USAID’s Strengthening Community Resilience (SCR) program is building community resilience in northwest Syria by enabling the delivery of stabilization and humanitarian assistance through local Syrian partners. Through SCR, USAID works with longstanding partner, the Syria Civil Defence, more commonly known as the White Helmets, to provide lifesaving emergency response and essential services in northwest Syria. The project leverages the White Helmets’ lifesaving work and partnerships with civil society organizations (CSOs) in support of the project’s capacity building and locally led service-delivery objectives and bolstering Syrian civil society’s ability to promote human rights and accountability.
Goals
Ensure the White Helmets Can Continue Their Life-Saving Work
The program provides critical funding support for the White Helmets core operations and emergency medical services (EMS), including Women and Family Healthcare Centers. This funding ensures that essentials like fuel, maintenance, and utilities are covered, and volunteers can focus on their life-saving work.
Community Resilience and Essential Services for Northwest Syria
This objective aims to maintain the White Helmets health program’s capacity to deliver quality health services through the Women and Family Healthcare Centers and the ambulance system. The White Helmets teams target the most vulnerable groups, including women, children, the elderly, and Gender- Based Violence (GBV) survivors, delivering essential services like reproductive health (RH), psychosocial service (PSS), community health, first aid, referral of emergencies and non-emergencies, and awareness-raising activities.
Mobilize Local and Private Sector Resources
Following the February 2023’s deadly earthquakes, SCR is providing technical support to the White Helmets and other local Syrian organizations on how to effectively raise funds from the international donor community.
Improve Collaboration of Syrian Civil Society
Through SCR, the White Helmets are working closely with Syrian grassroots CSOs throughout northwest Syria to provide better quality services to their communities.
Document Human Rights Violations and Promote Accountability
SCR activities are amplifying the voices of victims of human rights violations locally and internationally through robust advocacy efforts, as well as through documentation and reporting. SCR is partnering with Syrian human rights champions locally and with the Syrian diaspora to bring awareness to human rights violations occurring in northwest Syria.
Key Results
- USAID delivered five new advanced ambulances to contribute to the restoration of the White Helmets’ Emergency Medical Services’ operational capacity
- Delivered quality health services through 39 Women and Family Healthcare Centers and ambulance system, to over 240,000 individuals (women medical centers serve 77% females, 60% IDPS, and 2% persons with disabilities)
- Conducted 5,341 PSS sessions, benefiting over 27,000 individuals
- Paramedics responded to 108,845 emergency calls benefiting 173,751 individuals
- Search and rescue and firefighting teams responded to over 6,600 response operations ranging from marking dangerous places (74), animal rescue (11), road accidents (1,680), civilian evacuation (188), firefighting operations (2,884), drowning rescue (116), response to attacks (1,429); and awareness sessions across 349 communities (961)
- Reporting on human rights violations by documenting 267 attacks on 71 communities
