Foundation tackles humanitarian crisis in Syria and Türkiye
The foundation has seized the opportunity to rebuild lives and offer relief to millions affected.
The Salaam Foundation team had a busy start to 2025. The team has visited communities in Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar and most recently Syria and Türkiye in February and March.
Since 2016, Salaam Foundation has been working in the region. The December 2024 fall of the longstanding Assad regime gave the team a chance to enter Syria and do a thorough assessment of the situation on the ground about the best way forward to assist the people.
Salaam Foundation director, Azhar Vadi, said: “It has been a human catastrophe and a humanitarian disaster. Over the past 14 years of the civil war, around five to seven million people were displaced – some becoming internally displaced while others crossed the border into Türkiye.”
The long period of violence and conflict had a devastating effect and many need assistance.
For this reason, the Salaam Foundation will focus specifically on women and children.
In November 2024, the Salaam Foundation team started supporting the Rashedeen Child and Nurturing Care Centre in Sanliurfa, Türkiye, which provides cultural education and character-building to approximately 400 students daily.
Visits to other parts of Syria included the Yarmouk refugee camp that housed Palestinians and was the scene of intense fighting between the Assad regime and revolutionary forces throughout the civil war. The area was turned into a virtual ghost town with not a single building left untouched.
In the community of Zaahira, many residents of Yarmouk gathered to receive food parcels that were distributed to the displaced communities. In the future, the Salaam Foundation will continue to provide emergency relief aid and sustainable development through the child and nurturing care centres in Syria.
“It is difficult for these children. We intend to set up childcare and nurturing centres within Syria,” said Vadi.
This will create employment in these communities while providing the children who have faced many years of conflict and violence with a safe space. There are also plans to expand it into a skills centre for the women in the area to develop themselves.
Salaam Foundation’s work in Türkiye/Syria forms part of its other work in South Africa, the African continent, the Middle East and Asia, to create long-term sustainable development projects.
