Child Guardians’ Youth Guardians programme has been empowering young leaders since 2018, creating safe spaces for participation while building the next generation of community leaders across northwestern Syria.
How Young Leaders in Northwestern Syria Are Building Stronger Communities
Our Youth Guardians Programme
Since 2018, Child Guardians has championed the Youth Guardians Programme, recognizing that sustainable change happens when young people are empowered to lead. Here’s how adolescents and young adults across northwestern Syria are transforming their communities from within.
In northwestern Syria, young people face extraordinary challenges. Yet rather than being passive recipients of aid, they’re stepping up as leaders, innovators, and change-makers in their own communities. Through Child Guardians’ Youth Guardians programme, 380 young volunteers across 9 youth committees are proving that when adolescents and young people are given the right tools and support, they become powerful agents of positive change.
The Vision: Safe Spaces and Full Participation
The Youth Guardians programme aims to create a safe and enabling environment that supports the full participation of young people aged 15-24 in civic, social, economic, and cultural life. This isn’t just about youth engagement—it’s about ensuring their rights and freedoms as guaranteed by the Human Rights Convention while building their capacity to protect themselves and other children.
A Three-Stage Journey to Youth Empowerment
Stage One: Building Awareness and Skills
The journey begins with raising community awareness about youth support while providing young people with essential tools, skills, and a conducive environment for growth. This foundation-setting stage ensures both communities and youth are prepared for meaningful participation.
Stage Two: Practical Leadership Experience
Young people move into hands-on roles, leading initiatives that serve their communities through practical experience. This stage transforms skills into action, building confidence and demonstrating the real impact youth can have when empowered.
Stage Three: Sustainable Community Change
The ultimate goal: communities where young people have safe spaces to address the challenges they face, where stakeholders actively protect youth rights, and where youth initiatives become influential, impactful entities driving long-term change.
How It Works: Specialized Youth Committees
Each youth committee comprises approximately 20 adolescent boys and 20 adolescent girls, strategically distributed across Idlib and western Aleppo. The programme operates on specialization principles, with youth organizing themselves into focused committees including:
This structure ensures that young people can focus their energy on areas where they’re most passionate and skilled, while contributing to comprehensive community development.
When Crisis Became Opportunity - the devastating 2023 earthquake
The February 2023 earthquake tested the resilience of these young leaders—and they rose to the challenge in extraordinary ways.
Emergency Response Leadership
After the February 2023 earthquake, the Youth Peacebuilding Committee coordinated in-kind donations and distributed £3,500 worth of aid to displaced families. They also created a child-friendly psychosocial support (PSS) kit—complete with a puppet theatre and visual protection messages—to help children cope with trauma.
Psychosocial Support
Recognizing the trauma children faced post-earthquake, youth committees created comprehensive PSS kits featuring puppet theaters and visually engaging protection posters. This initiative provided crucial psychological support while creating safe recreational spaces for children and adolescents.
Media Documentation and Advocacy
The Youth Media Committee captured every moment, conducting interviews and creating compelling content that provided visual evidence of recovery efforts while advocating for continued support.
Sign Language Training for Inclusion
Ensuring equal opportunities for young people with disabilities became a priority. 24 Youth Peacebuilding Committee members received sign language training to translate protection messages, making safety information accessible to all community members.
Mental Health Advocacy
The Mental Health Youth Committee, comprising 180 young individuals, received specialized training to raise community awareness about mental health issues, including suicide and self-harm prevention. These trained youth then delivered sessions to 220 young people and 120 caregivers, using peer education to inspire productive conversations about mental health and advocate for accessible, high-quality mental health services.
Transitional Justice Engagement
19 youth committee members participated in three-day workshops with the International, Impartial, and Independent Mechanism (IIIM), sharing their perspectives on transitional justice, accountability, and judicial authorities—proving that young voices matter in shaping Syria’s future.
These trained youth delivered sessions to 220 young people and 120 caregivers, using peer education to inspire productive conversations about mental health and advocate for accessible, high-quality mental health services.
Meet Bushra: A Voice for Inclusion
“In my family, we have several members with disabilities. I witnessed the disparity in opportunities available to them, which inspired me to advocate for their inclusion. Our responsibility is to ensure that they are not left behind and actively involved in social activities.” – Bushra, 18 years
Bushra exemplifies the leadership emerging from our Youth Guardians programme. As an enthusiastic committee member, she championed integrating youth with disabilities into community peacebuilding efforts. Her participation in sign language training showcased her commitment to inclusivity—so much so that the Directorate of Health in Idlib sought her collaboration in translating Cholera prevention messages into sign language.
"In my family, we have several members with disabilities. I witnessed the disparity in opportunities available to them, which inspired me to advocate for their inclusion. Our responsibility is to ensure that they are not left behind and actively involved in social activities."
Bushra, 18 years
Her story illustrates how individual passion, when supported by structured programmes, can create ripple effects that benefit entire communities.
Their leadership today is Syria's hope for tomorrow
What started as youth committees focused on protection and peacebuilding has evolved into a network of young leaders who are actively shaping their communities’ futures. These young people aren’t just preparing for leadership—they’re leading now, addressing immediate challenges while building the foundations for long-term peace and development.
The Youth Guardians programme proves a fundamental truth: when young people are given real opportunities to lead, when their voices are heard and their capabilities are developed, they don’t just participate in community building—they transform it.
Help Syria’s Youth Lead Their Communities
Young people in Syria are ready to lead and rebuild their communities, but they need the right support to make it happen. Your donation helps turn potential into action and hope into real change.
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