CHILDREN’S SAFESPACE
In September 2023, Samara talks about her time and experiences at our rural outreach centre, and her conversations with the centre manager.
After providing emergency medical care in a handful of medical settings in different parts of the Middle East and especially Syria, over the years we have found each of these treating significant numbers of orphans and vulnerable children living in poverty and very challenging situations at home. An estimated half a million people have been killed in the Syrian war, more lives continue to be lost unnecessarily as a result of the damaged and depleted medical system and now. The effects of poverty and economic crisis claim further lives of younger people too.
Many of the vulnerable children we work with are orphans in the care of relatives who struggle to cope with them. Some are neglected, even abused, and some are sent out to work at a young age to support their impoverished relatives. Sometimes these children found their way to our emergency room alone, and some arrived barefoot and in filthy clothes.
We provide structured creative and developmental activities in a safe environment for orphans and vulnerable children.
We gave these children the medical care they needed, but when we heard their stories, our hearts broke. We felt it was inadequate to simply treat their injuries and send them home, with no follow up, to the challenging and poverty-stricken environments they had come from. After nearly fourteen years of brutal conflict, fractured communities and trust, and severe economic breakdown, the social care structure is ineffective in many places if not provided by the families.
Our team use a lot of creativity in teaching the children - this is one of their English lessons.
Too many of these children have no one to turn to, and their guardians are struggling to make a meaningful difference in their lives as they cannot cope themselves. Many children who have lost one or both parents have no one to talk with, to trust with their hopes and fears, and many of them are suffering the long terms effects of trauma. We felt they needed a safe space with some positive adult input - a place where they could go for some food, where an adult would take a genuine interest in them, listen to them, encourage them, let them play and give them the space to simply be kids. We also focus on providing structured education.
Educational games and play are an important part of our current work with orphans and vulnerable children.
We aim to provide a relaxed, homey, family environment, reaching out to the broken and hurting. We want to show compassion and love in action to children suffering the longer term effects of the violence they have witnessed or experienced personally, or the loss of one or both parents. We are also working with families where children have been taken out of school to work in order to support their family, to provide meaningful support to try to encourage these children to return to school and complete their education.
We opened a very basic safespace early in 2019, which began taking referrals from our old medical centre, which we sadly had to close the because of complications with the building.
In 2020 we started our first permanent outreach centre supporting orphans and widows, far more comprehensive than the first basic safe space. It continues to provide a cooked meal for every child, personal development, structured education, play and social activities, and training, and it quickly filled up. The centre’s remit has since been opened up to include other vulnerable women and children who are in need but don’t fit the label of “orphan” or “widow”.
Some fun activities in a safe and loving environment brings out the best in the children we are working with.
In 2022 we opened a second permanent outreach centre in another area where there are a huge number of orphans and widows, left in the wake of a significant massacre and the many killed in the war. They are in need but aren’t reached by other aid agencies. This is an especially challenging area where the nature of customs and traditions make it a tougher place to live and work, yet the needs there are overwhelming.
The children love coming to play with all the games we have. Many of them have no toys or educational resources at all in their homes.
Some of the children we are serving are still living in bomb damaged buildings with no windows or proper doors, and many are unable to eat three meals every day. In some of their dwellings in winter, a fire is simply made in the middle of the floor, burning whatever they can find to provide warmth in winter. This creates serious fire risks and we support a number of families and orphans left in the wake of tragic house fires. Many children come to us in dirty and ragged clothes. We aim to show unconditional love and welcome them just as they they, while providing them with some of the other basics they need.
We are hosting a pop up cinema too, as we want them to have a little fun, while also being inspired with some age appropriate films.
We want these centres to demonstrate the unconditional love of God to the orphans, the vulnerable, the broken, the marginalised and the poor. This service enables us to build longer term relationships with these children, who need consistency, encouragement and an enormous amount of love to overcome some of the many unjust challenges that life has thrown at them.
We also distribute various types of aid sent from the UK through these centres, that provides a little basic support for the poorest families, in emergencies, and are working towards assisting widowed mothers to help them gain some financial sustainability.
It is essential for us to provide food for all the children who visit our centre, many of whom may not get a full meal at home.
A solid meal is an essential provision for the children each time they come into our centres, as many may not have a proper meal at home. Many go to sleep hungry as they cannot afford an evening meal. For some children the meal they eat at our centre might be the only meal they have on some days, and some of them might go for weeks without a cooked meal if we didn’t provide them with one when they come.
Our goal is to raise an additional £6,000* per month in regular giving, ie standing orders, to fund the continued running of our two centres, and a third that we hope to establish, for the long term. At current exchange rates it costs us around
- £40* each day to feed around 100-120 vulnerable children at each centre (£80 to serve both centres)
- £150* to pay the average monthly salary of each of our staff who coordinate, teach, cook and clean at each centre. We need to cover 30 salaries each month.
*Please note that fluctuations in currency can significantly affect the costs, but these were correct at the time of writing.
If you, your church, your friends or family can help in any way, we would be grateful for your support. Please use our standard giving form on the SUPPORT page and choose the ‘Orphans & Widows’ account.
