Four years ago today, Deah Shaddy Barakat, his wife, Yusor Mohammad Abu-Salha and her sister Razan Mohammad Abu-Salha were shot and killed by neighbor Craig Hicks in an apartment complex in UNC-Chapel Hill.
At the time of the crime, Deah was a 23-year-old graduate of NC State and a second-year UNC-CH dental student, 22-year-old Yusor was an undergraduate student at NC State who had just recently been accepted to the UNC School of Dentistry and Razan was a 19-year-old studying architecture at NC State’s College of Design.
In response to this tragedy, Deah’s sister, Suzanne Barakat, alongside the victims’ families, created the Our Three Winners Foundation. This foundation is dedicated to honoring the lives of the three victims and to reducing prejudice against all marginalized communities.
The organization seeks to identify sources of implicit biases, raise awareness of these biases and offer techniques to avoid them. Implicit biases refer to the prejudices people have that unconsciously affect their behavior and understanding of certain social groups. These biases lie at the root of racial, religious, gender and sexual discrimination.
For the past four years, the foundation has been gaining support through donations which have allowed it to work alongside researchers, activists and psychologists to help achieve these goals. The foundation is using its work and research to instill awareness of implicit biases to the larger community and to ultimately mitigate the prevalence of hate crimes.
A parallel effort to Our Three Winners is The Light House Project, a group created by Deah’s family to keep the legacies of each of the three victims alive. The “Light House” is a property that was inherited by Deah’s parents after his death, located at 202 N Tarboro St. in downtown Raleigh.
The goal of the project is to reclaim the Muslim American narrative by providing a shared office space for local youth groups and by building supporting relationships throughout the Raleigh community. Programs that currently share the space include Triangle Muslim Professionals, Triangle Muslim Aid and Muslim Women For. These programs receive fiscal sponsorship from the project and have full access to the Light House.
In honor of Deah, Yusor and Razan, The Light House Project is currently hosting an interfaith food drive. The drive is located at the Islamic Center of Raleigh on 808 Atwater St. The final day to drop off canned goods is March 2 at 2 p.m.
In fall 2015, students at the UNC School of Dentistry established a new day of service known as DEAH DAY, which stands for Directing Efforts And Honoring Deah And Yusor and is celebrated throughout the Triangle area to honor the victims’ legacies. On this annual day of service, the UNC School of Dentistry’s classes and clinics have been cancelled, allowing their students to volunteer at various sites around the Triangle.
Anyone interested in donating to Our Three Winners or finding more information can refer to the organization’s website.
