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Daraa vocational training for war-wounded: ‘We hope to at least restore a measure of self-confidence’

 The “first of its kind in Syria,” a Daraa-based course […]


8 December 2015

 The “first of its kind in Syria,” a Daraa-based course delivers training in computer and cellular-phone maintenance for war-wounded amputee and disabled students.

With the sight of amputees a now common one in Syria, an adult-learning course in Daraa province began vocational training on Tuesday for anyone wounded over the course of the war to “provide for their families, and reintegrate into society,” Abu Rami Bejbouj, the course’s director, told Syria Direct on Tuesday.

“Fourteen students have signed up, and enrollment’s still open for our initial course in computer and cellphone maintenance,” said Bejbouj of the two-week free-to-learn course in the rebel-held half of Daraa city in Syria’s south.

“The course is the first of its kind in Syria, granting a professional certificate for graduating students hoping to practice their new professional trade,” Said a-Nablusi, a journalist with the pro-opposition Yaqeen Media Foundation, told Syria Direct Tuesday.

For every war death in Syria, there are as many as six people wounded–men, women and children often left without immediate care or long-term assistance.

“Their needs are many, from psychological support, to simply getting around–we hope to at least restore a measure of self-confidence, so that the war’s wounded may once again earn a living,” said Bejbouj.

“Try as we might, we’ve nevertheless had to shorten our course’s curriculum, as we just don’t have the funding right now to go as far as we would like to,” he added.

The Local Committees of Daraa City, an initiative funded by the opposition-in-exile National Coalition for Syrian Revolutionary and Opposition Forces, is sponsoring the new course. 

Photo courtesy of the Yaqeen Media Foundation.

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