As part of the national preventive measures against COVID-19 and out of the importance of protecting people with special needs and the staff offering them support, the Syrian Society for Social Development (SSSD) conducted disinfection works for the center attached to Yadanbiyad NGO for People with Special Needs in Aleppo City.

The disinfection works covered the playing rooms, the facilities, the backyards, the warehouses, the workshop rooms, the offices, and the transportation means attached to the center.

The management of Yadanbiyad NGO expressed their gratitude for SSSD’s initiative and shed light on importance of repeating disinfection works on regular basis.

The Syrian Society for Social Development conducted disinfection campaigns for two NGOs, the Female Juvenile Protection Association and the Beggars and Homeless Care Association. The teams responsible for Mosaic Community Center (Achrafieh) and Aman Center (Zibdiyye) led the campaign targeting around 40 residents.

The team disinfected all the departments and rooms of the two NGOs, pasted posters, distributed awareness raising brochures and hygiene baskets containing different types of disinfectants.

The team conducted individual awareness raising sessions about preventive measures, how the virus spreads, and the correct way of washing hands.

The beneficiaries expressed their gratitude for the campaign:
“We are appreciative of your efforts, you made us feel safe. We hope this pandemic will end soon.”
“I will always wash and disinfect my hands. This will protect my health and my family’s.”

Drawing on the saying, prevention is better than cure, and in response to the national preventive measures against the spread of COVID-19, the Syrian Society for Social Development conducted a disinfection and awareness raising campaign for two days in Bab Al-Hadid, Aleppo.

The Gender-Based Violence team attached to Arabesque Community Center led the campaign in cooperation with Al Mukhtar and a committee formed by the inhabitants, disinfecting places of social gatherings, including Qadi Askar Neighborhood, Al Zura Bakery Oven, Al Mukhtar office and adjacent commercial shops, Aghur and Bayyadah blocks, Almaji Neighborhood, and the Syrian Trade Corporation Hall in Jeb Quba.

Further, some women attached to SSSD’s women committees reached out to 27 individuals distributing soaps and awareness raising brochures about prevention and protection measures against COVID-19.

Here are some comments made by the inhabitants:
• “We really appreciate your concern about our safety and protection. We feel more responsible, after the disinfection works you conducted.”
• “I used to hear that COVID-19 is a pandemic; however, I did not know the ramifications of social gatherings. We should all spread awareness to protect the largest possible number of people.”
• “Even though this force majeure had its toll on every one, it did not stop you from being kind. The soap you distributed came right on time to protect us against this deadly virus.”

In response to limiting the spread of Coronavirus (Covid-19) protectingeverybody, ensuring their safety and countering this virus, the Syrian Society for Social Development distributed health kits to groups of women and Old-But-Gold "Dahab Ateq" in Sada community center (Aqrab) and Qamana center (northern Hama countryside) Within the gender-based violence program.

Aimedstrengthening preventive measures and spreading health awareness among women, the kits included sterilization and personal hygiene materials and educational brochures on how to use sterile materials to counter the threat of the virus.

sterilized the centers and trained the volunteers to take the necessary measures during the distribution process to preserve their safety and the beneficiaries as well. As the volunteers conducted a temperature measure for themselves, and avoided gatherings out of our concern for their safety, the distribution was in the Qamhana Center in the presence of the Director of Social Affairs and Labor in Hama Governorate.

Some of the beneficiaries shared us by saying:
"The health kit was on time, because it is difficult to secure it as some materials are not available."
"Antiseptics and sterilizers are essential in every home, and they will protect us."
"We were alerted to not underestimating the rise in our body temperature, and it is necessary to periodically check on our health."

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.”

In response to people’s massive return to Khan Sheikhoun, rural Idlib, and in order to quickly assess the needs and identify risks to returnee families, the team of the Syrian Society for Social Development visited the town, collected data and assessed the needs.

The SSSD team also carried out some recreational activities for the children there and distributed toys and presents.

Then, making a careful inspection of the town, they determined the damaged infrastructure that need restoration/rehabilitation (schools, power and water infrastructure, sewerage network, public clinics), so these can constitute protection factors for the returning families.