In the harvest of the second year of the Uplifting Syrian Women initiative, and with our services reaching over 1000 beneficiaries, we pause for a moment to be proud of our distinctive steps and their impact on us. We see them as building blocks that pave our way toward achieving our goals. What makes this brief report important is to appreciate the efforts of our volunteers, whose number has reached more than one hundred volunteers, who have worked and continue to work for the greater good.
Over the course of twelve months, the initiative offered more than fifty training sessions. These sessions aimed to provide participants with information that could be basic, intermediate, or even advanced in the field covered by the course. The courses covered various fields and served actual needs in our society. The training topics varied from programming to foreign language courses, engineering software, design programs, scholarships, and language exams (such as IELTS). In addition to modern areas such as artificial intelligence or podcasting.
Training does not end when it is delivered. After these training sessions, we strive to gather feedback from participants to evaluate the service as a whole. The feedback has always been positive, emphasizing the amount of benefit achieved through the sessions. This encourages us to continue our efforts.
The initiative also offered various workshops, reaching a total of approximately 20 workshops. Workshops were considered a convenient and concise way to obtain practical information in fields such as data collection, freelancing, email writing, resume writing, and more.
At the beginning of last year, we launched our own website for the initiative to document our achievements and facilitate access to our services and articles for our target audience. With gentle efforts driven by a great force – the power of collaboration – we published nearly 100 articles over the past year, which were the result of the efforts of our teams of content writers, translators, and designers. These articles covered many aspects, including social issues, and mental health issues, and we celebrated international days through our words to remind you of them or introduce you to them, as well as including sustainable development goals.
We also do not forget that the Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative supports in every way it can, so we shared success stories of more than ten young women who have truly blossomed wherever they were, to assure our support for them and spread the energy of change and positive impact among individuals.
On another note, our initiative launched three campaigns in the past year. The first one was “We Choose Peace,” which is the main campaign of the initiative, as it seeks to achieve sustainable peace in Syria by supporting women. The campaign included a competition and the winner’s work was published along with a brief description of it on the initiative’s page.
The second campaign was a reminder and promotion of awareness during “Pink October” to encourage new healthy habits as part of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. The last one was “Elimination of Violence Against Women” to coincide with the 16 days of activism to support and advocate for women.
In the belief of the Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative in partnerships and collaborations, our initiative participated with the Sanad Development Team in a campaign about the importance of self-learning in the provinces of Damascus and Aleppo. In addition, we attended the Global Share conference and supported the initiative in sharing the stories of individuals and groups who believe in them, their cards, and their goals.
Believing in the sanctity of cooperation and the importance of what it produces, and that each of us has a unique touch that can be offered with a different impact, the Uplifting Syrian Women initiative has established many collaborations with active entities in the field of education to deliver real and beneficial value to beneficiaries, including:
These collaborations have helped the initiative to move forward in achieving its sustainable development goals, which it believes in and is working hard to achieve.
Finally, we are proud to announce that the tremendous effort made behind the scenes has been recognized and honored by receiving the “Most Impactful Initiative Award of the MENA Region.” This award is a recognition of the initiative’s contribution to promoting diversity and achieving gender equality in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. The judging committee evaluated the project’s impact, scalability, and reproducibility, as well as the authenticity and clarity of the project presentation. This award is the result of a true belief in the ability to continue and achieve the impossible, and to lift up Syrian women and society after years of bitter war.
None of these achievements and this reach would have been possible without the cooperation of initiative members and their deep and genuine belief in its goals. We can only thank you all, our dear audience, and thank each member of the initiative individually.
We have provided a quick summary of what we have accomplished during the past year and promise to strive with all our efforts to achieve more this year.