The Salaam Foundation team has had a busy start to 2025.
The team has visited communities in Lesotho, Malawi, Madagascar and most recently returned from a trip to Turkiye and Syria to assess the situation on the ground.
Salaam Foundation works in these countries all year around but the trips since the beginning of the year were undertaken to see the progress of the various projects in the communities and to assess what help is needed.
In February/March 2025, the team undertook the journey to Syria and Turkiye. Since 2016, Salaam Foundation has been assisting Syrian refugees living in Turkiye. The December 2024 fall of the longstanding Assad regime gave the team the chance to enter into Syria and do a thorough assessment of the situation on the ground and what is the best way forward to assist the people on the ground.
In Turkey, work continues on education and emergency relief programmes
Salaam Foundation co-director, Azhar Vadi said: “It has been a human catastrophe and a humanitarian disaster.”
Over the past ten years of the civil war, around five to seven million people have been displaced – some becoming internally displaced people while others crossed the border into Turkey either to settle there or to seek refuge in Europe.
Vadi said many have estimated that around one million people have been killed in this period of time. The long period of violence and conflict has meant the effects have been devastating and many are in need of assistance. For this reason, Salaam Foundation has decided to focus specifically on women and children.
In November 2024, the Salaam Foundation team started supporting the Madrassah Rashideen Child and Nurturing Care Centre in Sanliurfa, Turkey. The madrassah provides Islamic education to approximately 400 students everyday – both girls and boys. The students from the Syrian refugee community as well as from local Turkish families. For the children who have been facing many years of uncertainty and difficulties as a result of being displaced through war, the centre provides a safe space where they can learn.
We delivered Ramadhan food assistance to residents of Zaahira and Yarmouk, Syria, some of the poorest communities that have been ravaged by the 14 year war.
Salaam Foundation
FNB 62669147665
Branch 250737
Ref: syr +your name (zakat /lillah /sadaqa)https://t.co/EwxgqfRdqC— Salaam_Foundation (@salaam_found) March 2, 2025
During the visit to parts of Syria including Yarmook and Zaahira where food parcels were distributed to displaced communities, the Salaam Foundation decided to continue the project of child and nurturing care centres in Syria.
The children of Syria, the children of tomorrow, the children of freedom.
We will continue supporting and providing a nuturing environment for Syrian children coming out out of 14 years of war. Support our child upliftment programmes this Ramadan. https://t.co/vLPQvFLNAj pic.twitter.com/DB2Sd8LcQ3— Salaam_Foundation (@salaam_found) March 2, 2025
“It is very difficult for these children. So our intention is to set up these child care and nurturing centres within Syria itself,” said Vadi.
This will create employment within those communities in Syria while at the same providing the children who have faced many years of conflict and violence with a safe space. There are also plans to expand it into a skills centre for the women in the area to develop themselves.
Salaam Foundation’s work in Turkiye/Syria forms part of its other work in South Africa, the African continent, the Middle East and Asia with the aim of creating long-term sustainable development projects.
Continue to support Salaam Foundation in our Syria relief projects.
Salaam Foundation
FNB 62669147665
Branch 250737
Ref: syr +your name (zakat /lillah /sadaqa)
