Before the Rojava Revolution there were no services for people with special needs. At the same time society had, and still has, a different approach towards disabilities than in the centers of capitalism. People are more open for needs of others and accepted each other the way they are. Social care often takes place in families. After 2012 there were more possibilities to strengthen civil society and with this expanded the social fabric above family structures. It was only after the revolution that initiatives emerged who regarded the inclusion of people with special needs into society as an important cornerstone of an intact society. Volunteers came together and started to organize to improve the situation of disabled persons. In 2021, Nûdem was founded as a non-governmental organization working with and towards the needs of people with disabilities in the Autonomous Region and the whole of Syria. The focus is on pedagogical and societal works aimed at societal change. This means that they seek dialogue with political institutions, advise newly established facilities on how they can be made more inclusive and hold many seminars to share knowledge and raise awareness through education. The other branch of the work is direct educational work with children and young people in particular. It is still widespread that disabled children are not sent to school – and cannot be sent, as there is no special care for them. The services Nûdem are providing are for free and open to everyone. The resources of the organization are based on donations.

Radical Democracy as base to improve living conditions of people with special needs

In October we visited a Nûdem center and got to know the Nûdem worker Sîham Çolî who is sharing her experiences and the philosophy of the NGO, which is rooted in the radical democracy that is build up in North and East Syria. The neighborhood communities and the structures of the self-administration are an important base for the Nûdem works. Communes are build up everywhere, to organize the everyday life of the people and as the foundation for the democratic confederal system. Communes for people with special needs and their families are also being built up. In these communes Nûdem organizes regular training sessions that reach people with and without disabilities. The communes also give the women from Nûdem information about which families are in need and should be visited. Nûdem often travels to the surrounding villages and organizes one-day events there. This usually means a day of games and handicrafts provided for people with special needs and their families. Through this occasion they can discuss questions and problems related to inclusion and disability over a meal with the families afterwards.

The Nûdem team is also attending meetings of the political structures to promote the perspective of people with special needs. “Sometimes we focus on the small level but also we work until the big level”, Sîham is summarizing their strategy to improve the situation of people with special needs. In some cases, they fight directly against the prevailing practice, which is based on prejudice. “Recently, we were with a family at a school that didn’t want to admit a child who is dependent on a wheelchair. The school management was worried that he wouldn’t be able to follow lessons and we had to explain to them that the boy is not cognitively impaired.” For the direct education work, Nûdem is currently working on a project for audio recordings of schoolbooks. Another aim right now is to establish more opportunities to work with adults with special needs. Therefore preparations to open a café run by disabled people are taking place.

What catches the attention is that mainly women work in the institutions of Nûdem. When asked for the reasons, Sîham explains: ‘They know the needs of the families and they know how to talk to people in order to change their view of disability.’ It was not originally intended to build up this organization only by women, but today it is consciously continued.

“I wanted to get to know the works with disabled persons in the revolution”

An internationalist called Meryem is also currently working in the Nûdem center. She came to North and East Syria to get to know the women’s revolution and learn how the revolutionary values influence the works with people with special needs. She is sharing how she was welcomed heartily by the Nûdem staff and felt like a lot of trust was put in her. In her fist weeks she got to know the institution, her colleagues, and learned some Kurdish. In the institution, as in the city, Arabic and Kurdish are the main languages spoken. Understanding all conversations with the co-workers, families, clients and guests in the center is still challenging for Meryem. But People in North and East Syria are familiar with multi-lingual settings and assist her a lot.

Back home, Meryem was working as a special needs teacher. With a translator, she could share some of her experience by giving seminars to her colleagues about topics like cognitive development, Trisomy 21 and alternative and augmentative communication.

Asked for her experience, Meryem sees the biggest difference compared to her home country in the strength of communality. “The difference is that people stay more within their families and therefore in society. In the place where I come from, people with special needs are more separated”, she explains. The strength of the community and the natural caretaking is a big value. At the same time, Nûdem is struggling to relieve the families of taking all the responsibility for their disabled family members. Many people with special needs need to rely on their families because other support structures are not available for them. Since 2012, many civil institutions have been build up to develop the communal organizing. Their role in the democratic confederal system is to shape and protect the democracy of society with their work, and throughout the participation in the political processes.

