RESIST: Women For Syria
“The best judge of whether or not a country is going to develop is how it treats its women. If it’s educating its girls, if women have equal rights, that country is going to move forward. But if women are oppressed and abused and illiterate, then they’re going to fall behind.” - Barack Obama
In some neighborhoods in Syria, more than 50 bombs and mortars strike a day. They attack civilians, in homes and in public spaces, unexpectedly and indiscriminately.
Amidst an ongoing five year war, the people of Syria, specifically the women of Syria, live within one of our world’s greatest humanitarian crises. Women, who make up the displaced majority, regularly face kidnappings, rape and sexual assault, lack of basic services including reproductive healthcare and extremist control of dress and movement often rendering them home bound. Young girls, lacking education, money and security, are marrying far too young.
But in the midst of chaos and strife, something beautiful is happening. Ordinary people—both within Syria and abroad—have become providers of Smart Aid. A program created and sustained by the Karam Foundation, Smart Aid distributes support by asking one simple question: what do you need. Their work stabilizes women and families with programs to deter girls from child labor and marriage, and provide mothers with needed infant formula, food and cooking fuel. Their efforts are fiercely immediate and strategically long term-- any refugee family can receive a monthly stipend if their children remain enrolled in school.
And so today we stand in solidarity with the people of Syria. We recognize specifically Syrian women and girls face a struggle unlike any most of us have ever known and ask you to educate yourself on the war and the workings of the Karam Foundation. - Maureen Post
To help please visit: https://www.karamfoundation.org #womenforsyria
Photo Credit : © Aneesa Talib for The Halimah Trust, UK
