Mr. Akram, a 63-year-old retired employee, is a new return to Al Hosen with his family of four and his elderly mother with special needs in a house in the bush far from the city's serviced residential area.
Mr. Akram was identified after his visit to the community center in Al-Hosn and explained his conditions and taking all the information. Accordingly, the family was visited by a team of volunteers of the center to make an assessment need of the family conditions.
The evaluation found that the family suffers from extreme poverty and there is no provider except for Mr. Akram, who works in agricultural lands, and who suffers from chronic diseases. The house where the family lives is in a very bad condition and needs many services. The family uses candles for lighting, which is a burden on the family to buy. It also causes danger to the old mother as she moves around the house when the power is down due to her poor vision.
Mr. Akram asked for a battery and LEDs. And they were given to him from the file of in-kind assistance, and when visiting the family after providing the service and talking with them about the importance of the service, Mr. Akram said: " God bless you all and thank you for everything”.

Iman , a 45-year-old mother of seven children and a provider for her family because of her husband physical disability due to age-related diseases of clotting and saccharin, this made him bedridden and suffering from many physical ulcers, the family fled from Soran to Idlib because of the war and returned when civilians were allowed to enter their houses to find her house destroyed. She lived in her sister's house after renovating herself, and she was exposed to many accidents during the restoration. The house lacked any basic necessities of life. She and her children suffered a lot of water transfer from a remote location because there was no reservoir or well nearby.
She visited SSSD community center in Soran and registered for a water tank and air mattresses for her sick husband. The volunteers visited her, met the family by seeing the children moving the water in the winter from a well away from home to put it in drums and open containers, use it for drink and food and for her sick husband and he is lying all day long.
After a short period of delivery of the tank and the air mattress, Iman expressed her gratitude and happiness for the alleviation of the suffering and that the exposure of her children to diseases due to open water and colds during the transfer of water will be much less.

Sana, 20 years old, living with her parents in the city of Hama suffers from the birth of paralysis of quadrilateral spasmodic partial upper and full lower limb, she has been under several operations, but could not walk and never went out of the house which caused her psychological pressure, we know her condition through the ORVs of the Syrian Society for Social Development, and they registered her for medical assistance.
After a short period, she was served with a wheelchair to help her move inside and outside the house. She began to rely on herself to move as much as possible. She even participated in the vocational training of the handicrafts that SSSD also provides and now she is coming to SSSD center and see it as her second home, and the biggest help in her life.

Zeina, The 12-years-old girl suffers from a disability in her feet, she is unable to move, she lives with her parents and siblings in the village Shat-ha , Hama, Her parents work in the agricultural land to secure the life requirements, her parents tried to get her back to school to complete her education and get her out of her situation , So her parents have to carry her and take her to school, but when they go to work, she stays at home alone and kip school.
The volunteers at the Syrian Society for Social Development \ Beit Al-Ward Community Center visited her home and when we talked to her parents, we found out that the economic situation of the family was bad. We referred Zeina to the medical aid file and registered her need to a wheelchair.
After a short while, we called her mother to the community center to receive the wheelchair. Her mother told us that when she sat on the chair, she was very happy and her feelings were indescribable. "I can move and go to my school like my siblings and friends” she said,
After a while we asked about her condition to find out that Zeina is not leaving the school where she will continue her education like the rest of her friends.

Mrs. Rawda is a resident of the village of Jousa in the governorate of Hama. She is a widow and has seven children who have been displaced more than once. The house was stolen during their displacement and they were not present in the area. During the visit of the ORVs to them, they monitored the great suffering in washing clothes for her children, especially that three of them are still really young,
She said, "I have seven children. I work in the land to secure my child after the death of their father. I had a small washing machine, and it was stolen. I did not consider it a big loss till after I have been suffering from eczema and having the pain from the manual washing where I became forced to work for even more hours to cover my family's expenses and my medicine expenses.
The Syrian Society for Social Development team visited us at home and saw how much we need the washing machine, and after a period, they contacted with me and we got the washing machine. I only thank the Syrian Society for Social Development for what they gave me and my family, Where I no longer need to spend money on medicines and now I spending money only on my children, and my children's clothes came back as they were clean before. "

Ms.Siham, a 42-year-old resident of Douma who used to own a photography shop, is now a widow and mother to six children, whose ages range from primary school to college. She also has a missing nephew. Seven years ago, she was forced to flee from Douma to the ‘Adra Industrial Zone, after losing both home and shop, and was hosted by a family of her relatives.
When she betook herself to the SSSD community center in ‘Adra, Siham was clearly depressive. Her material want was mainly responsible for her deteriorating psychological condition. She was soon interviewed by the psychologist who referred her to the Small Business Grants Program in order to find a radical solution to her problem by securing her with a job that could sustain her and her children and offer the family a certain measure of autonomy.
Siham attended a training course in SMP creation and management. During the course, she was highly interactive with the coach thanks to her considerable past experience. After the course, she appeared before a committee and was selected to start up her own small business, namely that of a photography shop!
Once the business was launched, we visited Siham to follow up on her project. She was working hard to make it work and prosper.
She confirmed that her life had changed completely after the start of her business. Her material burdens receded and both her son and daughter could now leave work and resume college. Her psychological condition improved and her spirits rose high. She is more than motivated to develop her business—Beautiful Picture.
At the end of the visit, Siham expressed her heartfelt gratitude to SSSD for the services it offers to the community where she lives.

