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"Since the siege began [in 2013] I’ve been asking myself, why am I here? Trying to find some meaning. One day I realised, I am here because my daughters and my husband need me, my siblings treat me like their mother because we have lost ours. So the reason I am surviving is my family."

A State Of Emergency

Imagine being imprisoned in your own home as bombs rain down day after day, destroying your community and killing your family and friends. That's the horrific reality faced by those in besieged Eastern Ghouta. 

The situation is critical. The conflict in the area is reminiscent of Aleppo last November – but unlike Aleppo, there is very little coverage in the West of these shocking circumstances. The military campaign has intensified since November as armed groups fight to gain control of the area. Civilians trapped here are now experiencing the area's worst-ever shelling, with vicious new cluster bombs making it too dangerous to leave their homes. 

The conflict is so extreme that aid can't yet get through. But technology can reach where people cannot tread, and our psychosocial support offers hope to those with nowhere else to turn.
 

Psychosocial Support: A Vital Resource

For most of us, the terror of living in a war zone is inconceivable. But we've all experienced times when we've needed emotional support - or have helped our friends and family through tough times. 

INSAN has already begun a programme to provide this critical psychological care for the civilians in Eastern Ghouta. It's a vital resource, helping people to stay resilient as their lives are in constant danger, and to support their communities. For many, it's their only hope.

As the unrelenting conflict reaches emergency levels, we are seeking urgent funding to continue to provide this essential lifeline.
 

How We Can Help

In July 2017, 54 CanDoers assisted our project to deliver a 12-step training programme to 14 female school teachers in Eastern Ghouta. The programme provided them with strategies to endure living in a war zone. They became the INSAN psychosocial field team, learning how to support themselves and others in these horrific circumstances.

INSAN's expert team are now in almost constant contact with these 14 women via WhatsApp, especially while they are sheltering during the bombing. We provide intensive psychosocial care and techniques that help them deal with their fear and distress.
The message exchanges provide reassurance and encouragement, allowing them to emotionally offload and stay strong. The WhatsApp group chat has become a virtual safe-haven for the women. The programme has transformed their lives and those of their communities, giving them the tools to keep going until the day that aid can reach them.
 

"I am more accepting of painful situations and my surrounding as I am thinking more positively now. I am now more capable of responding to others, understanding them more, supporting and helping them”. Abeer

Stepping Up Our Support

As conditions become increasingly dangerous, the women need this lifeline more urgently than ever. They also need access to assistance that can be provided even when we are offline or if the internet is down. We have been working on a prototype self-help mobile app, which will provide the basic techniques of psychosocial support.

The app – which will be a small file and one-time download – will also provide advice and guidance, plus access to the content of the 12-step programme. We will include an optional feature to communicate directly with a psychologist, who can give individual counselling when needed.

The successfully funded campaign will provide:

• Continued psychosocial support to our 14 women field team via a WhatsApp group facilitated by INSAN psychologists
• Psychosocial support to our 14 women’s personal network via WhatsApp facilitated by INSAN psychologists, supported by the field team
• A self-help mobile app to provide basic psychosocial techniques, advice and guidance.

This work is a critical lifeline for the people of Eastern Ghouta. Please support and contribute whatever you can to our campaign.

Lifeline partnership

We are delighted to announce that this campaign has been part-funded by the Syrian Refugee Relief Fund.

“When we learnt about CanDo and its partner Insan’s work, we knew immediately we wanted to help this important psychosocial project with the women of East Ghouta” said Brian Cross, trustee.

“Being a small, responsive organisation we were able to provide the necessary funds to complete the app development. We look forward to hearing about the considerable benefits it will bring, we’re sure this is precisely what our generous donors would want to hear about.”

About the Syrian Refugee Relief Fund

The Syrian Refugee Relief Fund is a small charity co-founded by Will Wintercross, a Daily Telegraph journalist who has covered the Syrian war. Will saw first-hand the death, destruction and displacement of the Syrian people and was deeply moved by his experience. On returning home to the UK he was determined to give something back on a humanitarian level. The Syrian Refugee Relief Fund has been partnered with Syria Relief, another UK registered charity that works on the ground, for the past 3 years. They have been financially supporting Syria Relief’s Orphans Programme and their Prosthetic Limbs clinics.

Did you know?

By donating

£ 15 it would cover psychosocial support for 1 woman for 1 month
£ 50 it would cover psychosocial support for 1 woman for 3 months
£ 100 it would cover the app for 15 people* 
£ 150 it would cover the app for 20 people*
£ 200 it would cover psychosocial support for our 14 women field team for 1 month
£ 500 it would cover the app for 70 people*

*estimated on the total number of downloads = 600

Why crowdfunding?

As an organisation we do not have any other access to direct funding. Crowdfunding is incredibly important for us in order to raise money quickly for essential health projects. Because of this lack of direct funding, if we do not reach our fundraising target the project cannot go ahead – we simply do not have any other method to ‘top-up’ the budget required. 

For more info on this - please see CanDo’s FAQs ‘What is all-or-nothing crowdfunding?’ and ‘What happens if a campaign doesn’t reach its target?’ 

Please support us however you can.

Thank you.

#PsychLifeline

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