With a deep, full-bodied inhale, and a beam across his face, my Syrian friend said to me “At last we can breathe!” It was the end of December 2024, shortly after a long dark chapter of Syria’s history had suddenly closed with the monumental collapse of the Assad regime, a moment most Syrians had never dared dream about. His relief reflected the fear, oppression, hopelessness and pain experienced by a whole generation of Syrians.
Syria has a long history of oppression and human rights violations under the Assad family rule, but atrocities were committed on a widespread and systematic scale beginning with the Arab Spring. CVT has borne witness to this since 2011 when we began providing specialized trauma rehabilitation service to Syrian refugees in Amman, Jordan. From survivors who participated in these services, our teams gained meaningful insights and in 2016 we launched the Survivors of Torture Initiative (SOTI – or “My Voice” in Arabic) which, over more than a decade, has worked in collaboration with Syrian civil society to advance justice and heal trauma through networking, clinical training and services, and partnership development.
His relief reflected the fear, oppression, hopelessness and pain experienced by a whole generation of Syrians.”
-Justin Hett, clinical advisor for mental health
As a new year began in 2025, and a new day for Syria dawned, our team went into overdrive. Partner organizations were relocating to Syria, former detainees were returning to their families after years of painful separation, relatives were desperately searching for information about their missing loved ones. The needs of communities across the country were overwhelming. There was so much to do, and CVT was strategically placed to provide crucial support through our network of trusted partners developed over almost a decade. An ambitious response plan was quickly put in place, and with the support of our funders, we were ready for action.
And then something happened that no one could have anticipated.
Stop-work orders were issued following the U.S. freeze on foreign aid, and overnight all programming came to an abrupt halt. Within weeks our trauma rehabilitation program in Amman was totally and permanently shut down and our regional work suspended. Staff seasoned in dealing with the impact of trauma on others were suddenly faced with their own painful experience of helplessness and grief. Many lost their jobs, others were furloughed, and those of us connected to our Syrian work were stuck on the sidelines in stunned silence, trying to process the fact that we could not contribute at this critical time. Partner organizations also had their funds frozen and some communicated a sense of betrayal and isolation which also impacted staff.
Stop-work orders were issued following the U.S. freeze on foreign aid, and overnight all programming came to an abrupt halt.”
Uncertainty quickly became the new normal in 2025 and as the summer approached, the team was able to tentatively resume some background work. While much was on hold, the team decided to use the time to develop new training materials in response to some of the unique needs being faced by partner organizations in Syria. How can an organization develop sustainable practices and continue doing important work in a context of ongoing crises? How does trauma impact organizational culture and leadership practices? How can organizations become more resilient by enhancing their psychosocial, digital and physical safety practices? How can an organization implement truly trauma-informed programming? The team worked hard to create innovative and engaging training material, hoping that they would one day have the chance to implement them.
By the Fall, the long-term prospects for programming remained unclear, but the team knew that they had at least a few months in which they could re-engage with partners. Now the question was how to do as much as possible in what would likely be a small window of time available. We decided that the best way to support the largest numbers of partners was to make available a menu of all 12 SOTI trainings, including those that had been recently developed. Over 40 organizations working with survivors of torture, former detainees and families of the missing responded to a survey, in which we asked them to prioritize the three most critical training topics for their staff. Based on these requests, the CVT regional team quickly mobilized and set up a system which would ensure partners located in all governorates across Syria could receive the trainings remotely. Additional consultant trainers were brought onboard to help with this extensive training effort, and tools were created to ensure implementation was as streamlined as possible, including an integrated platform for material storage and an online feedback and evaluation system.
Over the course of four months, and by the end of the year, over 250 individuals from 15 organizations had benefited from the SOTI trainings and follow-up support. Participants ranged from large international organizations to local grassroots groups doing incredible work to support their communities in a precarious funding environment.
The results were encouraging. Over 90% of those who provided feedback said that they strongly agreed or agreed that the training they participated in had achieved its intended outcomes. One participant said, “I am very happy with the content . . . the material was comprehensive, practical and directly relevant to the realities we face as a local civil society organization.” Another said, “The workshop topic was very important and practical. It can benefit everyone, regardless of their field of work, but especially those working in the healthcare sector. We hope that such workshops will be repeated due to their significant value.”
As 2025 drew to a close, and I rode in a taxi along a crowded Damascus street, I asked the driver how he felt a year on from the liberation. He shared of frustration, smoldering hope, unmet expectations and anxiety about the future. And then he turned to me, smiled, and said, ‘But at last we can breathe.’”
And then he turned to me, smiled, and said, “But at last we can breathe.”
In that moment I was aware of sharing some of those same feelings myself. Most of all however, I had a deep sense of gratitude and privilege, that as a team we had been able to make a small contribution at this critical, complex and challenging time in Syria’s history.
About The Author
Dr.
Justin Hett