Despite the challenges to overcome the impact of the Syrian state’s regime and the decades of oppression on the people and society, the ongoing war has a big impact on life. “The war reality makes the works very hard”, Meryem shares. The embargo against the Syrian state and the ongoing attacks by Turkey set harsh limits to the efforts of the Nûdem workers. Also, professionals are missing. Many people fled from the war to the neighboring countries or abroad. At the universities of the Self-Administration there are not many programmes that can educate students with the necessary knowledge. Meryem is sharing her experiences. “We have to see that people work as volunteers here. They are not professionally educated, but they do good work. There is a lot of self-education and learning from each other. Throughout the practical works, the workers learn a lot. Every day in the center is different. I learn a lot, and after work I am often invited to visit the families of my co-workers. But to get deeper answers to my questions bringing me here, I would need to stay longer.”

Asked how Internationalists and people abroad can support the works of Nûdem, Meryem says financial support is always needed. Speakin and hearing assistance devices need technical support that is widespread in other places and could make life much easier, but in North and East Syria they can´t be provided. Yet, material support is not primary. Meryem and Sîham agree, “Funding campaigns are nice, but it is more important to spread the word of what is done over here.”

All around the globe, fascist forces are rising. They attack society, women and human values and clearly devalue the lives of people with special needs. At the same time in North and East Syria, the war and the revolutionary transformation of society are going on. The efforts of Nûdem under these circumstances show a strong radicality and are an example of how to fight on a daily and communal basis for a society that is united in diversity. Nûdem and other societal institutions are always happy for professionals and Internationalists to come and share their knowledge who want to learn from the experience of the people.

For further information, visit the web page of Nûdem and read and share these articles:

https://nudemorg.com

https://anfenglishmobile.com/rojava-syria/-69919

Aleppo- Nûdem for Care and Support for People with Disabilities, an organization carrying out various activities to be in solidarity with people with disabilities and assist them overcome the difficulties in their lives, has started carrying out activities in Aleppo, northern Syria’s largest city. The organization aims to reach people with disabilities in all cities.

‘We have recorded 425 people with disabilities in two neighborhoods’

Meryem Şêx Qamber, Spokesperson of Nûdem and a person with a disability, told NuJINHA that the organization first started its activities in two neighborhoods of Aleppo. “We have already started carrying out our activities in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods. We have recorded 425 people with disabilities in these two neighborhoods. We have already started determining their needs. We have provided both music and painting courses to them.”

‘The number of people with physical disabilities is on the rise’

The organization also supports the people with disabilities displaced from Shahba. “We work to determine their number. The number of people with physical disabilities is on the rise. As the organization, we also collect clothes and deliver them to displaced people with disabilities in the neighborhoods.’

‘Our aim is to support all people with disabilities across Aleppo’

Nûdem also aims to be in solidarity with women and children with disabilities. “Today, we carry out our activities for people with disabilities in the Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods,” said Meryem Şêx Qamber. “Our aim is to support all people with disabilities across Aleppo.”

Nûdem has supported more than 100 families in Aleppo’s Sheikh Maqsoud and Ashrafieh neighborhoods.

1. Can you briefly introduce your organisation? What is the aim of the organisation?

We are a group of volunteers who have been campaigning for disability rights and equality for over three years. And so, this year, we decided to create the organisation Nudem in order to strengthen our work and to be able to support the people concerned more effectively through our work. The board of Nudem consists of 7 people and I am the spokesperson. On the board, 2 people with disabilities take their place. Each member is responsible for different committees.

We strive to integrate disabled people into society. We want to create awareness in society that disabled people exist. That they are full members of society and that society also has the responsibility to support them.

To educate society, we offer different types of education. One is for people with disabilities, for their families and for people who work with people with disabilities. Through regular home visits, we try to find out what people with disabilities need in their daily lives and support them where it is needed. So we also get into a close exchange with the families, we have some projects that provide material support, e.g. hearing aids, walking aids and the like, and we try to enable people to work independently through training. And we try very hard to coordinate between the regional and international organisations and institutions working for disabled people in the region.

