Providing protection and community services to IDPs, returnees and host communities in Daraa and Rural Damascus. Project Summary :	The primary aim of this proposal is to respond to the severe and urgent protection concerns persisting throughout southern Syria, Dar’a and Rural Damascus, through community-based protection services. 
In Rural Damascus, UNHCR will provide protection services and reduce protection risks through its new established Satellite Centers in Harasta. In Harasta and its surrounding, more than 70% of the population has been affected by the crisis, and there are an estimated 920 families in need of protection assistance, such as psychosocial support, child protection, and education for those who dropped out of the school due to the crisis. Based on the needs, UNHCR has decided, in close coordination with Syrian Arab Red Crescent (SARC) to establish a Satellite Center in 2019. The Satellite Center will be operational from October 2019, and will assist an estimated number of 2,570 individuals. In Daraa, there is an estimated number of 135,890 individuals in need of protection assistance in the catchment area of the newly- established satellite center (Kherbet Ghazala). UNHCR through partnership with SARC will provide the protection services in its Satellite Center in Kherbet Ghazala to an estimated number of 22,400 individuals. 
UNHCR protection interventions are mainly delivered through Community Centres, Satellite Centres, mobile units, and a broad network of outreach volunteers through which UNHCR provides an integrated package of protection services to IDPs, refugees, returnees and host communities, including targeted in-kind assistance, non-formal education, small scale livelihoods support, legal assistance, recreational activities, psychosocial support (PSS), SGBV prevention and response, community-based initiatives as well as awareness raising sessions. This network of community-based structures constitutes a fundamental tool for the implementation of UNHCR community-based protection strategy, reaching out to affected populations, assessing protection risks and needs using a participatory age, gender and diversity approach, identifying community resources, and offering services and support to the affected populations. 

Providing community-based protection services will help meeting the critical gaps that have emerged in Daraa as a result of the ongoing hostilities and Rural Damascus considering the huge needs and the limited access. Through these static and mobile community-based protection services, UNHCR with its partner SARC will reinforce positive coping mechanisms, formulate practical solutions, and develop a protection referral system to strengthen the overall quality of the humanitarian response. UNHCR teams launched the concept of satellite centers in 2017– a small scale version of the protection center, in order to rapidly reach populations who have suffered long-term trauma and deprivation with a prioritized basket of key protection-related services. Community-based protection approach in the community will ensure that the responses address their prioritized needs and take their capacities into account that the risk of SGBV will be reduced, child protection will be strengthened, services for persons with specific needs will be provided and community mobilization will be strengthened and expanded.