Winning the Peace

A summer of solidarity with Syria and Lebanon

The foundations are laid. Our new Peace Centre Kadesh opened its gates in January in the small village of Tell Nabi Mendo, next to Qusayr, in the Homs Governorate of Syria. More than 100 children have been enrolled in our daily classes, supplementary to the 400 students we are serving every day in the north of Lebanon. Seven teachers, two craftsmen and three local staff members are taking care of homework help and vocational training classes, as well as art and theatre courses and the weekly child animation sessions, the famous "Friday Fun".

The Syrian people won the war against dictatorship and oppression. Most of the refugee families we have served in Lebanon for over a decade returned. But they returned to a field of ruins where hope is the only seed growing. In the area of Qusayr, more than 85% of all buildings have been destroyed by the Assad regime or other factions. Hope has returned, but hope alone cannot rebuild a country. The people of Syria need international solidarity, today more than ever, to start a new chapter. At the same time, our work in Lebanon continues without interruption. On both sides of the border, we united former enemies around a common cause: a brighter future for the youth. Reconstruction is going hand in hand with education and psycho-social support to win the battle for justice and peace.

In this summer of cross-border solidarity, we need €30,000 to finish the rehabilitation of the new Peace Centre in Kadesh, keep catch-up classes running and implement youth camps in Syria and Lebanon. Please find further details below!

The Peace Centre Kadesh is taking shape

Our team in Syria has been busy over the last months to launch school support and vocational training at the new Peace Centre Kadesh for families returning to Syria. The work has progressed well and more than 100 children are already enrolled, aged 7 to 18, also thanks to the support from a wonderful Fest-Noz in Bretagne and a first grant by UNESCO, obtained through a former R&R volunteer. But today, we need a bit more to prepare a living space in the Peace Centre so that international volunteers can join the team this summer, also in Syria. The estimated costs for this section of our summer works are €10,000. Here a breakdown in US Dollars:

• $1,300 - wooden doors and windows
• $1,100 - bathroom plastering, tiles and ceramics
• $1,500 - electrical installations 
• $1,000 - bedroom furniture for 4 international volunteers
  
• $1,200 - kitchen furniture (fridge, washing machine, stove, etc.)
• $2,200 - construction of 2 supplementary rooms for female volunteers
• $1,000 - bedroom furniture for women's quarters
• $1,000 - painting of the new rooms

Depending on the success of this fundraising campaign, international volunteers are going to live at the Peace Centre Kadesh as from the end of this summer. Already today, the R&R volunteers residing at the Peace Centre in Lebanon are regularly crossing the border to develop projects, together with our local staff, and shape this new space of reconciliation. You can read more about the current situation and the history of Kadesh in the previous post on our website.

Our local teachers are fighting for the kids we serve

Seven local teachers started daily classes at the Peace Centre Kadesh. Three of them have already volunteered with us in Lebanon when they were refugees themselves. The others were internally displaced inside Syria. All of them have lost beloved ones in 13 years of oppression and civil war. Today, they are investing into the future of the next generation, giving their all for the children to succeed. Catch-up classes are essential to allow school children to successfully reintegrate the Syrian school system after years of displacement and flight. Many of the children we serve have studied under the Turkish or Lebanese-French curriculum in their early years of education. Now, they are trying to cope and learn math in their mother tongue.

All of our teachers, seven in Syria and twenty-three in Lebanon, agreed to finish this school year without a guarantee to be paid in time. Relief & Reconciliation relies mainly on small, private donations. This is in line with our principles of spiritual solidarity and the engagement for long-term programme lines, implemented together with the communities we serve. This means that our classes are running continuously, now for over thirteen years, without missing one single school day. This approach, however comes at the cost of unpredictability and uncertainty of irregular donations. It has always been a struggle to reach the finishing line of the school year, but thanks to the support of our members and donors, we always managed to pull through.

Currently, we need about €10,000 to pay for the last two months of the school year and continue intensive catch-up classes during summer, both in Syria and Lebanon. Our teachers are paid at a modest local rate, between €4 and €10 per hour, according to their seniority and experience. Many of them have been with us since the very beginning of our work, thirteen years ago.

Thanks to your help, we will be able to offer catch-up summer classes both in Syria and Lebanon to more than 200 children - out of the 500 we have served throughout the school year - who need special attention. Please read more in the previous post on our website about the evaluation of our educational work. 

Bringing the youth together

This summer, we are going to take a big step forward. For the first time, the annual Summer Mountain Camp will take place both in Syria and Lebanon. On the Lebanese side of the border, the tradition is firmly established. For nine consecutive years, we have brought Muslims and Christians of different denominations together to the high mountains of Akkar. More than 500 adolescents and children now form the Ibrahimic Youth, an inter-religious scout movement, in which Muslim and Christian youth leaders are taking responsibility for younger children.

In Syria, many of our former students have asked us to do the same. This step is a major milestone for us, as we wish to bring the youth of different communities together to take responsibility for the common good. We estimate the costs for the two summer camps at about €10,000: about €8,000 for a camp of one week with 80 youth leaders, 15 to 21 years of age, and 400 younger children in Lebanon, and about €2,000 for a camp of two days with a dozen new youth leaders and about 100 younger children in Syria. The Syrian camp is a first step in the development of an inter-religious youth movement of solidarity, like the one that has emerged in Lebanon after 13 years of our continuous presence on the ground. It is an important step for the whole region.

Please find on our website the pictures and reports from the past summer mountain camps in Lebanon. Your help is vital to provide the same opportunity to the Syrian youth that is trying to rebuild their country.

Your support allows the seeds of hope to grow

The brutal oppression of the Syrian Revolution by the Assad regime has pushed the country into 13 years of civil war, often evolving along sectarian lines. Assad, a member of the Alawite community, which has known centuries of persecution and discrimination, presented himself as the "protector of minorities". In reality, his regime was taking his own community and others as hostages in a system that was stimulating the fear of "the other" as an instrument of control and oppression. More than 500,000 died in the civil war, more than 13 millions were expelled from their homes - the world's biggest refugee crisis of the century.

Syria is starting to heal. People are trying to cope with the trauma of horrible crimes against humanity and years of displacement, but many wounds remain open. Qusayr is an area that has been most severely touched by genocidal hatred. The year of transition, after the fall of Assad on 8 December 2024, has witnessed new massacres against civilians of specific communities, mainly Alawite and Druze, committed by forces affiliated with the transitional government in retaliation for attacks by armed groups - who in return were affiliated with the former regime or with certain factions in the respective community. The war against Assad has been won by the Syrian people. Now, the challenge is to win also the peace.

As a small association, established by a group of friends from Syria and around the world, we are trying to support the process of justice and reconciliation, bringing the youth of different communities together to rebuild their country without denying their belonging or belief. We unite religious leaders of different communities present in each region as well as committed individuals. Our approach of diapraxis, spiritual solidarity and local co-ownership means that the most essential decisions are always taken by the people we serve - not above their heads. Also, our international volunteers are never paid more than local staff. In more than 13 years, we could constantly keep our overhead costs below 1% of our total revenues.

Your help is essential for supporting a peaceful transition in Syria and giving the youth a new chance after years of oppression, war and displacement. This work can only succeed in respect for the liberty of each individual, but also for the families, groups and communities they belong to. Thank you for your contribution!

How to Donate?

How to Volunteer in Lebanon or Syria?

Updated on 03/07/2026. In a previous version, the estimation of costs for the summer camp in Lebanon had been put at €7,000 instead of €8,000.