What We Do
ACES (Action for Community Empowerment in Syria) is an officially licensed local NGO in northern Syria. Established in 2022 in collaboration with Columbia University (New York), ACES partners with multiethnic grassroots leaders (Kurds, Syriacs, Armenians, Yezidis, and Arabs) to implement programs that enhance psychosocial well-being for marginalized communities affected by war, genocide, oppression, atrocities, and displacement.
Our organization empowers communities by building capacity and resilience, providing strategies to improve Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS), forming partnerships with NGOs with similar goals, and developing programs for protection of women and children. We also train educators to use effective methods to foster children’s academic and socioemotional development, provide support for people with special needs, and help northern Syrians to work together to heal from trauma and create a brighter future.
Since March 2023, ACES’ lead trainer, Professor Bonnie Miller, psychotherapist and Licensed Clinical Social Worker in Washington DC via Zoom, and Shiler Sido, ACES’ director, program coordinator, and translator, have conducted dozens of in-person workshops throughout northern Syria on MHPSS for hundreds of healthcare professionals, educators, community leaders, women’s groups, people with special needs, and local NGOs. Furthermore, we have extended our reach to others in less accessible locations through remote Zoom workshops.
Our Initiatives
Gender-Based Violence Prevention Campaign
In the Spring of 2024, ACES launched a comprehensive campaign with community leaders in Qamishli and al-Hasakah on prevention of Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Through training workshops, media campaigns, and forums, we gathered stakeholders to discuss recommendations for awareness raising, domestic violence prevention, and support for survivors. This ongoing and sustainable program has trained hundreds of participants and shared their recommendations with government authorities in the Justice, Health, Education, and Women's sectors.
Phase 2 of the GBV Prevention campaign provides outreach to organizations requesting domestic violence prevention training. We are working with nurses, lawyers, youth leaders, and Women’s Houses to provide training and materials to their colleagues in northern Syria.
Child Protection Campaign
ACES’ Summer and Fall 2024 initiative focused on Child Abuse and Maltreatment Prevention (CAMP) in Qamishli and its surrounding countryside and in Newroz camp, home to 4,700 people forcibly expelled from their homes by Turkish militias five years ago and now living in squalid tents. Our project raised awareness, offered positive parenting strategies, and suggested other preventive approaches for reducing the high incidence of physical, psychological, labor, and sexual maltreatment of youth in these areas of northern Syria.
ACES has organized training workshops and provided resources for 80 community leaders in Qamishli and 135 administrators in Newroz IDP camp. These leaders are now spreading the message of child abuse prevention throughout their communities. In addition, ACES has taught 800 school-age children in Newroz camp sexual abuse resistance skills, while also advocating for school attendance, respect for others, and proper nutrition. Our campaign has shared recommendations with local authorities to coordinate government and civil society partnerships that protect children and teens from all forms of abuse. With additional funding, we can extend our program to the 600 teens in Newroz camp who have no access to education and are vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation and early marriage.
The ACES team traveled throughout northeast Syria in 2023 to facilitate nine workshops in various locales. Professor Bonnie Miller shared background on supporting mental health, managing stress, and enhancing resilience after trauma.
On Mental Health Day in October 2024, ACES proudly inaugurated our new office in Qamishli, a larger space that can accommodate more participants for training and meetings. At the same ceremony, ACES launched Bonnie Miller’s two new manuals in Arabic language, Communicating with Children: Manual for Parents, and Connecting with Children in the Classroom: Manual for Teachers and to distribute copies to the organizations with which ACES works. ACES displayed these manuals for 8 days at the Qamishli Book Fair.
At the request of WHO and UNICEF, ACES will carry out four major activities in May for Mental Health Month 2025.
1) Facebook posted several times a week with videos and information about the importance of mental health in Syria and how it can be improved. The posts reached hundreds of ACES’ Facebook followers.
2)
Wellness Day in Nature event in Qamishli park – May 25
Breathing, movement,
dancing, imagery for over 200 participants ages 7 and up
Bonnie Miller introduced the concepts and activities, and Shiler Sido led multiple activities highlighting physical and mental wellbeing.
3)
Peacebuilding: Mental Health is the Antidote to
Conflict - May 19
100 community leaders gathered for a large an interactive forum, with Bonnie Miller and David Phillips presenting.
4) How Syria’s Youth Can Be Peacebuilders – May 26
Youth NGOs – 30+ participants
(20s and 30s) in-person workshop at
ACES’ office in Qamishli; 4 joined on Zoom from Northwest Syria. Participants were
mostly minorities: Kurds, Alawite, Druze, Armenians as well as Arabs.
Bonnie on Zoom with Shiler interpreting led activities and discussion covering mental health, communication, management of emotions, conflict resolution, youth activism, and peacebuilding. After the seminar, women stayed for a focus group to solicit their ideas about improving education for girls and young women in Syria.
Education: Train the Trainer Projects
In November and December 2024, ACES initiated an unprecedented, comprehensive training program for 100 primary and secondary school teachers in the underserved Deir Ezzor region of northern Syria. This 12-session online interactive training was led by Professor Bonnie Miller, LCSW, with interpretation by Shiler Sido. Participants received Bonnie Miller’s manuals for parents and teachers, along with Arabic language resources including informative PowerPoint presentations, surveys, and handouts. Topics focused on many aspects of modern teaching methods, addressing psychosocial challenges of Deir Ezzor students, and introducing interactive and social and emotional learning into daily teaching. Upon completing the program in January 2025, participants were evaluated, and 50 teachers were selected to serve as facilitators to conduct in-person workshops through July, sharing their knowledge with 4,000 colleagues in both urban and rural communities.
In August and September of 2025, ACES initiated a new project, conducting a comprehensive two-month training program for 149 teachers and principals from Qamishli and Hasakah. Delivered online via Zoom, the program featured 16 sessions—two per week—led by Professor Bonnie Miller. It covered a range of critical topics such as active and interactive learning, social and emotional learning, resilience and healing from trauma, mental health issues, substance abuse prevention, learning and attention difficulties, autism, classroom management and prevention of bullying, child abuse prevention, conflict resolution and peacebuilding, collaboration between schools and families, and self-care for educators. All participants were provided with practical tasks, homework assignments, and final assessments. The training concluded with a general forum where participants discussed recommendations for the Ministry of Education and suggestions for future initiatives.
Psychological First Aid (PFA) for Healthcare Professionals
In the fall of 2025, ACES' "whole of Syria" PFA program trained 76 nurses working in some of Syria’s most violent and vulnerable areas. Participants—Kurdish, Armenian, Assyrian, Yazidi, Arab, and Alawite medical professionals—have already begun training more than 1,000 healthcare colleagues, rapidly disseminating practical tools for compassionate care, trauma support, and resilience.
Nonprofit Status
As an approved (March 5, 2024) non-profit organization under the U.S. Internal Revenue Service code 501(c)(3), our umbrella organization, Opportunity for Survivors of Conflict, Oppression, and Disaster (OSCOD), can accept tax-deductible donations in the U.S.
Email – acessyria@gmail.com
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/aces.syria/
Website – www.acesyria.org
Visit the website of our funding organization at www.oscod.org