09-02-2022 | di COOPI

Syria. With AICS to support vulnerable people with disabilities

Starting from June 2021, COOPI – Cooperazione Internazionale has been supporting the most vulnerable people in Rural Damascus, in the framework of the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation (AICS)-funded project “Improving food security and access to basic health services to strengthen the resilience of the most vulnerable populations in southern Syria”.

Thanks to a long-standing presence in the country, COOPI has developed a solid knowledge of the local context. Therefore, it intends to give continuity to the actions previously and successfully applied, focusing on the areas of rural Damascus, namely in the Eastern Ghouta and Dar'a Governorates, to develop the resilience of these populations in food security and access to health services sectors.

In details, the project aims at providing humanitarian aid, by achieving these goals and improving beneficiaries’ conditions. Currently based on the needs, 18 persons with disabilities identified by COOPI social workers, among which 8 are women, 5 are children (3 girls and 2 boys) and 5 men have disabilities, will receive Medical In-Kind Assistance (MIKA) that includes wheelchairs, toilet chairs, walkers, tripod canes, crutches and diapers packages. Actually, COOPI is working to reach a total amount of 150 beneficiaries to be supported with MIKA assistance.

In addition to that, 700 people in Governorates of Dar'a and Rural Damascus will be supported with provision of psychological first aid, individual counselling, 600 awareness sessions related to protection, Covid-19, implementation of structured protection activities and parenting program, in order to reach 7,200 people, the total number of estimated beneficiaries, within the end of the year.

The activities take into consideration the economic difficulties encountered by people with disabilities or suffering from chronic diseases, who often live in conditions of neglect or extreme poverty and are unable to bear the cost of medical devices, often difficult to find, or with hardly accessible prices.

Within Food security component, project will support 970 households in conditions of food insecurity or at risk to such as women-headed households, pregnant and lactating woman, elderly, households with large number of children, people with disabilities and chronic medical conditions to restore access to the livelihoods through distribution of the poultry kits, agriculture kits and food vouchers.