Al-Mada Social Development Society in Focus

Caring for children in any country is a very important issue that necessitates collective efforts by the family, society and the government.

 In Syria, particularly during the past two decades, greater attention had been accorded to the issue of supporting juveniles to help them solve problems that threaten their future to ensure safe and stable childhood.

Al-Mada Society in Lattakia is one of these societies that care about children who are at risks; such as dropping out from schools, working children and early marriage.

ST. visited the Society and met with the board chairwoman, Mrs. Rasha Kheirbek, who said: “since its establishment in 2006, the Society aimed at helping children and juveniles to ameliorate their hard circumstances and enjoy a stable life.

The Society also aims at creating a new generation aware of the environment issues to promote the concept of citizenship and the idea of taking personal responsibility towards environment.

Concerning the work mechanism, Mrs. Kheirbek said: “We have focused on children dropping out from the compulsory education due to psychological and educational considerations because the early childhood plays a very important role in characterizing the human personality and is strongly manifested in its later stages of development no matter how diverse the variables that surround it.

 Further attention goes to helping children to choose the type of study or work that reflects the innate potential of the individual.

The actual work of the association began in 2009, focusing on dropping out from school because it is one of the most serious problems facing society. We visited the directorate of compulsory education in Lattakia and got a list of drop-outs. We met with most of them and their parents to probe the real reasons for leaving schools just to offer suitable social, economical and educational solutions to their problems.”

Mrs. Kheirbek added: “Child labor, is also one of the issues that we have worked on as most children who drop out from school are to engage in the labor market. We have found, through our dealing with the local community, that there is a large number of working children who dropped out from school before finishing the first stages of basic education. So we concluded an agreement with the employers to send these children after the end of working hours to enable them to read and write as well as to learn the basic principles of mathematics.

The Society has also recourse to the Illiteracy center which supplied it with the required books by which the children have received education at the hands of specialized teachers, who work with us as volunteers. A test shall be made at the end of the course that will entitle them to have an illiteracy education certificate.

Computer and English language courses were also carried out in the Society head office to equip children with the skills that have become a necessity in the modern age”.

  “Early marriage of girls is also one of the issues that the Society is working on to address the disastrous psychological, social and economic effects of this non-civilized phenomenon.  We communicated with a number of girls who were victims of early marriage, and have tried in cooperation with many associations to encourage these girls to join crash courses that teach professions such as sewing, embroidery and hairstyling.

Talking about the Society’s other activities, Mrs. Kheirbek  said: “We have made an actual partnership with the campaign recently held in Lattakia for training million volunteers. We have also carried out a number of courses concerning human development, negotiation skills and human resources management. All of these courses were offered on free basis”

“Another important activity of our Society was done in the Juveniles center in Lattakia.

We held a campaign for training and rehabilitating the Juveniles. The center itself was also in need of rehabilitation. Therefore, we supplied it with furniture, sanitary ware and clothing. We also set up a sport ground, kitchen and landscaped a beautiful garden where we planted trees and different kinds of charming flowers.

Furthermore, we follow up on the nitty-gritty of the children life when they leave the center at healthy levels. 

Our Society has also launched a number of artistic activities including painting exhibitions and concerts in the Arab House of Music.”

“We hope that we will undertake the responsibility to protect those children to ensure that our services will reach every needy child. We must do something to others. We feel very happy by sharing people their sadness and happiness. We have strong belief that we can change the life of a child with a smile”, Mrs. Kheirbek concluded.

Amal Farhat- Lattakia