Local responders loading relief items during the Give Them Warmth campaign.
Picture courtesy of ATAA
For refugees in Northwestern Syria, winter is always a struggle, living in tents in the freezing cold, facing floods and mud in worn and tattered tents.
In January 2022 there was a particularly strong storm which saw the camps lashed by snow and rain.
“Many IDPs had their tents destroyed or flooded, and were left in the mud, exposed to the freezing cold with their families and children,” explains Khaled Al-Essa, the founder and CEO of ATAA, a humanitarian organisation working in Syria and Turkey. ATAA means ‘giving’ in Arabic.
Many Syrian NGOs lacked funding to respond, and there was less preparedness than in previous years after donor budget cuts.
Given the urgency of the needs and the likely slow pace of international relief, 15 members of the Syrian NGO Alliance came together to mount a quick and effective response.
“We gathered under the umbrella of the Alliance and pooled our resources, agreed to one response plan, and coordinated with each other to ensure a better response to the people in need,” explains Hisham Dirani, CEO of Violet, a Syrian NGO.
“This was a purely local-led initiative with no international support. We launched a fundraising campaign and were able to raise $15 million entirely from Palestinian organisations and the diaspora.”
This was a “zero support cost” campaign. Each NGO paid its own operational costs so that all funds raised could be entirely channeled directly to people in need.
“The response focused on replacing damaged tents and distributing basic non-food items, heating materials, clothes, and blankets, in addition to distributing food baskets, ready-to-eat meals, and bread,” explains Al-Essa.
“200 convoys of heaters, food, and non-food items as an act of solidarity by Palestinians who feel the pain and hardship that Syrians have suffered. This campaign was just one step and part of bigger initiatives to secure shelter for around 3500 families in Syria and replace their frayed tents.”
Dirani points out that local organisations had been raising the issue of adequate shelter in the camps for a decade, but donors had not responded this need.
“There were no intermediaries in this campaign, funds went direct from private donors to implementation. If we had waited for international donors, the response would have come at the end of winter. Instead, we were able to respond on time, effectively and appropriately.”
The question of cultural appropriateness of emergency response is a contentious issue, but one that local NGOs say is easily resolved if donors are committed to listening and learning from local leaders.
“The value of a localised response is that we know how to deliver aid in a way that is culturally appropriate, as people can be quite sensitive. The difference between local and responses from outside the community is like the difference between a speech given by a first language speaker and a speech by a non-native speaker, or like being from a place as opposed to being told about a place.”
About ATAA for Humanitarian Relief Association
Ataa is a non-profit humanitarian association, licensed and registered in Turkey as a national organisation since 2013. It aims to be a pioneer in relief and development work among Syrian organisations and to provide outstanding social services based on its cultural perspective of civil society as well as humanitarian values,
The organisation provides humanitarian assistance in Syria and Turkey and seeks to develop Syrian society and strengthen its living conditions. Since 2013 ATAA has participated in saving and transforming the lives of over five million Syrians.
By responding to the Syrian crisis, rebuilding lives, and empowering Syrians, the organisation seeks to save lives before they are lost, increasing the Syrian community resilience says Khaled Al-Essa, founder of Ataa.
“From the onset of Syrian Crisis, I knew that funding flows would dry up if the crisis becomes chronic and protracted, while needs would continue to grow. To become self-sustaining we had to think differently and come up with innovative ideas to survive.”
“Ataa is has a unique self sustainability approach. In addition to traditional fundraising, it successfully runs income generating projects that covers its administration and staff costs. This allows us to ensure funds go directly to the community with less spent on administration costs,” Al-Essa adds. “From the beginning of the crisis, we realised the importance of independence and worked to build a successful business model for the organisation.”
Headquartered in Istanbul, it implements its programs through four offices in Turkey and seven in Syria.
Humanitarian workers from ATAA distribute relief good in the Give Them Warmth campaign.
Picture courtesy of ATAA
About VIOLET
What is the role of youth in locally led humanitarian responses?
For Violet CEO, Hisham Dirani, the answer is simple: the youth should provide a leadership role and rise to the challenges faced by the community from medical care to water and sanitation.
Named after the shy, sweet-smelling flower, Violet represents “the colour of youth that will not fade.”
Since the start of the war in Syria, the influx of displaced people has been huge, with parts of Northwest Syria seeing a 400% increase in its population.
Formed in 2014 as a youth group of 50 volunteers, the organisation now has 2000 members. It has expanded to work on health, protection, education as well as ambulance services and rescue teams for those trapped by bombardments.
“The lack of progress on localization is a big concern for us,” says Dirani.
“The amount of money reaching local NGOs is very little, compared to the Grand Bargain commitments.” He adds that while there has been some progress on the pooled fund, it remains far below Grand Bargain targets and adds that money in the fund is being channeled to INGOs instead of Syrian organisations.
One of the biggest challenges faced by the organisations is the lack of risk-sharing with international NGOs and donor agencies. “We work under the threat of being killed in airstrikes or military operations, but they do not want to share that risk with us, they just want to transfer it. This makes it difficult for us to exercise our duty of care to staff such as paying for medical treatment for the injured.” This is not a hypothetical argument – at least five Violet staff have been killed while performing humanitarian work.
“We do our best to follow joint ops procedures, to follow humanitarian principles, but who will look after the humanitarian workers?”
While the organisation also faces other risks such a as possible non-renewal of the cross-border resolution, Dirani says being treated as sub-contractors is a recurring frustration when working with INGOs and UN agencies. “We are supposed to be partners. We share our safety and security plan, we report everything, we are in daily communication with them, but they want the risk to be ours alone.”
ATAA and VIOLET are both members of the NEAR network.
The Syrian NGO Alliance works in partnership with NEAR.