Syria

 

Hope Revival Organization has been working in Syria since 2014, providing mental health, protection and peacebuilding services for the conflict affected population with the aim of give them tools to build the community resilience. Until December 2021, we address the needs of 284,892 beneficiaries living in Northwest Syria

 

CONTEXT

A peaceful uprising against Syria’s president 11 years ago turned into a full-scale civil war and the most protracted humanitarian crisis ever. The conflict has caused half a million deaths, devastated cities and affected people who have had to cope with loss of their loved ones, forced displacement (both inside and outside their country), and daily traumatic experiences.
Since the conflict began, the country has experienced a continuous and violent deterioration, not only on a material level but also and above all on the level of individual and community mental health and resilience: in fact, the Syrian population has to struggle daily to have their basic human rights guaranteed, such as a dignified life, individual liberty, education, freedom of expression, freedom from arbitrary killings, torture and other practices such as enforced disappearances, inhuman prison conditions, and other serious abuses of their fundamental human rights.

Until now, the UNHCR estimates that more than 5.5 million Syrians are living as refugees in neighbouring countries, and 6.7 million are still internally displaced, of which about 2.5 million are children. Syria is also experiencing one of the worst socio-economic crises since the beginning of the conflict. The COVID-19 pandemic has further aggravated an already critical situation: the Syrian lira has lost three quarters of its value, while the cost of food and other essential items has risen by more than 200 per cent. The combined effect has been a dramatic reduction in purchasing power and rising levels of debt, leaving millions unable to put food on the table and meet their basic needs. Today, more than 13 million Syrians need humanitarian assistance and protection and almost 90% of the population lives in poverty (with less than $2 per day), with the result that an entire population, affected and violated of its human rights, struggles every day to survive.

While the attention of international media is gradually receding and the spotlight is turning away from this catastrophe, leaving one to imagine that the conflict is being resolved, the humanitarian crisis is improving and the wounds of an entire torn country are healing with time, the reality is that time is not healing any wounds but is only slowly dimming the memory of those who have been killed, injured and violated of their basic human rights and of those who are still living in a situation of extreme danger, uncertainty, and vulnerability, both within Syria and in neighbouring countries.