Ms. Huda is 34 years old and has four daughters. She used to live in Babilah where, in accordance with local customs, she married at 15 a young man aged 21. He was unemployed, living in his parents’ home, and even receiving his pocket money from his mother, which gave the latter tremendous power over the couple. It is at this point that problems arose between the spouses.
Huda was very good at school and her parents had agreed to marry her off on the condition that she follows her education. After marriage, however, her husband and in-laws broke their promise and denied her the right to continue school. At her mother-in-law’s incitement, Huda was beaten and threatened with divorce, especially because she gave birth only to girls. Her parents advised her to remain patient—to no avail. Nothing in her life improved; on the contrary, things went from bad to worse.
Huda had a moment of respite when her husband left the country with his parents, leaving her with two young girls. So, she seized the occasion to resume her schooling. Soon after his return, however, she gave birth to her third daughter and problems returned…
It was then that he decided to marry someone else, a divorced woman who had already a son from a previous marriage. Huda returned home with her three daughters and filed a divorce lawsuit. In the meantime, she was employed in a school. But when the war broke out in Syria, she began with her family to move from one area to another and lost her job.
Desperate and resigned to her fate, she decided to return to her husband and traveled to Saudi Arabia to live with him, her fellow wife and in-laws. Soon enough, the man repeated the same old violence pattern, hitting her and the daughters. Then, a fourth daughter was born with a congenital heart defect.
One day, Huda learned that her husband had, seven months earlier, raped two of his daughters—one 10 years old and the other 12. Enough was enough! She decided to call the police. The girls were medically examined but that did not prove the fact because long time had elapsed since. The psychological report on the girls’ condition, however, confirmed their exposure to a traumatic event. Consequently, Huda and her daughters were referred to a protection center in Saudi Arabia, where they stayed for two years and a half unbeknownst to her parents. She fought for divorce, which she eventually obtained after much trouble and huge concessions, and retuned to Syria, only to live with her parents under extremely difficult circumstances and constant social rejection for being divorced.
Finally, Huda was told about the Beit al-Wiam Community Center, Jaramana, through her mother, who regularly attended the women’s sessions thereat. So, she visited the CC in the hope of getting help for her daughters.
She was soon referred to the CP case manager, who requested a concertation meeting with the psychologist and the GBV case manager in order to establish a joint assessment of the case, offer the woman the best possible assistance and develop an effective intervention plan.
Huda was referred to the legal service to get a family book and identity documents for her daughters, which she acquired.
To help her stay in a separate house, some of her most urgent material needs were secured through the CLI Program, such as blankets and other NFIs. She was also offered a wooden wardrobe.
Great attention was paid to Huda by the GBV case manager and she was regularly followed up by the psychologist through individual sessions, which greatly boosted her morals and restored her self-confidence. Her constancy and seriousness throughout the PSS sessions helped her cope with her family’s situation, learn how to deal with her daughters and manage her own situation.
Since she had a good experience as a hairdresser, she was referred, in parallel with the PSS sessions, to the Livelihoods Program to help her get a women’s hairdressing toolkit so she could make a fresh start by earning a living and become fairly autonomous. As she had a strong potential, she was also offered the opportunity to work with SSSD. This both helped in securing her a steady income and enabled us to follow up on her and continue to support her psychologically.
Huda found her work in the context of the GBV Program very rewarding, particularly after she participated in awareness campaigns. This made her aware of various key GBV-related issues, especially when she took part in campaign against early marriage, which definitely strengthened her determination to insist upon her daughters’ education and continue her own education. Thanks to the SSSD follow-up and help, Huda got the high school certificate and registered at the university. Here is what she has to say to fellow women in similar conditions:
“The whole process restored my self-confidence and helped my character-building. Even my thoughts changed and life restarted in my small family. New dreams began to grow…
“We’re so grateful to SSSD. They helped me, helped my children, showed concern for each small detail in our lives, gave us a helping hand until we reached safety. SSSD was indeed a dot of light in the darkness of my life…
“That’s why I say to every woman subjected to violence: ‘Don’t give up, don’t surrender, don’t let yourself be broken, take up the challenge, be stronger than the circumstances!’”

Displaced from Raqqa, Salman’s family who currently live in a rustic rural room in the foothills of a mountain village of rural Banias, managed finally to secure fresh drinking water after receiving in-kind assistance from SSSD-Tartous, namely, a water tank with its necessary accessories.
Salman, who is the sole breadwinner of an eight-member family (including a war-disabled daughter who lost her foot due to the explosion of an AXO), asserts that the water storage tank secures his family safe, potable water for cooking and drinking, whereas they previously relied on a barrel which was only suitable for specific uses.
It is noteworthy that the SSSD team monitored the situation of the family, who suffer from severe shortage of living basic necessities, as they fled home in a panic and were therefore unable to bring along any supplies. Salman’s family wishes to be targeted with other in-kind assistance because of their dire need and extreme economic destitution.

Mariam was barely 20 years old when she gave birth to her first child. Although hardly 25, she is now mother to two daughters. Repudiated by her husband, she had to return to her father’s, along with two little girls on her lap, devoid of any source of income to provide for her offspring. She now dwells in a cold, mountainous, rural area, in a small room, built painstakingly upon her request by her brothers, in respect for her privacy.

After the girls started going to school, the situation worsened, especially with the coming of winter. Her almost bare room had no proper furniture, nor a heater even.

Mariam was monitored by the SSSD ORVs, who referred her to the In-kind Assistance Program. Her first, pressing request was to provide her with a stove to fight off the bitter cold and get some warmth with her two little daughters. As she was previously unable to help the girls with their lessons, she used to go to her parents’, or to the house of some relatives of hers, to seek some warmth—not to mention the girls being prone to frequent colds and flu because of exposure to bad weather conditions.

Being provided with the stove, Mariam can now keep warm and safe in her room and help the girls with their homework, sparing herself the embarrassment of embarrassing anyone. She no longer has to buy medicines or wait endlessly in a doctor’s waiting room.