Syria
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© CBM
Kindergarten for children with visual impairment in Homs, Syria
Our Strategy
CBM has been active in Syria since 1979. Syria is not one of CBM’s focal countries due to its ranking on the Human Development Index, but has a strong variation in national development standards and poverty levels. Poverty pockets exist in rural areas.
The focus of CBM in Syria is on capacity building / training as well as on advocacy and on developing model projects with measurable impact. Successful models will be presented to governmental stakeholders and CBM and our partners together will advocate for their nationwide replication.
Physical/medical rehabilitation
According to the World Bank in 2005, physical rehabilitation services by government sponsored programmes in Syria are reaching out to less than 5% of the disabled population.
However, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), access to physical rehabilitation services in Syria has significantly improved over the recent years. The Land Mine report 2008 rated the availability of physical rehabilitation services for land mine survivors as adequate.
Physical rehabilitation services are provided by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Defense, as well as by private centres and international organisations. By law, the cost of all orthopaedic appliances for Syrian citizens should be covered by the ministries of health, social affairs, or defense.
In recent years quality and quantity of the public health services have declined, forcing people to turn to the private sector which is not affordable for all. The Syrian health system was strained by an increasing number of Iraqi refugees who are also entitled to free services.
Although 90% of people living in rural areas have access to health care, the urban centres provide generally better quality services and remote areas suffer from a lack of staff and equipment.
Education for children with disabilities
The UNESCO highlighted in 2008 that Syria may be one of 57 countries not achieving the goal of providing adequate education for all children by 2015.
Most education in Syria is conducted by the state, but legislation passed in 2001 has allowed the establishment of private schools and colleges.
As the insufficiency of quality education for children with disabilities in both special and general education settings stems from a lack of teacher education and training in the fields of disabilities and inclusive education and the limited availability of teacher preparation programs in special education.
The consequences especially for girls, are reflected in official statistics revealing that only 20 % of women with disabilities in Syria were literate, compared to 66 % of the total female population who are literate and 40 % for men with disabilities (who are literate).
