Home

Annual Report 2017

Syrian Society for Social Development (SSSD)

Community-driven Participation
Annual Report 2017

Community-driven Participation

Humanitarian action today is no longer limited to appropriate intervention and service delivery but, rather, extends to the essential role of community empowerment of individuals and groups through a participatory principle of a developmental nature.

Therefore, the Syrian Society for Social Development (SSSD) has been providing its services through an interactive process among all community components to reach a specific goal and achieve sustainability. This has been realized by both bringing about the required change and creating the environment that sustains it by developing a common vision to assess needs and find appropriate solutions to integrally address them.

To that effect, SSSD has adopted the concept of “community-driven participation” whereby interventions are carried out in and with the community in a holistic manner on all personal, family, community, institutional and policy-making levels. SSSD aims at achieving the highest levels of professionalism and performance but, at the same time and in parallel, it strives to attain spiritual significance that fulfills the deepest personal needs and aspirations leading to growth and maturity.

SSSD submits its annual report for the year 2017 entitled Community-driven Participation to provide an overview of its interventions and services during a full year of work and volunteering, through visits, monitoring, response, evaluation and follow-up. 2017 was chiefly characterized as a year of effective participation of the community—all groups and in all sectors of society—in needs assessment, response and service provision, whether as individual stakeholders, as leadership figures or as government agencies, including directorates, ministries, municipalities, training centers and organizations.

Therefore, one can safely say that throughout the year 2017, most of SSSD’s services were characterized by a community-driven, pro-social approach to development, whether in community-based initiatives, decentralized projects, vocational training and networking with the labor market.

Introduction

Right from the start, SSSD’s vision was to respond to the challenges faced by marginalized groups, especially children and young people, who are at the core of our society, so that no one remains on the margin, but rather becomes a partner in overcoming those challenges. The role of SSSD increased since the beginning of the Syrian Crisis, both horizontally and vertically.

Horizontally, SSSD’s active intervention rapidly spread over the governorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Aleppo, Homs, Hama, Hasakeh, Tartous and Sweida, including difficult-to-reach areas, where there are internally displaced and war-afflicted persons, whether living in community centers and collective shelters or are part of the local community. SSSD actively intervenes in:

  • 21 community centers
  • 3 safe spaces for women and girls
  • 8 child-friendly spaces
  • 125 schools
  • 2 reformatories for juvenile delinquents (Damascus, Homs)
  • Institute for delinquent girls
  • Cerebral Palsy Centre
  • Al-Karama Home for Elderly Care
  • Deir Baalba drop-in center

Vertically, interventions are carried out in line with specialized programs that reach all categories and age groups in order to alleviate the suffering of IDPs and people affected, share their concerns, work with them towards coping with the reality and enable them to recover—which still needs more interventions. The number of beneficiaries of SSSD’s various activities has exceeded one million (1,142,71).

This could not have been possible without the sustained efforts of an integrated team of

  • 2,081 volunteers
  • 400 employees registered in social insurance
  • 97 occasional fixed-term employees
  • 78 employees under consulting agreement contracts

Providing services to beneficiaries in response to the risks they are exposed to and thereby contributing to community development have shaped SSSD’s goal since its launch. These services and interventions have left a clear impact on the lives of beneficiaries.

SSSD’s programs and activities are as follows:

1. Community service programs

  • Community-based Initiatives
  • Vocational Training
  • Small Business Grants
  • Community Centers
  • Youth Initiatives

2. Support programs for education (partnership agreement with the Ministry of Education)

  • Working Group on Alternative Education
  • Informal (Extracurricular) Education
  • Courses for preparatory and secondary education certificate candidates
  • Monitoring of school drop-out children
  • Individual and group remedial classes
  • Compensatory tuition (private)

3. Support programs for affected children and their families to build up their coping abilities

  • “Friendship Groups” for persons with specific needs (PwSN)
  • Unaccompanied and/or separated children (UASC)
  • Individual and group counseling
  • Hear-My-Heart program for mothers (PSS)
  • Gender-based violence (GBV)
  • Recreational activities
  • Mentoring program
  • Child friendly spaces (CFSs)
  • Health awareness program
  • Periodic maintenance of IDPs’ collective shelters and places of residence

 

Table showing the number of beneficiaries in the governorates distributed according to the services they received

 

SSSD programs

Damascus & Rural Damascus

Aleppo

Hama

Hasakeh

Homs

Sweida

Tartous

Educational support (remediation, dropouts, VT, etc.)

 

19,153

 

26,964

 

14,129

 

13,812

 

7,004

 

 

15,271

Protection (activities, referrals, home-based rehabilitation)

 

35,974

 

85,115

 

48,540

 

28,423

 

20,512

 

368

 

54,741

Activities (recreation, awareness-raising, social, edification)

 

55,292

 

27,956

 

21,927

 

35,110

 

82,356

 

 

119,000

NFI assistance (dignity tools for SGBV survivors, in-kind assistance)

 

3,425

 

1,994

 

5,783

 

2,175

 

3,195

 

39

 

2,549

Health awareness and medical assistance

3,106

3,197

1,383

1,727

11,226

35

1,067

Small business grants

8

42

51

33

23

55

Livelihood kits (toolkits for carpentry, sewing, electricity, painting, etc.)

 

978

 

453

 

310

 

80

 

181

 

42

 

275

Vocational training (sewing, hairdressing, plumbing, carpentry, electricity, etc.)

 

407

 

93

 

491

 

278

 

260

 

30

 

245

Community-based initiatives

18,946

25,297

24,812

45,816

8,716

86

45,320

Sanitation (environmental health, water, hygiene promotion)

 

9,484

 

13,087

 

13,991

 

 

10,763

 

 

Shelter rehabilitation and upgrade

27,023

5,632

19,974

20,613

23,226

1,100

62,942