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.
Current Initiatives:
Podcast For Young people
Since February 2024, Shiler Sido has initiated in-person activities for adolescents and young adults to improve their mental health and develop leadership skills. ACES’ podcast series on psychosocial support strategies for young people now reaches hundreds of listeners.
GBV 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.
On Mental Health Day in October, 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,
Education / ToT project
In November, 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 modern teaching methods, social and emotional learning, trauma healing, bullying prevention, self-care for teachers, parent-teacher collaboration, and other subjects requested by the teachers. Upon completing the program in January, participants will be evaluated, and up to 50 teachers will be selected to conduct in-person workshops through May, sharing their knowledge with 3,000 colleagues in both urban and rural communities.
Nonprofit Status
As an approved (March 5, 2024) non-profit organization under the Internal Revenue Service code 501(c)(3), our umbrella organization, Opportunity for Survivors of Conflict, Oppression, and Disaster (OSCOD), can now accept tax-deductible donations in the U.S.
Email – acessyria@gmail.com
Facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/aces.syria/
Website – www.acesyria.org
Donate (tax-deductible in the US) – contact us at bonniemiller99@gmail.com
Our funding organization in the U.S. just launched its new website at www.oscod.org