Out of concern to provide healthy environment for the local community in Bab Alhadeed, SSSD in cooperation with UNHCR conducted a community- based initiative titled “Shelves and Shade” installing shelves in front of Janat commercial bakery, where the inhabitants could lay bread, instead of laying it on sidewalks. The objective of the CBI is to prevent the spread of diseases, especially among children and older persons and to encourage the members of the community to propose solutions for the problems they face. A group of people experienced in smithery made and installed the shelves.

“Even though I felt scared before the activity, once the activity began, I enjoyed playing with my new friends and I like them,” according to a special needs kid who participated in an activity aiming to introduce special needs kids to countryside lifestyle.
Al-Salam group, one of the friendship groups for people with special needs, mentoring program, SSSD, organized a visit to Al-Hader Community Space in Rural Aleppo. The visit was preceded by introductory sessions to the kids in Al-Hader area. The participants were around 80: 35 special needs kids and their parents from Al-Salam group and 40 kids from the Space. The participants from Al-Salam group were transported by a bus to a nearby land to the Space, where they enjoyed breakfast in the midst of nature. Later, they were introduced to olives and helped in olive picking, and were able to appreciate the sight of cattle from very close distances. Toward the end, the special needs kids and the kids at the space were introduced to each other and enjoyed playing together.  “I want to tell my friends about the activity and the new friendships I made.”
The kids at the Space proposed calling the activity “the Get together of Friends” and they offered basil as symbolic gifts. The participants from Al-Salam group appreciated the experience and asked to repeat such visits.

Riding train for the first time, the participants of the trip were deeply moved. They felt relieved and energetic, breaking out from their daily routine and unwinding stress. Seeing joy on their children’s faces, the mothers were extremely happy as if they were reborn. “I feel like flying. It is the first time my kid smiles like that,” a mother of a special needs kid enrolled in the program “HBRP for Children with Disabilities” said.
To farther promote the ties of friendship between the parents of the special needs children and the community center staff, SSSD in cooperation with UNHCR organized a train trip from Aleppo to Jebrin, Hama.  Two hundred forty- five persons participated in the trip: special needs children, their parents and siblings, as well as SSSD facilitators. The kids enjoyed face painting. The mothers and their kids were both involved in enthusiastic singing and dancing.
The women collectively expressed that it was the first time their kids accompany them feeling happy and not shouting. Being in an unfamiliar, closed space, one mother was afraid that her kid might be nervous, shout and cry until she would take him back home. On the contrary he was smiling and fascinated by the landscapes out of the window, and was clapping enjoying the group songs.
One of the mothers expressed her gratitude, “It is the first time I go out with my six kids, my husband is always busy. Thank you very much for putting up with the burden of the children and I wish the trip was not over.” Another mother said, “My kid did not quit talking about the trip from the moment he stepped into home up to the moment he felt asleep. The very next day he told me that he dreamt of the train trip.”

“I forgot when was the last time I made sweets. Today while I was making sweets at the center, I asked the staff to bring in some flour and ghee, and I felt as if I was talking to my own kids, whom I have not seen for many years. This feeling of joy is priceless!”
The joy of Eid is only complete with the presence of sweets, which bear eid’s spirit and a special symbol among people. SSSD team at Arabesque Community Center coordinated efforts with people from the local community to make sweets for Eid Al-Adha. The community- based initiative was carried out in cooperation with UNHCR to bring joy and happiness to the hearts of the inhabitants of Bab Al-Hadid. One- hundred fifty women and adolescent girls worked for two days to make several types of Eid sweets that were distributed to the families in need, especially the most vulnerable. “Thank you very much for bringing in happiness to our hearts, to our area. Arabesque you are at the core of our hearts.”
Similar to the joy of the people receiving the sweets, the joy of the women and adolescent girls making the sweets was overwhelming: the spirit of cooperation, laughter, folklore songs, and cheers were remarkable.  “This initiative brings in good memories about the long-forgotten gold days.”