When we speak of aid being provided in Syria, of emergency medical response – of food kitchens, basement schools, trauma counselling, media training, agricultural programmes – we speak almost always of the work of Syrians on the ground. Syrians who came from a country where the government had repressed any attempts at real civil society development. Yet, despite these odds, it did grow in the midst of the ongoing conflict.
Violence, brutality and death have dominated reporting on Syria, overshadowing the opinions and activities of this fledgling civil society. But as civil society spaces in both government and opposition-held areas have begun once again to close from several different directions, it is important to understand this untold story.
New research from Christian Aid documents Syrian voices on civil society. As well as sharing their views on how civil society has developed and changed, they also discussed the impact of the international community on it. And they made suggestions for changes in international practice to support Syrian civil society organisations (CSOs), emphasising the need to act quickly to grasp the potential for supporting a democratic, open, pluralistic civil society before it disappears.
