We attended an event on 10 March 2016 hosted by the Humanitarian and Conflict Resource Institute at the University of Manchester titled 'Contested Syria, Contested Knowledge: Insights, Challenges, and Lessons from Research and Grassroots Reporting'. The event featured Dr.
Syrian women enjoyed a social evening in the office on 11 March. The office will be open on Thursday evenings from 6-10 pm for women and we are open for all women to join.
Our article on civilian protection in Syria has been published in 'Syria Notes' by the Friends of Syria All-Party Parliamentary Group. We wrote about the imperative for civilian protection and the central role that protection plays in resolving the conflict in Syria.
We attended the 'Celebration of Muslim Women's Achievements' on Saturday 5 March which proved to be a lovely evening. This event highlighted some of the many achievements of a diverse group of Muslim women. Syrian women also contributed to this event by highlighting the struggles and the successes of Syrian women despite five years of conflict.
We attended the Ordinary Women, Extraordinary Tales event at Manchester Central Library on 3 March 2016. We wrote stories of inspirational Syrian women to stick on the map of Manchester. These stories are going to be typed up by the Central Library and go into the archives under inspirational women so that everyone will be able to read them there.
We participated in an event on 29 February organised by Manchester University's Students Union titled 'Recognise Refugee Rights: Syria'. After the audience watched the documentary 'Departing: Arrivals' which interviews new Syrian refugees to Manchester, the audience heard from:
Rethink Rebuild Society showed the film ‘A Syrian love story’ on Sunday 28 February 2016 followed by a discussion about the film and about the Syrian cause in general and of refugees more specifically.
Our Refugee Support Coordinator Amaf Yousef participated as a speaker in a workshop held by Refugees Welcome Merseyside in Liverpool on 27th February 2016. He shared stories and experiences that Syrians have had in Syria and in neighbouring countries and discussed how these experiences can affect their resettlement to the UK.
Our Refugee Support Coordinator spoke at a dinner held by the University of Manchester's Islamic Society about Syrians' ethical, academic and career successes during their UK experience. This dinner was hosted by the Islamic Society to welcome new Syrians to the community.
On 25 February, a group of over 200 civil society organisations submitted a letter to President Putin reminding him of his country's complicity in war crimes and crimes against humanity. We called on him to stop bombing civilian areas and those controlled by moderate opposition forces and to leave Syria.