Earth Day with SARD

Every year on April 22, the world comes together to celebrate Earth Day—a global call to protect our one and only home and take meaningful steps to ensure it is there for us and future generations. At SARD, this year's Earth Day was an opportunity to bring together communities across Syria and in Adıyaman, Türkiye to clean, plant, and protect our planet.

Earth Day is a powerful moment for us to amplify our impact for the environment—but the environment is more than just this one day or week—it’s something we mainstream across all our programs and responses, all year long.

When planning for our Earth Day activities, our Syria HR Officer Osama Zahra captured our sentiment well when he shared with our team:

“The earth is our roots, from whose bounty we live, and the air that keeps us alive. As long as the earth is well, we are well.”

Here are some of the Earth Day activity highlights thus far- with more planned in the next week!

Environmental Awareness & Education

Raising environmental awareness was at the heart of our Earth Day efforts. Educational sessions were held in several schools and spaces in Kelly, Ma’arrat Tamasrin, Azaz, and Ariha, Syria, where students explored the importance of keeping their surroundings clean and green. These lessons encouraged environmental stewardship, emphasizing how a healthy environment benefits personal and community well-being—and how everyone, especially future generations, can play a role in protecting it. The students would follow the lesson with a clean-up session on their school grounds!

In addition to school-based sessions, awareness flyers were distributed in local markets and public areas, helping spread key messages around clean and green spaces more widely.

Cleanup Campaigns

Cleanup efforts formed the backbone of our Earth Day actions, reminding everyone that a cleaner environment starts with each of us. These campaigns involved students, teachers, volunteer teams, community committees, cash-for-work workers, local councils, and SARD staff, all working side by side.

We carried out cleaning campaigns in the following communities:

• Kelly, Ma’arrat Tamasrin, Azaz, and Ariha, Syria

• Adiyaman, Turkey,

Tree Planting & Greening Public Spaces

Across Kelly, Ma’arrat Tamasrin, Azaz, and Ariha, Syria, tree planting campaigns brought people together to improve public spaces and highlight the importance of green areas to our health and our community health. Trees and native plants were added to schoolyards, public medians, and parks.

Every tree planted - whether by a child or one of our elders, was a small but meaningful step toward a healthier and hopeful future for all of us.

Social Cohesion and Community Building

In Syria, the opportunity to celebrate Earth Day is more than just an activity—it was a chance to bring community members together. Across our activities, people from different backgrounds worked side by side: children, youth, volunteers, local councils, community committee members, teachers, and more came together around a shared goal of protecting and investing in their local environment.

These collective actions help strengthen social ties, foster a sense of belonging, and promote cooperation. For SARD, protecting the environment also means helping rebuild the social fabric of Syrian communities.

Later this week, we will be celebrating and honoring our Earth Day volunteers:

• In Kelly, we will honor local sanitation workers with certificates to show appreciation for their essential role in maintaining a healthy and clean environment.

• A closing ceremony in Azaz and exhibitions in Ariha, will recognize participants and volunteers.

Looking Forward

As we wrap up this week’s Earth Day activities, one thing is clear—our commitment to the environment remains. We only have one mother Earth and we owe it to future generations to care for it and protect it.

Many thanks to our donors and partners! Kelly activities were supported by the Aid Fund for Syria. Azaz activities were supported by the Syria Cross-Border Humanitarian Fund. Ariha activities were carried out in partnership with Islamic Relief. All other activities were funded by SARD and carried out in collaboration with Hope Makers Team and an incredible network of volunteers.