“People who are homeless are not socially inadequate. They are people without homes.”
-Sheila McKechnie. [1]
means individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. This phenomenon is considered one of the most dangerous phenomena that trouble societies around the world because of its repercussions on the society in general and on the homeless people in particular, as going to the streets and their turmoil, as opposed to a home and its stability, is often by coercion rather than by choice for those who are exhausted by life’s difficulties that turned these streets into their permanent home. [2]
The last time a global survey was attempted – by the United Nations in 2005 – an estimated 100 million people were homeless worldwide, and nearly 1.6 billion people lacked adequate housing. [3]
Over years of the Syrian war, this phenomenon has spread, shedding its consequences on the society, starting with the children who lost their sense of safety and took refuge in the streets and parks to work and sleep, exposing themselves to many risks such as exploitation, violence, and deprivation of education.
This phenomenon isn’t limited to minors only, it also affected adults who are unable to find jobs under these difficult economic conditions, the thing that increased beggary and social problems rates.
All of which presents us with a great challenge and a societal responsibility that requires each of us to do our part, so that we can mitigate the effects of homelessness as much as possible.
Before talking about our role as individuals, we will highlight the social activities that are contributing in some ways to dealing with this phenomenon to minimize its risks to both the individual and the society. Today, there are many local associations concerned with holding vocational courses for women and men from the marginalized and vulnerable groups, with the aim of empowering and helping them find a job that will bring them stability.
Some charities are also working to provide social support to citizens and families in need, harmonize the skills and expertise of the individuals with the labor market, and combat beggary, child labor, and exploitation of women.
In addition, awareness-raising campaigns, launched under individual or community initiatives, play a very important role in spreading awareness about the phenomenon of homelessness, such as the “You can help” campaign that took place in April 2019 in Damascus and its countryside, which aimed at educating the community on how to deal with homeless children and beggars. [4]
Despite it all, a lot more is still to be done, as we may hear a lot about our role in the problem of homelessness, for instance, “There’s nothing we can do”, and we may disagree or agree partially with these opinions; however, looking back to our role as individuals; there are many facts that force us to reconsider this issue, firstly, the inferiority towards homeless people, as some may think of homeless people as lesser ones, or the cause of social problems.
We need to remind ourselves here that these people were compelled and didn’t choose themselves to lead such a life. So, if we change our personal view of them, we may be able to help in one way or another.
Moving to our “social environment”, a few words here and there to change this perspective during our daily talks and activities, can be of great impact on altering the society’s view, as a whole, of the homeless, and thus, forming societal protection that would reflect on the ideas and measures followed to deal with this phenomenon, as well as creating new ones.
Our belief in the potential and uniqueness of each individual in the society and the importance of their role under the appropriate conditions, and changing the prevailing view, all together, put us on the right track to handling the phenomenon of homelessness, thereby starting the next stages of community campaigns and attempts to link the concerned institutions and associations with the homeless.
Based upon the ultimate goal of our initiative; building sustainable peace in Syria, we wanted to spot a light on this problem, as peacebuilding can only take place by taking all the groups of our society into consideration and uplifting them.
♀️ Uplifting Syrian Women Initiative aims at sustainable peace building in Syria through targeting women and providing them with free online courses, workshops, discussion sessions and trainings, with a view to achieving the goals of Gender Equality, Quality Education and Decent Work and Economic Growth, which all fall into the interest of society as a whole and serve the purpose of rebuilding it.