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Mentoring Programme

A Lantern from Rabih

Rabih is a 13-year-old boy who lives with his small family in Ras al-Naba'a in the city of Banias, belongs to a poor social environment in which the head of household works as a builder while the mother is a housewife.

He was born blind and away from the simplest means of communication and education because the lack of knowledge of his parents about the possibility of joining the school, but the ORVs team was able to reach the case of the child and introduced him and his family to SSSD and its programs, especially regarding the blind, where Rabih parents expressed their desire to benefit from the Community center Beit al-Yasmin.
The child and his mother were invited to attend one of the sessions in the community center for Activating the Blind and during his first visit with his mother, his case was examined by the case manager at Beit al-Yasmine at the presence of the facilitators of the sessions.

After assessing the need, the case management team joined Rabih in the Friendship Group for Blind Children. In that visit, Rabih and his mother knew about the Braille machine for writing and reading for blinds. They also learned about the activities that are carried out at the center that aim to develop the personality of the blind in a way that allows him to interact with the surrounding society the thing that encouraged him to commit to the friendship group hosted by Beit al Yasmine.

At first, the facilitators noticed that Rabih had a state of hesitation and fear through speaking in a trembling, low voice and rejecting any request directed at him and by walking with a twist as well as confusion and hesitation in the steps. The facilitators began to activate Rabih and rehabilitate him in order to interact confidently by applying games that develop personal skill and give him courage.

After some time, the child was able to interact with the facilitator gradually and began to respond to the requests of the facilitator regarding implementing the activity and then define the directions to him and move in the activity room according to the direction that he was asked to go to, through using music to move in the required direction.
After a month, facilitators implemented a sporty activity to enhance his confidence by walking straight and using the directions quickly in addition to strengthen his courage to step fast through focus points such as ropes or walls of the room.

During the second month, the facilitators began to introduce the child to Braille system for writing and reading. His mother attended the sessions in order to help him with response. With the assistance of the facilitators and his mother's, Rabih managed to memorize the number of each letter in an excellent way, which became clear through his test at each of Braille sessions.

In each session, the facilitators conducted a debate between the beneficiaries so that each one asked his friend about a certain letter and then his friend answered with the number of the letter that asked him. Then he checked for his friend. This gave Rabia an opportunity to develop his character further when he felt superior to his friends.

He also received a course in mental arithmetic using the abacus Within the program of intellectual development by conducting calculations by touching the abacus and knowing the number of beads. He liked the idea a lot because it has a kind of competition with his blind companions. Conducting mental arithmetic at a speed created a kind of zeal with which he was cared for and developed repeatedly until he was able to do the calculation through imagination and without using the abacus.

This led to introduce a state of joy and hope to his life, he rejoices greatly in every calculation, especially when the answer is correct, which gave him a self-confidence and increased his brain capacity after being slow and suffering from being alone with his mother at home, he emerged from the darkness of life to light with his activities and skills that began to develop little by little.

It is noted that Rabih did not miss any session since his first visit to the CC, moreover, he was calling if the bus delayed to take him to the center. He also showed a desire to follow up on teaching and achieving his dream of obtaining a certificate of basic education. As he moved from the stage of hesitation and fear to activity and interaction so that he tells, in every session, a story or read aloud.
Rabih is a child whose circumstances did not allow him to exercise his right of education despite having potential capabilities, but the team of the Syrian Society for Social Development- Beit al- Yasmine- managed to restore hope for a bright future through what he received of advantage and rehabilitation.


Facilitators: Mamdouh Deepw – Ghenwa Alshmali – Nermen Sayouh – Ibrahim Msalam – Fatat Mouhamad.

The holidays - Hama

After the huge efforts and the hard-working of the adolescents during the exams period, and the beginning of the holidays, SSSD team in cooperation with the UNHCR in the House of Family community center / Hama - Masyaf implemented a series of recreational activities within the Friend program in order to organize the children’s’ time and use the time they have to acquire new knowledge and establish friendly relations between the children from different villages and regions.
These activities include visits to the horse farm, getting to know the Arabian horse breeds, visit to the mechanical bakery in Masyaf area, identification of the mechanism and stages of making bread, in addition to a number of entertainment activities like competitions. We closed with the activity that included a number of young people from several villages in the charity hall in Al Bayda.

Mentoring Programme - Fly, fly

The role of the friendship groups for people with special needs is to develop cognitive skills and to increase the children's language. Therefore, the Syrian Society for Social Development team in cooperation with the UN High Commissioner for Refugees carried out a series of activities for the Al-Wafa group for children with special needs through which children were introduced to all types of transportations “land, sea, air “andthe specs of each one. We concluded the series as well as talk about how to protect ourselves from accidents while crossing the streets.

SSSD League - Hama

Al Sadiq program is one of the most important programs that support the youth skills. In addition, since meeting their interests, engaging them in the community center and achieving the UNHCR's approach in promoting social diversity are our priorities, The Syrian Society for Social Development – Nasij balad in partnership with UNHCR held a football tournament in which teams play to quality for the final match.
The league games included group escort sessions after each match in which some of the Al Sadiq values were introduced and dropped on their teams and practicing favorite hobby which is (Football) such as (cooperation) the acceptance of the other opinion and loss.
The final match was an event attended by approximately 125 person of children and residents of the neighborhood to encourage the two teams.
In conclusion, we crowned the first and second teams, awarded the league cup, gold and silver medals, presented a prize for the top scorer of the tournament and the best goalkeeper.

A Youth Skills - Mentoring Programme

Because the evaluation and the follow-up of the impact assessment was one of the most important factors in the success of our work in accompanying and development, SSSD team, in cooperation with the United Nations of High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in Home of the family CC / Masyaf _Hama included the young participants in the SSSD got talent event _ which was held in August on the occasion of World Day of Youth activities_ in the activities of the friend program to develop their talents , enhance their self-confidence and prepare them to be active members of the community and in the community center.
The activities carried out on the walls of the community center and the forming sports teams to be ready to participate in any sport activity or competition that could be implemented within the region in the future.

Mentoring Programme

Mentoring is a formal accompaniment relationship between a child (6-18-year old) and a volunteer, with specific duration and goals. It is conducted mostly on a one-to-one basis but can also be established between a mentor and a group of children. It aims at the growth and flowering of both sides of the relationship, which enables them to better know themselves and their abilities, integrate into community and interact positively with it.

Mentors are volunteers who have received training and are given ongoing guidance to foster positive, guided relationships with children.

The mentor starts to recognize the children’s needs and to work with him accordingly, becoming a role model. The mentor, with the help of the case manager, refers children to other referral pathways, especially PSS, so they can be followed up by psychologists. Case managers are professionals in education, counselling, psychology, etc., who provide training, oversight and referral support to the mentor-child relationship. They also ensure that each child makes progress within a personalized plan. In addition, they advocate to parents, to specialist providers and to authorities on behalf of the child.

Mentoring also provides a powerful influence on personal and/or professional development. On the personal level, mentoring promotes self-confidence, self-acceptance and acceptance of otherness. On the professional level, mentoring enables the beneficiary to integrate into community by creating an atmosphere conducive to the discovery of talents and capabilities and working to develop them.

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