Supporting Conflict Affected Communities with Specialized CP and GBV Community-Based Protection Mechanisms Global Communities, in collaboration with the International Supporting Women’s Association (ISWA) and Ghiras Foundation, will improve the protection environment in northern Syria through the provision of services to vulnerable women and children and strengthening the capacity of local protection actors, specifically related to gender-based violence (GBV) and child protection (CP). The project will target community level support to GBV survivors and mitigate the risk of GBV, address factors leading to child recruitment/labor, and other conflict related protection risks by supporting women and children safe spaces. These spaces will serve as a foundation from which to engage the community in providing direct activities and establishing mobile outreach teams. The project is designed to be twelve months, with partner activities covering ten months. This includes 1-2 months of staff training and start-up of each of the three centers as well as 2-3 cycles of psychosocial support (PSS).  The project will benefit 12,400 direct beneficiaries, including girls, boys, women and men. Children ages 4-18 and women and girls of all ages are the target of this program. Engaging these most vulnerable and at-risk among these groups will be a key aspect of the outreach teams. ISWA will establish and provide services based in one Women and Children Safe Space (WCSS) in Khan Shaykun within Idleb governorate, providing primarily GBV prevention and response services, using the GBV emergency response model, in addition to complementary CP services. Ghiras Foundation will focus on CP service provision in two locations – Madiq Castle in Hama and Jarablus in Aleppo, with complementary GBV awareness and prevention activities. Each location will recruit and train additional staff to engage mobile outreach teams. GC will hire 1 GBV Field Officer and 2 PSS Specialists based in Jarablus to provide emergency GBV response given the lack of GBV actors and services.

In Jarablus, Ghiras Foundation will pilot a protection monitoring component. Depending on the security situation and accessibility, the protection monitoring (PM) will be expanded to Menbij and Al Bab. PM activities will build on existing activities in order to increase local acceptance of data collection. Other areas where PM activities have taken place have seen resistance where local perceptions are that information is taken and nothing is received. CFS animators and GC GBV Field Officers will be thoroughly engaged in the process, supporting the enumerators and the supervisor in collecting and verifying data. The process will coordinate with the PM Task Force including in developing tools and planning training sessions. 

Both of the partners under this project are new to Global Communities and we will work closely with them to build their capacity as needed and provide technical assistance. One in-person training will be held in Gaziantep for staff from Global Communities and both partners as well as continuous technical support in the form of Skype trainings and weekly check-ins. Training will be conducted using Protection Cluster and sub-cluster materials and in coordination with the cluster lead. Global Communities will also distribute dignity kits as needed to the partners for distribution in each of the project locations. IEC materials based on key cluster messaging will be provided to communities in the project area and training on PSS will be provided to the GC and partner staff to ensure the quality of this important service being provided in areas lacking in other services, as well as to support consistent service provision across locations. GC Grants Department will conduct continuous training and mentoring sessions. Global Communities’ proposed program is also cost effective, and leverages existing operations and program resources to maximize efficiency. We have included minimal support costs, and limited costs for administrative and operational support staff.