Project establishment, construction and management of first aid centers in the region of Idlib, Aleppo and Hazzano
Beneficiaries: People of Idlib, Aleppo and Hazzano
Cities / Regions involved: Regions of Idlib, Aleppo and Hazzano
Period: 2013 - 2015
Sources of funding: Maram Foundation, Donations
Total cost: more than 28.500 euros
Project Status: close
After careful assessment of the civilians situation we focused our activities on the creation of first aid facilities in areas affected by heavy bombing and refugee flows. The activities were carried out with a careful study of the area and its precariousness. Through the cooperation with Maram Foundation and the support of the local population we were activated 4 medical centers.
The medical supplies was sent with health convoys departed from Trieste and recovered material disposed of the Italian health care companies. The point of first aid also works as a pharmacy with medicines that are donated by pharmaceutical companies. The distribution center of Reyhanli is responsible for supplying the first aid center of Hazzano according to their needs, it reports the problem to @uxilia in Italy to which we are face with the sending of humanitarian convoys.
PHOTOGALLERY
Bustan El Kuser Aleppo
Clinic in Ma'arrat Chelf
First aid center of Al-Quarassi
Hospital in Abu Al-Dhuhour
Supply of materials and medicines to the first aid center in Aleppo
Supply of medical centers
Central storage and distribution of goods in Reyhanli
Supply of medicines and health centers to hospital Red Crescent Societies (Sarmeen)
      
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VIDEOGALLERY
The inhabitants of Altareb thank all the volunteers with a video
Support to Sarah
Beneficiaries: Sarah
Cities / Regions involved: Syria - Lombardia
Period: December 2013
Sources of funding: Regione Lombardia, Private donations
Total cost: 35.000 euros
Project Status: concluded
Sarah is a 14-month baby suffering of heart problems (tetralogy of Fallot with two faults in combination: a large ventricular septal defect associated with severe pulmonary stenosis that caused cyanosis incompatible with life). She was brought to the attention of @ uxilia by Steve Sosebee, CEO of PCRF. Sarah is a Syrian national unable to obtain a passport because displaced with her parents in Jordan due to the war. Sarah has only one registration document issued by UNHCR, which does not allow her to travel abroad. Thanks to the diplomatic work done by @uxilia and thanks to the subsequent intervention of Queen Rania of Jordan, Sarah could leave Jordan with a foreign travel document in order to get a surgery in the Hospital of Bergamo. The surgery was performed by Dr. Giancarlo Crupi, a friend and associate of the @uxilia . The surgery was successful and Sarah could go back to Jordan in December 2013.
PHOTOGALLERY
Project Schooling of Children of Atma
Beneficiaries: Children of Atma
Cities / Regions involved: Atma
Period: august 2013 - october 2013
Sources of funding: Maram Foundation
Total cost: more than 5.500 euros
Project Status: ongoing
In the refugee camp of Atma live about 12.000 children from the region of Idlib and Aleppo. The camp is located on Syrian territory 20 km from Bab al Hawa and it has been extended spontaneously. There are no international associations, there was no school. With the intervention of psychologists we have assessed the situation of children and their hardships. The psychological trauma are reflected in fear of interacting with peers, fear of the dark, violent games or imitating adults (stage funerals, build weapons and war games, etc.). We have provided for a census of school-age children and it was decided to equip the refugee camp of a school building in order to distract them from the situation and engage them in the study. We have built a school for 500 children in collaboration with Maram Foundation, local teachers were found staying in the camp and we transform them by passive persons in active persons. We have also distributed 5.000 pairs of shoes to children of Atma who walked barefoot.
PHOTOGALLERY
    
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To stop the sense of abandonment of syrian children we have developed an initiative with the involvement of Italian children. We have set up an correspondance between the children of the camp and the children of the Italian schools. To ecourage the intercultural exchange, the letters are translated into Arabic by the children of the Islamic Center of Trieste. The "postman @ uxilia" leaves with any humanitarian convoy.
PHOTOGALLERY
All the necessary materials for a year of study was sent with a humanitarian convoy in the camp of Atma. For children who did not want to participate in school activities we have prepared a parallel program that still allows an approach to the school. One of the difficulties we faced was related to textbooks. We were recovered textbooks in accordance with the Syrian educational program and we had reprinted them in Turkey in order to provide education in conformity. In addition to the educational materials we sent numerous toys and prizes for the most deserving children.
