Nada’s story of finding hope: a Syria story

More about Tearfund’s Juvenile Justice Project in Syria

Across Syria, around 1,500 children are admitted into juvenile centres every year.

The context these young people are growing up in has been exceptionally challenging for many years.

12 million people in Syria facing food insecurity

When this project started in 2022, it was estimated that 12 million people in Syria did not have enough to eat on an ongoing basis and almost two-thirds of households where at least one person had a job still couldn’t afford to pay for their basic needs.

Since the beginning of the conflict in 2011, only 15 per cent of the country's electricity supply still works and almost half of the population no longer has access to safe, running water. Most sewage is left untreated, with many of the country’s sewage systems no longer functional, and waterborne disease is on the rise.

Of the nearly 6 million Syrian children born since 2011 – both inside the country and as refugees in neighbouring countries – many have only ever known a life affected by conflict and displacement.

Effects of psychological stress

Psychological stress affects a large proportion of the population and is highest among women experiencing domestic violence and women heading up households (which is the case in around a fifth of Syrian families). Children, too, are resorting to suicide at alarming rates.

Unicef reports that: ‘Almost 7.5 million children in Syria will need humanitarian assistance in 2024 because of the worsening economic crisis, mass displacement, and devastated public infrastructure. The country is also still grappling with the aftermath of severe human and material damage from catastrophic earthquakes and aftershocks in February 2023.’

Against this backdrop, Tearfund’s Juvenile Justice project was implemented to improve the basic child wellbeing conditions in three juvenile centres, recognising that all young Syrians – including those who come into conflict with the law – must have their rights respected in accordance with international standards and the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The project’s aims included:

• to ensure children’s basic food needs are met;
• to meet children’s basic hygiene needs through the provision of soap and hygiene kits;
• to help find the children’s families, inform them of their child’s whereabouts and the rights that they are entitled to, and to encourage visits and contact from caregivers and relatives;
• to help the children with social wellbeing by providing things like counselling, case management assistance and vocational training.

With the influx of people from neighbouring Lebanon as the current conflict there has escalated, the situation in Syria is becoming even more challenging. Please join us in prayer for Syria and the Middle East region, and if you would like to give to help enable more work that meets the needs of people there facing dire circumstances, you can do so here.

*Name has been changed to protect identity.