Social Cohesion
Years of war in Syria had torn the social fabric of the country. In response, Bahar had partnered up with a number of INGOs to develop internal capacity and promote understanding and collaboration among diverse IDP and host communities, as well as among diverse host and internally displaced community groups.
During 2022, Bahar's social cohesion programming had focused on four key areas of intervention. The first area of focus consisted ofassisting informal civil society and strengthening their engagement to organize collective action s aiming to advocate for human rights, fundamental freedoms, and social cohesion in their communities. The second main component of this program was supporting community members to peacefully address grievances through strengthening intra- and inter-communal relationships. Another important area of focus was improving access to justice for community members through formal justice institutions. The last component focused on strengthening resilience among youth as a preventive measure in case of potential future external socio-economic and security shocks. This had allowed youth in to effectively contribute to reinforce social cohesion and foster inter-communal relations.
In total, two community projects were completed in each of the four target areas, reaching 8,169 community participants, including:
Afrin: Sharing Cultural Values in Afrin & Together Shaping Future Education;
Azaz: Supporting Strong Women for the Future & A Safe Space for Creative Youth;
Qamishli: Supporting Women and their Role to Contribute to Community Peace Efforts & Together Showing our Diversity; and
Kisreh: Using Sports to Promote Peace and Social Cohesion & Together Getting our Education Culture Back.