The Humanitarian Forum in cooperation with the Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organisations, Islamic Relief and the General Syrian Union held a workshop for exchanging experiences about the humanitarian and development work on the 17/18/19 of March– in Antakya.
The Humanitarian Forum holds these workshops as a completion to all activities and efforts of the Society Organisations, seeking concur efforts, exchange of thoughts, discussion of the latest innovative methods to advance the humanitarian and relief works, leading to coming out with the best results that will help all organisations in their future.
An elite in the fields of humanitarian, relief and society development, “Dr Hany El Banna, Dr Mohamed ElSousy, Dr Tarek Afifi and Dr Zeid ElRowny”, presented these workshops
The participants in the workshops were 75 organization and 80 participant from the Syrian Civil Society Organizations working in Turkey, inside Syria and Countries nearby Syria.
The workshops started with a welcome speech from the Union’s executive manager Dr Mohamed Saeed, followed by Dr Said Zenary briefly introducing the trainers, and then Dr Hany ElBanna talked about how the workshops will be divided. The workshops were divided into three different halls, but in the end, these workshops will meet again to discuss the outputs of each workshop.
The first workshop discussed projects management– by Dr Mohamed ElSousy:
The number of participants were 27 trainee, and it focused on three main points:
• Projects duration
• Framework and planning mechanisms
• Achieving sustainability and following it up
The second workshop was titled “From Relief to Development”– by Dr Tarek Afifi:
The number of participants were 28 trainee, and it focused on a number of points:
• Humanitarian work sector, and its importance
• The Development and analysing the development work in institutions.
• Philosophy of the development project
• Outputs, Standards while choosing the project, real needs, execution, follow–up and evaluation.
The third workshop discussed Funding Sustainability– by Dr Zeid ElRowny:
The number of participants were 25 trainee, and it discussed four main points:
• Governance for funding.
• E–Marketing
• Development of the mental picture in the institution
• Markets and the charity parties and their role in the funding sustainability
On the third day, was the general workshop “Ethics, Values and culture in the humanitarian and development work” presented by Dr Hany ElBanna to all trainees from the three workshops.
This workshop consisted of four session with short breaks, it discussed:
• Humanitarian character, principles and culture
• Partnership (commitments and principles)
• International Strategic thinking
• What ad where after this
And at the end of this workshop, the Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organizations signed a partnership contract with the General Syrian Union, which included several items:
1. Asserting their partnership, and the independency of each Union.
2. Reinforcing and executing partnerships in the media.
3. The partnerships must be to train and develop the abilities of both sides in Syria and Turkey.
4. Administration and organizational development between both sides.
5. Physical periodic meetings every 3 months.
6. Virtual meetings every month.
7. Each side must coordinate with the other side and represent the other in the regional and international forums, in case of absence.
8. Mutual invitations to attend the meetings, conferences and sessions.
The trainees did several projects that can be executed, and this was the output of this workshop and the previous workshops
Antakya’s leader and the Turkish centre for the Syrian and Turkish relationships gave a visit to the workshops, where they extended their thanks and appreciation for the exerted efforts done by organizers of these workshops. They listened to all questions and complaints of the participants, and promised to overcome these difficulties and support these efforts done by the Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organizations and its partners.
And at the end, Dr Khedr ElSotery, the General Secretariat of the Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organizations, honoured all experts, administrators and the contributors in making this workshop successful.
Outputs:
1. A support campaign to support and help the displaced Syrians in Al Waer.
2. Sign a strategic partnership between the Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organizations and the General Syrian Union.
3. The Union of the Syrian Civil Society Organizations had an agreement with Antakya’s leader, to organise the fieldwork concerning the Syrians living in Turkey.
4. The Union pledged to execute and fund the doable agriculture project (Mushroom Farm in Ghouta).
5. The Syrian Woman council, which will include all groups and organizations in the woman sector.
6. Psychological Support program for the Syrian woman.
7. A Database for the Syrians, that can give the organizations and the associations the information needed.
8. Teamwork and cooperating with seven international experts and an elite from activists and leaders in the civil work, about 80 activist and worker in the humanitarian field.
Attendees and participants expressed their satisfaction with the training program, hoping that it can be repeated periodically. Also, many of them said that this training program is the most important and effective program in 6 years.
