Zahret al-Mada'en Social Center in al-Hajar al-Aswad
Syria, Culture, 5/17/2001

In the context of the humanitarian activities funded by the ( Humanitarian Aid office of the European Commission ( ECHO), the Italian Non- Governmental Organization NGO's MOVIMONDO, in co-operation with the Zahret al-Mada'an Society inaugurated a social center in al-Hajar al-Aswad area in Damascus on May 16th.

In a statement to Arabic news, the head of delegation of the European Commission Marc Pierini focused on two points. The first is that the cooperation between Syrian NGO's Zahret al-Mada'en and the EU's NGO ( MOVIMONDO) has been established and that these sides want to work together with great confidence.

He added that the second point is that this event is not a luxury, rather a social service activity rendered by the families themselves, the volunteers and the neighborhood in supporting the population in need.

In a similar statement to Arabic News the British Ambassador to Syria Henry Hogger said:" Essentially, this contribution is a project of collaboration between many different organizations which is really the reason why we are supporting the project, because we believe a combination of government organizations and NGOs, based on the local community itself in al-Hajar al-Aswad is the most effective way to make a real difference to the lives of people in the community."

He added that the contribution of the British embassy to this project is providing to the cost of training the volunteers who are operating the Community Based Rehabilitation Ð CBR- and as the Head of delegation of the European Commission Mr. Marc Pierini said:" The success of the whole operation depends on the quality of those volunteers and of the training they are given." He expressed hope that this element of the project will be able to make a significant contribution to its overall success. He added:" we are looking forward to continuing to work with the other partners in this venture for the increasing benefits of the people of al-Hajar al-Aswad ."

The opening of the center represents both the inauguration of the social center in al-Hajar al-Aswad realized through and ECHO project carried out between August 2000 and February 2001, and the launch of activities of a new project funded by the British Embassy as a continuation of the previous one.

The first project focused on the disabled communities living in the area of al-Hajar al-Aswad and aimed at reinforcing the local structures supporting the population in need. A center was created to perform social activities in the area, such as literary classes for women and training courses for volunteers, based on the Community- Based Rehabilitation (CBR) approach. Through the project, MOVIMONDO provided rehabilitation works, furniture and equipment to the center; purchased and distributed goods in kind to the beneficiaries ( food, drinkable water, clearing products, medicines ); and organized four specialized training sessions on the CBR approach for the volunteers of the center.

The second project has the purpose of organizing further training sessions based on the CBR approach for the staff and the volunteers of Zahret al-Mada'en in order to complete the previous phase of training, to give more efficiency to the activities of the center and to involve more families.

As for services offered by the Social center, the al-Hajar al-Aswad center, at the meantime, is open to the needy families living in the area. Some 26 community workers trained during the project and other members of Zahret al-Mada'en Society are voluntarily working there, offering the following services: illiteracy classes for women' education sessions for disabled children; activities for disabled children; home visits to the disabled and their families and service of early intervention for disabled children. Furthermore, the establishment of the Social Center in al-Hajar al-Aswad was funded by the European Union through ECHO- the Humanitarian Aid Office of the European Commission. Training sessions about Community Based rehabilitation- CBR- are funded by the British Embassy. The projects are implemented by MOVIMONDO- Italian NGO- in partnership with Zahret al-Mada'en Society under the umbrella of the Syrian ministry of Social affairs and Labor.

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