Sisters’ Stories: How Abeer’s mental health has improved

Abeer is a teenager from Syria who became a refugee back in 2013, when she was just a young child.

The long-running war means she has lived in a small tent at Domiz 2 refugee camp with her six siblings and father for around 10 years, and so most of her memories are of living in displacement.

Always keen to learn, Abeer heard about our project with The Big Heart Foundation and NAMA, which is providing mental health support and awareness of gender-based violence, as well as financial support and business mentorship for new and existing women-led small businesses.

She decided to take part in our mental health counselling, as well as awareness-raising sessions and seminars, which have focused on topics around gender-based violence and abuse, early marriage and women’s rights.

Now Abeer says: “I wanted to participate in this project because I felt down mentally, and I wanted to feel better. I joined group sessions offered by the psychologist, and I encourage people of my age to be part of this because it can help you understand your feelings and how to deal with the problems we face as women and girls in refugee camps.”

In the project, our mental health sessions have covered multiple topics, including anxiety, depression, suicidal thoughts, self-care, art therapy and PTSD. Earlier in the year, we also ran a campaign to raise awareness of bullying, which came about after we received feedback from project participants that such harmful behaviour has increased inside camps, especially toward women and girls.

Another part of the program has seen a group of selected women take part in business management training, while they will also receive small grants to start businesses of their own choosing. During the training, business specialists concentrated on enhancing their skills in online marketing, financial management and networking.

Additionally, we have this year provided financial support to 10 existing women-led businesses in Rwanga and Essyan camps, which had suffered due to economic hardship caused by the pandemic. This has allowed them to restart their businesses and purchase new stock and essential items needed to get back on track.

We’re so glad the project is having such positive impacts right across the board…