A meeting bringing together humanitarian organizations and local councils, during which IDPs were offered explanatory brochures – July 9, 2019 (Media office of the Charity Care Organization)

In northern Idlib, local organizations have initiated a project, the idea of which is introducing the area’s key service centers to both IDPs and residents, as to alleviate some of the displacement’s burdens in various villages using explanatory brochures.

Dubbed “Pocketbook of Villages and Towns,” the project is based on an explanatory brochure, presented by the Charity Care Organization, listing the most important service facilities that a displaced person needs in the covered areas, including a map to reach the place and means of communication, which an internally displaced person should definitely know in the early stage of his/her presence in the area.

On July 9, 2019, the Organization has conducted a meeting, attended by 20 organizations and local councils in the villages and towns of Ma’arrat Misrin city, seeking to equip IDPs with information on service facilities and their contacts, resorting to the “Pocketbook of Villages and Towns.”

“We briefed the attendees on these centers and how to contact them through the Pocketbook, so the IDPs have sufficient information on service centers, their locations and contacts,” Khlaid al-Qudaimeh, the executive director of the organization, said.

Interviewed by Enab Baladi, the director of the Relief Office in Kafr Nabi explained that the Office attended the meeting to discuss a few matters relating to the humanitarian organizations’ work, and so the latter lay open the difficulties they are facing while attempting to support IDPs.

Mohammad Muhanad Thakour, field officer of the Olive Branch Organization, said that the meeting has discussed the needs of the local councils in the area’s towns and the obstacles hindering providing the population with services, especially IDPS.

This project is the first of its kind in Northern Syria, depending, to achieve its goals, also on roadside billboards, which are to guide IDPs to service facilities and their locations.

The project covers the towns and villages of Bhouriyeh, Harbanousj, Hezanou, Kafr Yahmoul, Kafr Jales, Kafteen, Maarrat al-Ikhwan, Ma’arrat Misrin, Moureen, Ram Hamdan, Zaradna, Beer al-Tayeb, Biret Kafteen, Baibeh, Habatt, Kafr Bni, Kafr Ta’anour, Mazra’at Idriss, Shaikh Bahr and al-Sanameh.

The brochures list the addresses of hospitals, medical centers, Syrian Civil Defense Centers, Local councils and the organizations working in the area, in addition to their contacts, according to Mohammad al-Hussain, director of the media office at the Charity Care Organization.

Al-Hussain added, telling Enab Baladi, that the organization seeks to spread roadside billboards to provide IDPs’ with better access to the service facilities, in addition to studying the potential of expanding the project as to cover the full range of Idlib governorate.

Starting late in April 2019, a large-scale military campaign has been targeting the northern and western rural parts of Hama and the southern suburbs of Idlib, which led to the displacement of more than 97 thousand and 404 families, 633118 persons, according to statistics published by the Response Coordination Group (RCG) on July 8.

The group is still working on recording the numbers of internally displaced persons in the various areas and districts that received them, which are 35 districts, spreading from the Euphrates Shield areas as far as the areas in north-western Syria.