2. Where does your work take place?

We are active all over northern and eastern Syria.

And our centre is in Qamishlo, but we are working on setting up centres in different places. And we are currently looking for a new location, as the current one is an improvised solution.

3. What are the problems at the moment? And what are your approaches to solving them?

As we are an independent organisation and receive no outside support, the problems we face are mostly financial. The people we visit and who ask us for help often also need material and financial support. However, since our financial resources are very limited, we are often unable to help. We have helpful people who volunteer with us and we have worked with many families and people with disabilities over the years, documenting their needs and wishes. We have also developed many ideas and projects, but without funding it is very difficult to implement them.

Educating and taking care of the families on an emotional level is a very important step, but if there is then a lack of material help for the daily means to remedy the impairment for a barrier-free life, the families’ trust in the organisation also dwindles.

Therefore, we approach the institutions of the autonomous administration of Northern and Eastern Syria and various organisations dealing with the same issue for support. So we often receive material and logistical support or use their premises to organise trainings, but of course this is not enough.

4. How is the approach of society and families towards people with disabilities? Is there discrimination?

As I said earlier, an important part of our work is to educate society and create awareness that people with disabilities are equal members of society and deserve equal opportunities. But unfortunately, when we visit families, we still too often find that this awareness raising is a difficult and lengthy job.

There are families who are convinced that their child is not capable of working and that he or she will not find employment anywhere anyway, and who do not let him or her try, so that he or she stays in the house and is kept away from society. On the other hand, families are often afraid to let their children, young or old, out of the house for fear that they will be laughed at or harmed by society. Unfortunately, there are still people who do not accept people with disabilities and exclude them from society.

Most people we talk to don’t know how to get support for their disabled children or family members, and because they don’t know how to support them, it is often neglected. That is why it is important for us to publicise different centres where families can get support for their children’s treatment. As families often have too little knowledge on many issues, this leads to further limitations.

We hear many stories that make the problem in society very clear. One story is that of a 14-year-old girl, which we met during one of our home visits and in discussions with the family. The girl has a physical disability and can only move one arm and one leg with difficulty. Her mother told us that she only sent her daughter to school for 3 months because she had difficulty going to school every day. It was not impossible, just difficult. With such problems, it is important to understand that the difficulties she has in going to school cannot be compared in many other areas of her future. Now her child cannot read or write because the family itself did not have the opportunity to teach her at home. Such an approach leads to people with disabilities having even more hurdles to independent living. We want to change that!

5. Can you name a few ideas/projects that are planned for the future or are coming up in the near future?

Our daily work has shown us that there are still many areas to work on. We have prepared some projects that we want to realise in the near future, because there is an urgent need.

We would like to set up a centre for physiotherapy, as many who depend on it cannot afford it, as physiotherapy is usually too expensive for them. We want such a centre to offer treatments.

We are working to establish a centre for psychological counselling for people with disabilities and people who live with disabled people. It often brings a psychological burden for the people with disabilities and for the family members, because there is also discrimination by the society and some people feel sorry for people with disabilities and this puts a burden on the psyche.

We will also set up an education centre for children with Down syndrome and autism, because children with Down syndrome and autism are often not accepted in mainstream schools.

We also have training in various fields such as computer science, hairdressing, sewing and more on our programme so that they can pursue independent work and earn their own living in the future.

The families of people with disabilities have asked for health education in the communities so that they can treat their children from home when needed, for example, they can give the child an injection at home and not have to go to the doctor every time because it is very expensive when the children need it every day.

6. You are not only an activist for disabled people, but you were born with a disability yourself. Can you describe your situation and do many people with disabilities work with you?

Yes, that’s right, [I] myself have gone through many difficulties. After several operations, I am now a little better. Apart from me, there are other people with disabilities who work at the Nudem organisation. A friend who works on the board of the organisation is missing an arm and another friend who works as a volunteer has problems with her legs. In our charter, it was decided that people with disabilities have priority in taking up leadership roles and employment in our organisation.

Contact:

Facebook: nudem2021

whatsapp: +963939308949

mail: nudem2021@gmail.com

www.ngoplatform.org/NUDEM

Nudem Webseit is comming soon!!!