PHOTOGALLERY
       
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Dawn in Syria: professional training, mediation and reconciliation
Beneficiaries: Refugees community in Atma Camp, children victims of war in Siria, local comunity in syrian territory, local comunity in turkish territory
Cities / Regions involved: Syria
Period: January 2015 - ongoing
Source of funding: Region Friuli Venezia Giulia
Total cost: 40.000 euros
Project status: ongoing
Due to the tragic and continuous battles in the north-west of Syria, thousands of families moved to the Atma area, which is close to the Turkish crossing border at Bab Al-Hawa. Atma represents the biggest refugee camp of the area and by now it hosts about 15.000 people, that’s also why many Syrians preferred to go to Turkey, in several towns, like Gaziantep and Reyhanli. The situation of refugee women is very delicate. Most of them are widows with dependent children and need a psycho-social support for war traumas and also a specific professional training and literacy courses in order to become independent in their livelihoods and in that of their families in their new living environment. The information about the origins of these people are very few. Hardships and violence suffered by children in Syria, a part from death, are: evacuations, abuses, lack of education and of spaces for playing, malnutrition and disease. All of this contributes to the worsening of depression and post traumatic disorders (PTSD stress) in the youngest. Of the 9 million Syrians displaced persons and refugees 3 million are children (NPR October 2013). Since the beginning of the conflict, mora than 4000 schools have been transformed in shelters and warehouses for storage of humanitarian aid. According to UNICEF, 2.8 million children abandoned school (UNICEF: Infographic: Syrian Children Under Siege, March 2014). Some neighbouring countries, such as Turkey, created classes that welcome also children fleeing from the conflict and now living there. The difficulties raised by teachers and administrations are deep, cause mostly by the classes overcrowding (more than 40 children for each class) and by the behavioural disorders in those children coming from war experiences. 3 out of 4 children who have reached Turkey, lost at least one parent. More than 8.000 children fled in other countries by themselves. Their experience makes them exponentially more at risk of becoming part of criminal organizations
Or of expressing their traumas with violent and conflicting attitudes. That’s why it is so important to promptly intervene for the treatment of PTSD, by training a competent staff, able to relate to the victims of a complex problem, rose in a context connected to extraordinary events. Nowadays, the main helps coming from ONG and other bodies are essentially emergency response activities, based of primal needs, but with an almost total lack of activities aiming to children’s psychological recovery, which is essential if we don’t want an entire generation to be completely exposed to further risks of delinquency and marginalization. Furthermore, precarious social conditions and the psychological fragility caused by the war make the civilians
victims of manipulation and blackmail. In a war context, characterized by the presence of opposing factions and deeply divergent interests, but also in the shelters and refugee camps, it is of crucial importance to have some figures as mediators and facilitators who have diplomatic skills and can manage complex situations, from daily context up to the highest levels of social and politic relationships. Who negotiates must
know not only the cultures of related parties but also laws and social rules. Also in this case, the project developed a training activity which could provide the basic tools for relations and conflicts management, keeping in mind that in a community such as the Syrian one in Turkey, one must know and remember the costumes both of the place of origin and the place of arrival of people, the Turkish law, the Syrian one, Islamic law regulations and the mandatory international standards. So it is clear how important it is to train people, in these communities, who can operate in the field of mediation, both by targeted courses and RPGs, people who will be able to became crucial representatives and core figures in the peace and reconstruction process.
ACTIVITIES AND DIRECT AND INDIRECT BENEFICIARIES
Aurora in Syria project developed some training courses focusing on the Syrian refugees community in Atma Camp (Syria) and in Gaziantep and Reyhanli (south-western Turkey, close to the Syrian border). The activities took place in Al Bayti orphanage in Reyhanli, run by Maram Foundation and hosting about 60 children (orphans or fatherless) and represents a meeting place for the mothers of the kids and other woman, mostly widows. Different courses have been realized, both for trainers and directly for women.
ACTIVITIES AND RESULTS
PHOTOGALLERY
Dispatching of humanitarian convoys to the Atma camp
Beneficiaries: Children of Atma - People of Idlib and Aleppo
Cities / Region involved: Atma, Idlib, Aleppo
Period: April 2013 - ongoing
Sources of funding: Private donations
Project Status: on going
Sebastiano Nino Fezza and @uxilia launched an initiative to support Atma children. Atma was a field of olive trees where people escaping from Idlib had found shelter. Today 14.000 refugees are living there, 3.600 are children and among them 900 newborns. There’s no presence of international associations, everything is based on volunteering and on spontaneous and uneven donations.
Tents too come from donations, there’s not a real mobile kitchen but just a small tent where only one warm meal per day can be provided. There’s no hospital, but only an infirmary in a tent. There’s no electricity nor running water, so that each family must fill their own tank from the tank trucks which are brought there. There are 4 toilet facilities to serve the whole camp. Children suffer because of the inadequate hygienic conditions: cases of scabies, lice and intestinal infections have been reported.
Atma stands in the inner part of Syria: it should have been a “transit camp”, but it has actually grown bigger and it keeps growing. At first, the refugees’ journey stopped in this camp just until someone found them another place to stay, beyond the border. Nowadays, also considering the huge number of refugees, there’s an attempt to keep their entries and their following.
OUR HUMANITARIAN CONVOYS
Micro-entrepreneurship project “Love Scarves”
Beneficiaries: Refugee Camp of Atma.
