SYRIA – November 3 2020

SOS Children’s Villages Syria initiates a project to promote children’s rights

If you are a child or young person, you have the right to care and protection under all circumstances.

SOS Children’s Villages Syria signed a partnership with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) to promote and increase awareness about Alternative Care using “You have the Right to Care and Protection! , the Guidelines for the Alternative Care of Children in Child and Youth Friendly Language” booklet.  

The project targets children and adolescents in alternative care and those at risk of losing parental care. It aims to raise their awareness about their right to live in a supportive family environment. Through this project, SOS Children’s Villages Syria will reach 20,100 children, caregivers in addition to humanitarian workers from its programmes as well as from the community of Damascus.  

We are glad to announce the signing of our first partnership agreement with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs in Syria. Our cooperation will reinforce the impact we are working to achieve on the lives of vulnerable children and families in Syria and will contribute to fulfil our shared missions and goals.

National Director
Samer Khaddam

In addition to its main objective of sensitising about alternative care, the project has different other components.  

It aims to provide group psychological support to help discharge negative emotions and promote the psychosocial wellbeing and safety of children.  

Additionally, it will offer risk education sessions to educate the participants about the danger of mines and remnants of war in order to ensure their safety in the areas where they live or upon their return to cities from which they were displaced during the crisis. 

The project will also focus on preventing family separation and contributing to restore the local economy recovery by providing financial support, psychosocial counselling, and awareness sessions about parental care for families in order to protect them from negative coping mechanisms that could affect children and put them at a higher risk of separation.  

The project comes to raise awareness and to ease the burden on some of the most vulnerable Syrian families, during a period difficult social and economic period for the country, mainly caused by Covid-19 and knock-on effects on the economy caused by the unstable exchange rate. 

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