it was rebuilt. “This is a city that will come back again,” said CCNR Director Robert Templer. He pointed to the importance of a positive narrative in mobilizing people to rebuild their cities after they have been destroyed. The Aleppo Project website has been launched to provide a platform for refugees and others who are already mobilizing people and resources to rebuild Syria when the war ends.