Resilience Building
We provide multi-purpose assistance and enhance income-generating capacity through a protection lens, meeting the needs of the most vulnerable households. This includes food, non-food items, shelter solutions, house rehabilitation, and critical livelihood training and support.
Protection Lens
Safety, dignity and do-no-harm principles are priorities across all SARD’s work. With its Protection Mainstreaming Programming Policy, SARD is committed to ensuring humanitarian assistance is delivered in a safe, accessible, accountable, and participatory manner.
E-Vouchers
Regardless of displacement status, SARD ensures families have access to essential items beyond the immediate crisis. We support families' resilience with cash vouchers which give families the dignity of choice and flexibility to buy essential items according to their self-identified needs and priorities while contributing to the local economy.
Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene
For families fleeing violence and disasters, SARD provides emergency hygiene kits, access to water supplies, and installs emergency sanitation and latrines. This not only meets immediate needs, but enhances privacy and reduces protection risks. In 2020, SARD updated its hygiene kits package to include additional soap and hand sanitizer in response to Covid-19.
Expertise in Shelter Solutions
SARD improves the living conditions of conflict-affected households by minimising safety and protection risks, ensuring that shelters protect from harsh weather conditions, and provide adequate privacy. Shelter solutions are carried out through cash grants, in-kind assistance, or rehabilitation projects. SARD’s shelter expertise has been recognized widely in the humanitarian field. In 2020, SARD was selected to be a member of the Shelter Strategic Advisory Group offering technical and advisory support to other NGOs working in Syria.
Spotlight: Livelihood Projects
Ali expands his beekeeping business in Azaz with a cash grant and business coaching.
Following up on a successful pilot project in 2018, SARD expanded its technical expertise to the livelihood sector in 2019. Our livelihood projects support conflict-affected households to shift from humanitarian dependency toward financial self-sufficiency.
SARD’s livelihood component focuses on local ownership and capacities strengthening following an early recovery approach. Examples of restored income-generating activities include those in the service sector (such as hairstylist, tiling and plumbing services, blacksmith, mechanic), the food and agricultural sector (chicken store, farming project, beekeeping), and fashion retail and services (clothing store, dressmaking, shoemaker).
The project has had a significant impact on households’ financial situation, successfully reducing beneficiaries’ dependency on aid and providing them with an alternative source of income. Our livelihood component contributed to enhancing household food security. At the same time, the additional income positively impacted beneficiaries’ mental well-being, reducing stress and anxiety about providing for their family’s needs. At the community level, the project positively impacted local employment opportunities (including for the most vulnerable, people with special needs, IDPs, and women), lower prices, improved availability of goods in targeted communities, and stimulated other local businesses.