future now”

Examples of
peacebuilding activities
Idleb
Combating the proliferation of small arms
in the Atmeh IDP camp
Many of the women activists who participated in this
initiative did not necessarily see it as peacebuilding (as
detailed in Chapter Three). Similarly, the women empowerment
centre that organized and launched the campaign
also said that peacebuilding was not one of the centre’s
objectives. However, when confronted with potentially rising
violence in their area, the activists found themselves
obliged to act.
It started with a personal dispute over the public water tap
in the camp, which ignited other hidden tensions. Soon
the fighting escalated into a shooting in which a man trying
to calm the situation down was killed.
“The spread of personal weapons in the camp on one hand
and the absence of a governing law on the other were the
main reasons behind these types of repeated incidents.
There was at least one piece of weaponry in each tent,”
explained Ahlam, a woman activist in the camp.
Ahlam and her peers at the Center for Women’s Empowerment
decided to organize a campaign targeting the root
cause of the shootings – the availability of small arms.
The campaign was launched on International Volunteer
Day in 2014. It was accompanied by a volunteer programme
called Together for a Better Life which included a
cleaning initiative carried out by the women activists (as
a way to couple the disarmament action with a social one
to make it easier to accept). In total, around one hundred
women participated.
Over two hundred pamphlets carrying the following messages
were distributed among the people in the camp:
• No wasting water or fighting over the waiting line.
• No begging or trespassing on the rights of others.
• No using of weapons inside the camp.
The pamphlets also had a drawing of a pencil emerging
from a weapon instead of a bullet.
To ensure that the campaign would be successful, Ahlam
explained that she made use of her social status and good
relationships with most of the women who frequented
her organization’s centre. Overall, the camp community’s
trust in the centre, which provides various services for
women, such as awareness, education, crafts and psychological
support, was beneficiary for the positive response
to the campaign.
In addition, the women activists were helped by the cooperation
of the camp administration in controlling the
spread of small arms.
Given that there are no precise methods to determine the
exact number of small arms present in the camp, it is difficult
to assess the impact the campaign had. However,
the general feeling of the activists is that there has been a
decrease, especially when it comes to the number of incidents
involving weapons.
Aleppo
Controlling child recruitment
In light of the conflict escalation and appearance of armed
forces with extremist ideologies, any potential civil activity
in areas like Aleppo has become very difficult. As stated
by one women activist, “Amid this illogical atmosphere,
many critical changes and serious violations have been
disintegrating our society and we have had little room as
women to respond or object.”
However, when the activists in the women’s group she
belongs to started to see children under the age of 18
carrying weapons to join the armed groups, they felt they
had to do something to protect the children. Therefore,
they decided to intervene using subtle means.
The activists felt that influencing mothers and raising
their awareness of the horrible consequences of joining
the war would be for their children as their only opportunity
to combat child recruitment.
Children playing with homemade weapons of pieces of wood
and junk. Bench, countryside of Idleb. Photo: Abd Hakawati
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