Envelope 1: Providing dignified and safer living conditions through shelter support and integrated services, including protection, early recovery and education, in Northwest Syria. The project will directly contribute to Envelope 1: “Provision of shelter support and integrated services leading to dignified and safer living conditions in 22 underserved and high-needs areas, through completing and/ or integrating with dignified shelter solutions and education services” and the FSL’s Cluster’s Objective: “Support self-reliance of affected households by protecting and building productive assets and restoring or creating income generating opportunities to save and sustain lives”. 

NRC proposes an integrated, safe and dignified shelter, early recovery, protection, and education project to improve living conditions and services for vulnerable households in IDP sites in NWS, and a complementary food security project providing small business grants for conflict-affected communities to support self-reliance and create income generating opportunities. The integrated project will focus on the provision of safe and dignified, transitional shelter solutions integrated with community infrastructure and services including income generation (cash for work- CFW) and vital education services and pathways. Covered by other funding, the project will be complemented by ongoing water and WASH services provided by NRC, HLP due diligence, legal awareness and protection analysis. Activities will be in Al Wdhehee and neighboring camps in the Deir Hasan cluster.

Al Wdhehee camp is selected due to the high number, and ratio, of vulnerable households residing in tents and that the majority of the camp is located on public lands, to reduce HLP risks or violations. NRC will support residents to meet basic needs and benefit from improved physical safety and protection through the construction of transitional shelters for households living in tents. A number of households in the camp also reside in unfinished shelters of varying quality, so in order to ensure this group is also supported to meet minimum dignified living conditions, NRC will provide conditional cash for households to improve their shelters. NRC will further improve the conditions through construction of vital infrastructure and services, such as water and sewer networks, street lighting and public spaces. NRC will integrate early recovery with CFW for temporary employment and income generation opportunities. CFW will support the construction of new shelters, improvements or rehabilitation of site infrastructure and education facilities, and will improve community cohesion and strengthen community ownership. NRC will establish a Community Mobilisation team to enable strong community engagement and participation throughout the duration of the project, to address any community tensions and to identify and mitigate potential protection risks. 

To further promote sustainable futures for residents, quality education services and pathways are needed. NRC will therefore provide out of school children in Al Wdhehee and neighbouring camps with quality non-formal education that prepares them to transition into the formal system. NRC will support nearby schools through rehabilitation, school supplies, teacher training and set up of PTAs to ensure there are suitable learning spaces for out of school children in which to transition, and will target children already in school with a pathway that supports retention. Children who will not be able to transition to Formal Education will be supported with a NFE pathway that ensures they are engaged in learning until an opportunity for enrolment arises. 

NRC will also implement Small Business Grants (SBGs) to strengthen the resilience and self-reliance of conflict-affected communities (out of camp). The SBG initiative will support the start-up and recovery of micro or small businesses, contributing to the creation of long-term jobs, increased local economy’s capacity for production of goods or service delivery, market protection and improved business skills of target population, and will be coordinated with all relevant actors.