Cities / Regions involved: Atma
Period: October2013 - ongoing
Sources of funding: Entrepreneurs Italian textile field, Private donations
Total cost for 2013: more than 13.500 euros
Project Status: ongoing
It’s a micro-entrepreneurship project, developed with the help of Italian entrepreneurs who belong to the textile field. Its aim is to help women to develop a small activity in order to give them the chance to perceive an earning. We provided the Female Centre in Atma with about 100 Kilos of wool, and we devised a scarf model that can be manufactured by women themselves using a special stitch called the Love Knot. We decided to use this particular stitch to represent the link which can connect Italian women to the Syrian ones.
When we visited the refugee camp in Atma, we had the chance to meet the women attending the Female Centre. Thanks to our humanitarian convoy, we could also bring them wool and other yarns as a donation from Domenico Basile to increase small businesses within the camp. Increasing small businesses is an idea we are developing together with Maram Foundation, willing to make the refugee camp financially independent. This way, what’s now a passive camp can turn itself into an active community that works, and not only lives on the aid coming from abroad. With this new initiative we are mainly addressing women and those small female activities which can be carried out at home, in a tent. Activities that can help employing one’s own time, make the winter pass, and can also be useful to sustain one’s own children. A small stitching work that we will do together with them, a crocheted scarf that we will name “The Love Scarf”. Everyone will use the same stitch, called “the love knot”, which has been chosen as a symbol to represent the endless wire of love and hope connecting us all. Both the works manufactured in Italy and those produced in Atma will be then sold in local and Christmas markets, the proceeds will be used to provide aid and assistance to Syrian children, women and men. The activity, started in the Atma refugee camp, has now also developed in the cities of Homs, Daraa and Aleppo. Italian women too are manufacturing “The Love Scarves”, this way giving help to Syrian women.
VIDEO
PHOTOGALLERY
Situation in the Country
Area: 185 180 sq km
Population: 20,410,606
Ethnic groups: Arab 89.3%, Kurdish 9%, Armenian 1.7%.
Religion: Sunni Muslim 74%, other Muslims 13%, Christian 10%.
Mortality rate: 3.67 deaths in 1000.
Life expectancy: 74.92 years (72.53 Males, females 77.45).
GDP per capital: $ 3,289.06.
Population poverty: more than 50%.
Syria has lived for two years in a state of civil war that affects all areas of the country. The armed conflict is between opposing government forces loyal to President Bashar al-Assad and many armed groups.
The conflict began with a simple demonstration of March 15, 2011, which has resulted in arrests and expanded on a national basis. The protests calling for the establishment of a democratic regime have transformed into continuous and bloody clashes. The conflict has switched from a small arms conflict to one that has seen the use of more and more heavy artillery and now has grown to the stage of a general civil war. Today there are approximately 120,000 deaths of which half are children. One of the tragedies of this war is the large number of refugees. Some of these have reached neighboring countries like Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey. The number of refugees registered by UNHCR reached 2,000,000 people, most of them women and children. The refugees live in makeshift shelters found along the way, sometimes the stables of animals or makeshift camps. The organized camps that receive the support of international associations are outside the country.
The intervention of Auxilia in Syria comes from the need to help the victims of a conflict that has lasted for more than two years. The initiative was created to bring aid to the refugee children in the region of Idlib. The area in which it was decided to intervene is the border between Turkey and Syria, Syrian territory in this region is not reached by the aid of the international associations. After careful evaluation of the situation on the ground with the presence of our staff we have highlighted the most obvious criteria related to the displacement of large groups of people by the conflict. The sudden abandonment of their homes, removal of their habits, work and general lives in addition to the physical discomfort has caused great psychological distress. The greatest suffering was found in children with deep psychological trauma. The intervention of Auxilia is aimed to restore some stability to the population of the area of Idlib and Atma. Offering services to women and children who were in their countries prior to the armed conflict and this has happened by bringing basic necessities, creating an educational environment in the schools that can engage children, trying to reinstate teachers who before the war worked in the field and bringing them back to teach in the school, providing a medical point of reference in case of need without making long trips and giving women the opportunity to economically provide for their families doing activities of micro entrepreneurship. The intervention has restored security to the population of the area while also reducing the sense of abandonment given by the continuity and timing of displacement.
After the start of the conflict Auxilia monitored day-to-day evolution of the situation in the Syrian conflict. The attention has been focused on the situation of civilians and children in particular. Thanks to our contacts within the country, we followed the movement of the population towards the Jordanian border into Iraq and into Turkey. We have identified in the border crossing area of Bab Al Hawa a particularly difficult situation with many spontaneous camps that were born outdoors. With the closure of the border Turkish transit camps have become permanent camps. The area of Atma in Syrian territory had met the first refugees who lived under the olive trees, outdoors, without means. The aid we had sent come through the Syrian Mezzaluna Rossa and later by humanitarian organizations working in the country, Watan, IHH and finally Maram Foundation. The field presented has significant problems: lack of water, lack of adequate sanitation, lack of food, lack of tents, and lack of international organizations. In the six months in which we have followed the evolution of Atma its population has grown from 4,000 to 25,000 people. The situation was hastened by the arrival of winter when it is passed through a phase of monitoring the preparation and organization of humanitarian intervention and the targeted delivery of humanitarian convoys.
PHOTOGALLERY
        
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