– The Harsh Reality

For many kids in Aleppo, schools once filled with laughter and learning have become mere memories, reduced to ruins. Textbooks are worn and torn, and the dream of a better future often feels like a distant fantasy. The impact of war has created profound challenges, but it has also deepened the need for compassion and action.

Your support can rewrite this narrative. As women who often devote our lives to nurturing and caring, we can channel our empathy into meaningful action that transforms lives.

– How Can You Make a Difference?

1. Provide Essential School Supplies: Simple items like pens, notebooks, and backpacks might seem minor, but they are the vital tools that unlock the doors of learning. Picture a child opening a fresh notebook, their imagination ignited and possibilities endless.
2. Fund Teacher Salaries: Teachers are the backbone of any education system. By ensuring that qualified educators are supported, we enhance the quality of education these children receive, fostering a love for learning and a path toward self-sufficiency.
3. Rebuild Schools: Safe and well-equipped schools are crucial for effective learning. By restoring these spaces, we create environments where children can feel secure and inspired to learn.

– Why Education Matters

Empowerment: Education is a powerful catalyst for personal and community growth. It equips individuals to make informed decisions, breaking the cycle of poverty that has gripped families for too long.

Hope: In a landscape overshadowed by despair, education shines as a beacon of hope. It’s a reminder that a better future is achievable.

Peace: Societies built on education tend to be more peaceful and prosperous. By investing in the education of Syrian children, we contribute to a more stable future.

– Join Us in Making a Change

Your involvement can take many forms:

Donate: No amount is too small. Every contribution makes a significant impact. Imagine the joy of giving a child the tools they need to learn and thrive. Our goal is to support 50 students, requiring a total of €22,500 — just €450 per student.

Share: Spread the word! Use your social networks to let others know about this cause. Your voice can inspire action among your friends and family.

Volunteer: If you have the skills and time to spare, consider volunteering with us. Your support can directly impact many lives.

– Our Unique Approach

Our local partners, the Blue Marists, foster personal relationships with the students we sponsor. They track each child’s progress meticulously. Students receive a card detailing their profile and story, allowing us to know them beyond just numbers. Our dedicated volunteers visit families regularly, ensuring that the support provided directly benefits the children.

With the school term ending in December, there’s an urgent need for action. Your support now can ensure that these children continue their education without interruption come January.

Together, let’s light the spark of hope in the hearts of Syrian students. Your compassion can change their lives, one book at a time.

Donate Now and Be a Part of the Change

Together, we can build a brighter future for Syria’s next generation. Let’s stand united for education, hope, and a peaceful tomorrow.

Why did I go? There are many reasons, but mainly because it is time to return to this fantastic city and its resilient people. Because we should not forget that this area is part of the cradle of our civilisation, Aleppo is one of the oldest continuously inhabited cities in the world; it may have been inhabited since the sixth millennium BC. From the first human settlements to the Hittites, Assyrians, Arabs, Mongols, Greeks, Romans, and Ottomans. Christianity flourished in these lands and then cohabitated together with Islam until today.

This last war was one of many because of Syria’s geographical position as mainland access from the west to the Middle Eastern countries. An indispensable pathway from the Silk Road to today’s bloody hunt for energy. A decade of war between Iran and Russia, traditional associates of Syria on one side and Qatar and its many friends on the other, was played on Syrian grounds. If the intention was to ensure a bloody civil war and the country’s destruction, the mission has been accomplished. The war in Ukraine today looks somewhat similar: no winners, only losers.

Aleppines need a distraction and not only from the ruins of war (60% old the UNESCO’s protected old town, home to many, is gone). Ten years of war and the world pandemic have shattered the country, but the insistence on keeping cruel and useless sanctions is the main reason Syria’s economy cannot function today. No one wants the responsibility of a change of regime because it will turn Syria into another Libya/Iraq for generations and generations. Syria is out of the news; too many new dramas are clamouring for attention on the media and social channels.

Everyone I met said that life is too difficult and gets worse daily. Unemployment is vast, an average salary is $35 per month, and one egg costs $1. Electricity runs for 2 hours a day; water sometimes is cut off. Life continues in the city that once had circa 3 million inhabitants and now has 1.2. Cars are very few as petrol, Syrian petrol, is expensive and limited to 25 litres every ten days per family. This includes gas for cooking and heating. The cost of living is spiralling, and even those lucky to have a job live below the poverty line. Prices are lower than in the west but not much lower; a sandwich is $2, or 10,000 Syrian lire

Aleppo hosts many, many no profits and NGOs that help relieve hunger and reconstruct the infrastructures destroyed in ten years of war.  Many sides of the relief brought by these vast agencies are helpful for the reconstruction. However, the need for data sheets results is turning a nation of the finest traders into beggars.

The civil war has divided the country. The most vulnerable, disenfranchised, and poor, mainly living in smaller towns and the countryside, were easy targets for the various factions from inside but especially from outside Syria that wanted support. Not too different from what has happened to the USA and the UK, but with the difference that those Syrian discontented have been trained, paid, drugged, and heavily armed, and sent out to kill, together with foreign mercenaries. Now no one knows what to do with those who have survived. They are confined to the Idlib area, receive much humanitarian help and are under the influence of Turkey. No winners, only losers. Idlib protectorate and other regions of Syria could be cultivated again to provide agricultural products for all the Syrians to ease the crises. Still, the border between Idlib and the rest of the country is as close as possible. No war, no peace.

How many Syrians have left the country? Of the over 21 million Syrians in 2010, half a million have died, and 13 million are displaced within or outside the country. Christians were the 8% and now are the 2% of the population. Syrian men, women and children keep on leaving, drowning in the Mediterranean sea or being unwelcome everywhere because they feel they have no choice: scientists, doctors, entrepreneurs, builders, translators, psychologists, artists, shopkeepers, farmers, and lawyers. How will Syria survive without them?

As usual, children save the day. These lively Syrian children and young adults going through collective and personal traumas are helping their families, playing football, making friends, having hobbies, and if they can, going to school, studying, and learning. What about the future? Education is the key to the future for those affected by years of hardship and trauma. Schools are safe places for reopening the dialogue interrupted by war. The opportunity to study can be a motivation not to emigrate abroad. The danger of indoctrination to the less educated is still very real in society.  Young girls and boys can equally hope for a better future that includes digital literacy and foreign languages.  Only the opportunity to study can bring peace and a brighter future.

Once I crossed back the Lebanese border, reality hit me in full. Syria is destroyed, flattened and left without hope for the future. Lebanese border guards looked well-fed, easygoing and cracked jokes, and Lebanon is not a dream country. Lebanon has its problems but compared to Syria, it looks like Disneyland.

Olimpia Theodoli, Crete For Life President

To send a child to school in Aleppo