It's been a real roller coaster ride on
this most recent trip to the Syrian border but I'm very happy with what's been
happening with EDA's work up in the town and with the increasing competence and
enthusiasm of our Syrian team managing our training centre and women's workshop
as well as trying to address the many general humanitarian issues which arise
constantly.
This time of course, I've been armed with
extra funds thanks to the results of the brilliant Crouch End Auction and some
of my time has been spent researching the possibility of a second Training
Centre/workshop site in a different area of the town, allowing access to
training facilities for those unable to get to our main centre. We are working
with the Municipality to see if there's a suitable building at an affordable
price - our present building is rented through a member of the Municipality -
however this takes time and so we have another solution for at least the next 4
months. The schools have just finished until September and we have an empty
school building that has plenty of space in a remote area situated amongst many
camps.
The camp community have already been
clamouring for the sort of courses they hear about from our main Centre - news
spreads fast here. The camp women from around this school building are
particularly are excited about the possibility of being able to train on the
first aid course (access to emergency health care is very limited) and this
course is in high demand. The idea also of receiving Health Awareness
information - i.e. breast cancer checking information and other female diseases
associated with inevitable poor hygiene and lack of privacy, is also very much
wanted and needed. We have doctors to run these courses and kits that we can provide
to help with the training and follow up work in the camps - it all costs money
but we have it!!
We will also try to run some of the most
popular and successful training such as electrical and mobile phone repairs.
Each successful trainee receives their EDA tool kit at the end of the course
and we now have a fairly firm estimate of around 60% follow up employment rate
within the informal work sector - I went to some of the camps to see our
trainees working on repairs to all sorts of equipment using their tool kits.
The kits are quite expensive for us but well worth the uplifting outcomes that
we see. Every young man finding income and casual employment is another
individual removed from the temptation of joining militants.
In the school building we will also offer
sewing/textile activities - we have enough machines to bring across from the
main centre and more coming out on the next container.
Most of the camps now have an Activity Tent
within their compound as the need for escaping their claustrophobic living area
is now more recognised by local NGO's. EDA plans to set up a number of mini
sewing centres by placing 3 machines in each Activity Tent and setting up one
of the successful sewing trainees to pass on instruction to the camp women - a
sort of dispersal of skills. We will pay a small salary to the newly qualified
instructor. We have the machines in Edinburgh - a tireless team of volunteers
who check them before shipment so we can do it! All this new activity is only now
possible with the money coming from the Auction last month.
I had to monitor and address a number of
other issues - check on our new schools and the 'catch up' programme we hope to
run through the summer for some of the many hundreds of children who still have
no access to education - Maths, English and Arabic core classes so they might
have a chance of entering some informal education in September. We just need to
build more schools but we can't do everything!
Finally, my time ended rather abruptly in
the town. Late on the last evening there was an attempt to kidnap/rob me by a
gang from the camps, origin unknown, but my brave team and also local people
came to the rescue and sent an armed team to guard me all night - the army
advised them to keep me in a house through the night and then get me out fast
the next morning.
Everything was fine and we have assurance
that this in no way affects our work or my return in July. The incident wasn't
publicised and so it's consigned to history. I just couldn't finish my final
jobs but I guess they'll have to wait till next time!
Women's First Aid and one of the Electrical training courses running
Presentation of mobile phone repair tool kits to successful trainees.
Inspection of school building to be used for more training.
