Due to the critical conditions the Syrian nation is going through and to raise awareness about the ramifications of COVID-19 and prevention means, the Syrian Society for Social Development conducted awareness raising sessions and recreational activities targeting children throughout its community and satellite centers in Aleppo City and its suburbs, in cooperation with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
The sessions covered preventive measures to limit the spread of the virus, stressing the importance of maintaining personal hygiene, and the correct way of hand washing on regular basis. The team also distributed awareness raising posters in all the community and satellite centers.

Here are some of the comments captured during the sessions:
1. “Today’s session helped me understand the difference between bacterial infection and viral infection.”
2. “What they told us is simple and familiar; nonetheless, it is very important to practice it on daily basis.”
3. “I loved the session, it made me realize the importance of maintaining my personal hygiene to protect myself.”
4. “We should maintain our health and use tissues when we cough or sneeze.”
5. “All viruses are dangerous, not only COVID-19. It is our responsibility to abide by preventive measures to protect ourselves.”
6. “I will teach my friends and siblings how to protect themselves against COVID-19.”
7. “I should maintain social distancing whenever I see my friends or any other person. Social distancing helps in limiting the spread of the disease.”
8. “Personal hygiene is the protective shield of our health.”
9. “Neglecting personal hygiene may cause a lot of contagious and serious diseases.”
10. “The minute we enter our homes, we should wash our hands, before touching anything.”
11. “I should sterilize my hands whenever I hold the door knob of my classroom or finish writing. I should keep my clothes clean.”
12. “I acquired information about COVID-19, especially ways of transmission and how it spreads. I plan to share the information with my parents once I reach home.”
13. “I learned about ways of infection. I plan to maintain social distancing and carry tissues in my pocket to protect others, if I sneeze.”
14. “From now on, I will regularly wash my hands and maintain my personal hygiene to protect myself and others against viral infection.”

Neglecting personal hygiene is considered one of the most important health problems that children suffer greatly from. Therefore, an awareness session was implemented on the 3rd of March, 2020, in cooperation with UNHCR, with the aim of raising awareness on the importance of caring for and maintaining public hygiene at the current time.

Twenty-two boys and girls attended the session that evolved around the importance of hygiene care, and the best ways to wash their hands and sterilize them, whereby a doctor from the local community volunteered to implement the latter. During the session, explanatory videos and slides_ which included the correct ways to wash hands, the importance of using sterilizers, avoiding uncovered foods, foods that strengthen the immunity, important tips for general hygiene, an educational video on how to care for hygiene, and the importance of visiting a doctor when needed_ were presented. Later on, these children had a practical session where they applied what they had learned from the videos and slides.

Furthermore, the children interacted greatly during the session, and directed several questions to the doctor, who in turn answered them all.

At the end of the session, the doctor was thanked for his considerable efforts, who in turn expressed his gratitude by saying: "Thank you for your constant protection and caring for children. I consider this to be the duty of every member of society, whereby no one should fail to provide his experiences or information in order to protect children from all kinds of danger!"

“Viruses pose a great threat to our lives… Today, nonetheless, we learned how to fight them in order to remain safe and healthy!”. This is what one of the children expressed in an awareness session conducted by the mobile team in the Deir Salman area, Rural Damascus, in cooperation with UNICEF.

The session aimed at raising awareness on the importance of personal hygiene and how to maintain it, keeping in mind the dangers of using other people’s belongings. The children also learned how to properly wash their hands and sanitize all touched objects through a set of tools and interactive games.

Furthermore, about 22 children from the local community participated in the session.

At the end of the activity, the team distributed hand sanitizers, and emphasized to the children the importance of transferring this information to the rest of their peers. They also stressed on the importance of social distancing during the current period.

"Through reading, I got to know many important historical figures - I read fascinating information about the planets and space. The library is extraordinary… I just love the books there!”. With these words, the children of the Bait Al Salam Center in Al Hameh expressed their happiness about the trip we organized to the Dummar Cultural Complex. The trip was carried out in cooperation with UNHCR, whereby 40 boys and girls were taken to a library within the Dummar Cultural Complex, in furtherance of the goals of the “Technology is Made for Us, Not Instead of Us” campaign. The aim of the latter was to help children discover new things, away from smart devices, and focus more on developing their talents and imrpve their social skills through various activities.

Furthermore, the children wandered during the visit throughout the library, and were helped in choosing the books they liked, whereby they had a delightful time while reading. Also, there were many challenging and intelligent games that children participated in solving.

At the end of the trip, a group of children prepared a play based on a novel they all read, and presented it in front of their friends using puppets. Thus, an atmosphere filled with joy and pleasure prevailed.

In response to the force majeure in Al Hasakah Governorate, which of the inhabitants of Ras Al Ain, Al Dirbassiyeh, and Abu Rasin had to flee their homes, the team attached to the Syrian Society for Social Development conducted an activity for children, covering dances and puppet theatre.

As the title of the activity suggests "I am Clean and will Remain Clean till the End of the Day", the team worked on raising the awareness level of kids toward personal hygiene and keeping places clean.

Nothing is more refreshing than reading the kids' comments:
"Since I came in here, I have been longing for so many things. You revived my memory today."
"I was so happy today, the clown's performance made my day."

In response to the force majeure in Al Hasakah Governorate, which of the inhabitants of Ras Al Ain, Al Dirbassiyeh, and Abu Rasin had to flee their homes, the team attached to the Syrian Society for Social Development conducted an activity for women titled "I am Clean and will Remain Clean till the End of the Day". The activity aimed at raising the awareness level of the women about personal hygiene and keeping places clean through encouraging discussions and forming work groups to come up with proposals and solutions.

One woman said, "This session was what we really needed, especially that there are some people who neglect cleanliness. Today everyone knows how important it is to pay attention to cleanliness to protect ourselves and our children from catching diseases."

When a child is forced to secure one’s future, they abandon school, toys and dreams, and start growing up too early, thus losing the spring and innocence of one’s childhood under the mental and physical pressure of hard work.

This is how child labor deprives children from the purest stage of their lives, turning them into children with men’s responsibilities, so they can secure their daily bread.

In order to protect our children from the risks of child labor, the team of Syrian Society for Social Development in Homs conducted a series of awareness-raising sessions on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labor, targeting women and adolescents from both genders, aged 13-18.

These sessions aimed to introduce children and their parents to the World Day Against Child Labor, as well as identify the forms of labor, its causes and negative consequences, in addition to highlighting child labor laws, namely the differences between child labor, which applies to children under the age of 15, and child work, which applies to children aged 15-18, and raise awareness about the risks of both child labor and work labor to both age groups.

The series concluded with an event implemented under the title Too Young to Work on the occasion of World Day Against Child Labor, which consisted of many parts.

Starting with a video report about child labor, the event featured a drama sketch demonstrating the risks of this phenomenon, followed by a slide show of child labor legislation. A video shed light on the services provided to beneficiaries aged 15-18 through coordination between the Mentoring and Vocational Training programs—the whole being concluded by a singing performance accompanied by oud.

“You opened my eyes to many issues,” said a mother by the end of the event, “issues that could take my son away from me.” An adolescent boy commented, “I will definitely work to help my family and earn my daily expenses, but all this will be within the restrictions I’m now aware of.”