Enab Baladi – Muwafaq al-Khouja
To the tune of the song “With Love, We Will Rebuild It,” numerous video clips of community initiatives have spread, originating from Damascus and expanding across most Syrian cities, aiming to restore life to these cities after the fall of the Assad regime.
University student and actor Fadi al-Rifai stands in one of the streets of al-Baramkeh in Damascus, organizing traffic after the chaos caused by the absence of traffic police, despite not knowing the laws and tools that enable him to perform this role.
Al-Rifai told Enab Baladi that “love for the homeland” was what drove him to take the initiative himself and head to one of the civil society organizations in the al-Shahbandar area of Damascus to receive equipment.
His love for people was an additional motivation for his voluntary traffic organization effort, alongside several young men, including Ghayth Daboura, who studies at the Faculty of Commerce and Economics and works in design. The same motivation urged him to step in and organize traffic despite lacking sufficient experience, according to his statements to Enab Baladi.
Chaos after the fall
On December 8, 2024, the Syrian regime fell after opposition factions entered the Syrian capital, Damascus, and president Bashar al-Assad fled following 11 days of military operations that began on November 27 of the same year.
The sudden fall and the flight of leading figures from the regime left widespread chaos throughout Syria, particularly in the capital Damascus, as many buildings and government institutions were damaged, and the absence of service staff led to the accumulation of waste in the streets.
The chaos drove many youth initiatives and civil society organizations operating in areas previously controlled by the regime, or in northern Syria outside of its control at the time, to launch numerous voluntary initiatives aimed at beautifying cities and cleaning them, organizing traffic in the streets after traffic police failed to report to their stations, and distributing food or clothes in hospitals, neighborhoods, and public centers.
Maha al-Khatib, a member of the Hdoudi al-Sama voluntary organization, wishes to convey a message through the food distribution initiative at the Mouwasat hospital in Damascus, indicating that all Syrians are one hand, along with her desire to bring a smile to patients’ faces after the liberation of Syria, as she stated.
Huda al-Shamaa, a laboratory supervisor at the Arab International University, who came to distribute food to patients in hospitals in Damascus, believes that any small act is “positive” under these circumstances.
She told Enab Baladi that the initiatives carried out in the city, despite their simplicity, are seen as something beautiful by the people, urging Syrians to participate in these initiatives and offer help, even if it is minor.
On its part, the voluntary team (kona wasnabka), affiliated with the Majal Association, initiated several projects after the fall of the Assad regime, which involved daily food distribution to workers in government hospitals in Damascus, cleaning them, in addition to cleaning government offices and distributing clothes and medical supplies to the elderly.
Self-funding
Hikmat Abu Adhan recalls memories with her friends as they clean her old school in al-Qaboun alongside some family members and local residents, removing the rubble left by military operations and the former regime’s shelling.
Abu Adhan told Enab Baladi that she came to remove the debris from the school and clean it in order to prepare it for re-use in education or to receive families wishing to leave the tents.
Malik Antouz, too, preferred to head to the school with his family and neighborhood children before returning to his destroyed home to rehabilitate it, stating that cleaning the school takes priority over his home so that new generations can use it for study.
Cleaning the school is the first initiative of the voluntary team “Qabouni Ana,” which was formed by young men and women, most of whom are university students, from the al-Qaboun neighborhood of Damascus, which witnessed extensive destruction due to the previous regime’s bombardment.
For his part, Saed Abdel Ghani, the Chairman of the Board of the Majal Association for Social Services, told Enab Baladi that they have not received support or funding for these campaigns due to the halted operations of many donors following the recent military actions and the cessation of remittance and exchange companies, which has reduced the amount of donations.
According to what Abdel Ghani explained to Enab Baladi, the team “kona wasnabka” was established in 2012 and worked on many initiatives, including food distribution, blood donation for cancer patients and thalassemia patients, and distributing clothes to displaced families. Then, in 2021, they registered “Majal” as an active association in Damascus, with support from personal acquaintances or Syrian merchants.
The secretary of the Hdoudi al-Sama organization, Ghada Hamami, stated that the initiative was based on self-sourcing and donations from individuals, noting that one of the donors provided 50,000 Syrian pounds (about four US dollars) that she had saved for the end of the month.
Hamami explained that the voluntary initiative involved distributing meals to patients at the Mouwasat hospital in Damascus.
Active civil society
The activities were not limited to individuals or associations engaged in community services, but included artists like Syrian actor Maxim Khalil, who participated in cleaning and painting sidewalks, in addition to the Syria Civil Defence organization, which contributed to the events due to its possession of the necessary equipment and expertise.
The public relations coordinator at the Syria Civil Defence, Amer Haj Omar, told Enab Baladi that the team began collaborating with volunteer teams, local initiatives, and civil society organizations after expanding its operations in Syrian provinces following the fall of the regime.
Haj Omar added that the team’s activities focused on removing symbols of the previous regime, which “instilled fear in people’s hearts,” as he put it, and restoring the semblance of urban life in Syria.
The humanitarian organization’s activities also include removing rubble and debris from bombardments, concrete barriers, cleaning roads, caring for gardens, public area cleaning campaigns, and rehabilitating infrastructure.
Love and community acceptance
The Civil Defence campaigns aim to increase community participation and mobilize the youth’s effort to help in actions that contribute to the advancement of Syria’s future, in addition to unifying efforts across the entire Syrian geography to eliminate manifestations of death and destruction, as explained by Haj Omar.
Sarah, a student in Damascus and a volunteer in the “kona wasnabka” voluntary team, told Enab Baladi that what drove her to participate in this initiative is the sense of responsibility that falls on the shoulders of the country’s people, as Syria today is a trust in the hands of its people, after the end of the “tyranny,” as she put it.
Sarah feels proud of her volunteer work, believing that her efforts are “blessed” because she is from the homeland that is “not controlled by al-Assad or plundered of its resources,” according to her.
University student Ghina Abu Adhan, one of the volunteers in the “Qabouni Ana” team, sees that her role now alongside her studies is in the field, represented by the rehabilitation and beautification of cities.
The volunteers that Enab Baladi spoke with indicated the acceptance of their initiatives within the community and praised them, noting that this has been a motivating factor for their continued volunteer work.
Maha al-Khatib, a member of the “Hdoudi al-Sama” voluntary organization, told Enab Baladi that the voluntary efforts that originated from Damascus indicate that everyone is working as one hand to build the homeland, adding that “love has returned” to the Syrians.