Nour is the director of the office of Seeds of Hope in Syria. In answering the questions in this interview she rarely says “I”, she almost always speaks in the plural – “we” – always letting the seriousness and passion with which she lives her role shine through.
In my previous professional experience, profit and loss were just numbers. I was in the economic-financial sector and those numbers represented money. But here, now, profit and loss mean people’s well-being . They mean generosity and kindness of many. I have learned another concept of what it really means to work: we help others achieve better living conditions. It is a truly precious thing.
What is your role? For a couple of years I have been coordinating and accompanying the implementation of Seeds of Hope projects throughout Syria. We are a team and our work is like a bridge: we must understand what the needs of the people we follow are and work for them. And make all this reach our partners, our donors, our network so that we can act together for the good of the Syrian community. It is a great responsibility. How is the situation in your country now? We had the war, the international sanctions, Covid, the crises in the countries around Syria. Everything. After this “everything”, the earthquake violently hit an already fragile social fabric . And I’m not just talking about structural damage to homes and roads, but also psychological damage. In a few seconds we relived instability, fear, insecurity. Basically all the feelings we had felt during the twelve years of war came back in a handful of moments. Every Syrian was affected, in one way or another. How does the Semi di Speranza project fit into this context? A crucial point of our projects are children, the most vulnerable part of the community. Many professionals have abandoned the country and there is a lack of trained people to provide an adequate school education. Semi di Speranza responds to these needs with its educational centers, such as the Piccoli Sogni and EHIS centers, where approximately 675 children from three to sixteen years old are followed. What are they? Ehis is a center dedicated to children with hearing impairments in Aleppo, where there are no other structures for children with these problems. Piccoli Sogni is instead dedicated to other groups of children and is located in Baniyas. This town during the war welcomed many refugee families, the center was born to create a place where these displaced children could feel at home. Another of the needs that Semi di Speranza works on is the medical aspect… Certainly. We have three medical centers in the cities of Homs and Hama. Medical care in Syria is very expensive and public hospitals cannot cover all needs. Nour, what does “reciprocity” mean to you? This is also an important thing that I learned working for Semi di Speranza : reciprocity is the main translation of dignity. It is the relationship between two parties that share well-being and experiences even through small actions, small initiatives. It is a bridge that unites people.
