Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) Risk Education in Schools and Communities and ERW Victim Data Collection in Rural Damascus This project aims to train three teams for Explosive Remnants of War Risk Education ERW - RE and ERW victim data collection. The teams will travel around Rural Damascus providing school-age children with lectures and recreational activities to inform them about ERW, as well as distributing RE material in the form of handouts, crayons, notebooks and other school material. They will also provide RE material to the older generation, putting up posters about the ERW risks in besieged rural communities to increase the awareness of ERW threats. Teams will concurrently visit local hospitals and medical centers, interviewing survivors, doctors, nurses, patients and community members in order to gather ERW victims/survivors data and map it using remote survey software.
 
The project is therefore an educational campaign which will protect communities in Duma, Harasta, Nashabiyeh, Arbin, Kafr Batna and Maliha by informing them about the dangers of ERW, and will also form a base network for data recording and further support for ERW victims/survivors from Rural Damascus. Three teams of five, each consisting of two groups of two and a team leader, will provide two sessions a day four days a week, to groups of approximately 20 children.  Each of the 15 members of staff involved will attend four training days on safeguarding, child protection and psycho-social support awareness, and from the beginning of the school year on 15 September to its end on 30 April (omitting three weeks holiday) the groups will each enact the project across Rural Damascus. Over the course of 28 weeks the teams will directly reach an estimated 26,880 children, and 53,991 people in total.
 
The RE part of the project provides two main activities. The first RE activity is delivery of lectures and recreational programs to groups of teachers and students these will form a curriculum for mines and ERW awareness in schools. The curriculum contains lessons and planned activities and games which will raise children's awareness of ERW and their ability to identify them and act safely around them. Rural Damascus is mostly contaminated with ERW rather than landmines in this environment the curriculum will prioritize and concentrate its focus on ERW, cluster bombs, unexploded barrel bombs and other relevant hazardous items. Teams will provide the targeted schools with training and booklets containing this curriculum, and thereby try to  integrate education about ERWs and living safely with ERWs into the school program so that children will internalize the information rather than just recall it. HALO and Shafak organisations feel that ERWs are a long-term problem, and that as such, long impact approaches for children must be sustained. The second RE activity is distribution of leaflets and posters with basic instructions about the avoidance of ERW, including information about Improvised explosive devices (IEDs) and precautions to be taken, to parents and to communities in coordination with local councils.
 
The second part of this project is ERW victim/survivor data collection and the facilitation of psycho-social support provision to the victims/survivors. Team members will visit every accessible hospital and medical center, and gather available and relevant data about the victims/survivors of ERW accidents, using specifically designed questionnaires to ensure the consistency of the data. The information collected will be recorded into a database which will be designed using HALO’s experience of survivor interviews and ERW mapping, and Shafak's experience within Syria of data collection and remote monitoring through it information will be made available to share with other humanitarian actors, particularly those offering psycho-social support and direct Victim Assistance (VA). Data collected, especially the location of accident and type of ERW, will then be used as an additional tool to plan ERW clearance in the future.