Supporting IDP Communities in A’zaz with Access to Food and Hygiene Items and Building Up Women's Own Outreach Capacities The project is linked to the OPS project SYR-18/A/117626/R. WHH intends to deliver immediate support to people in need in the Euphrates Shield areas. The proposed intervention has two components: (1) distribution of multi-sectoral (FSL-WASH) vouchers to internally displaced persons (IDPs) living in camps and (2) Trainings of Trainers (TOTs) on hygiene awareness and practices followed by hygiene awareness campaigns in the camps. 

The first component of the project aims at covering the basic needs of IDPs in camps in the areas of food security and hygiene through multi-sectoral vouchers. Beneficiaries will be able to redeem the food and hygiene items from a list based on nutritional dietary and basic personal hygiene needs. The voucher value will be 60$ per HH per month and the each HH will receive it for three months. The activity will take place in two cycles and in each one 1,000 HHs will be targeted. In total, 2,000 HHs will benefit from the activity. The distribution will take place in IDP camps through blanket distribution. Vendors will be selected based on the proximity to the settlements and their supply capacity as well as the quality and price of items.

To complement this, the second component aims at increasing hygiene awareness in the IDP camps. Taking into account women empowerment, female camp members will be selected from the same camps and trained as hygiene mobilizers and develop a hygiene awareness campaign plan in the TOT. The TOT will also cover protection issues, allowing the mobilizers to recognize protection cases and act on them. This activity will also take place in two cycles in each one 10 women will be identified and trained followed by the implementation of the hygiene awareness campaign plan over a period of two months. It is targeted at women specifically, as they are mostly the ones who take care of the children and the hygiene and sanitation of the settlement places. Also considering female hygiene needs, women are more vulnerable. In a second step, the hygiene mobilizers will be sharing the information they learnt in the training by implementing the awareness campaign, which will include household visits inside their camps. Lastly, they will reflect on their experiences and gather lessons learnt in a report. They will also have the chance to reflect on their experiences and discuss lessons learnt in a one-day-session with the trainer of the TOT in a follow-up session after performing the HH visits. The hygiene mobilizers will receive incentives for their work.

By training and engaging female hygiene mobilizers from among the target population WHH supports further engagement and participation of women in the humanitarian response. In order to create a combination where people in need will be able to redeem hygiene items through the vouchers and learn practical knowledge on hygiene, both components address the same target group. 

The selection of camps will be based on humanitarian principles, where the most vulnerable camps will be targeted based on the less access they have to food and hygiene items. The project will be implemented inside IDP camps since the people living there had to leave their belongings behind, which puts them into a more vulnerable position. Assessments show that there is a functioning market in the area, however, lack of financial inputs of people limit people to access basic food and hygiene items people either procure, borrow or work for food. Considering the dignity of people living in camps, the vouchers will allow them to redeem basic food and hygiene items. The distribution will be a blanket distribution in order not to cause any tensions among people in the community.