Nearly 14 years after the start of the violence in Syria, the fall of the regime and the flight of President Bashar al-Assad last December have given rise to hope for a peaceful future. However, years of conflict, the economic crisis, and persistent instability, keep the country in a state of uncertainty.

JRS has been walking alongside the Syrian population since 2008, including displaced people and local communities. We interviewed the Country Director, Fr Vincent De Beaucoudrey SJ, who gave us a testimony on how the situation is currently in Syria.

What is everyday life like now in Syria?

I think the first word to use to describe the situation in Syria is “uncertainty.” We do not know exactly where we are headed. When living in uncertainty, one can be either optimistic or afraid. But choosing being optimistic requires energy, and people are exhausted because we have been in a huge crisis for 14 years.

There was the war, then the earthquake, and now there is a severe economic crisis. We are still under immense pressure and people are afraid.

Can you tell us about the impact of the fall of the regime and its aftermath on people’s lives?

Describing the situation in Syria is very difficult these days, as it changes from one day to the next. However, if we take a broader perspective, there are some differences since the fall of the regime. For example, freedom of speech is something new and people are still trying to get used to it, or the fact that prisoners have been released.

In some respects, these changes are positive, and no one wishes to return to the previous system. At the same time, however, we are in a situation where we do not know what will be possible, or what will happen next. These days violence is occurring in the country, people are killed. Previously, people were used to a known and identified violence (checkpoints etc..), while now it is unclear. This unknown about the violence, the fake news, and the fact that we don’t understand everything are increasing tensions.

Furthermore, if we look at the life of the people on the ground, many problems persist. The greatest challenge remains the economy. Many people earn less than $50 a month, sometimes as little as $20, while the minimum expenditure for a family to survive is around $200. As a result, having a full-time job is not enough to feed a family. Daily life is very much based on “how will I feed my family?”.

How is JRS responding to the needs?

At JRS we try to be there for the people by providing education, psychosocial support, and, in Aleppo, health assistance as well.

We also engage in community building and social cohesion activities, offering people from different backgrounds and with different stories the opportunity to listen to each other, share, and discover that they can rely on one another. In this way, we hope to help promote a peaceful way of living together, as the country is in desperate need of it.

According to the United Nations, there are over 16 million people in need of humanitarian assistance in the country. This means that the needs are huge everywhere, across all sectors: health, education, protection, food, wash, and more. In the face of such significant needs, we have often found ourselves needing to make difficult choices, accepting that there are some needs we cannot and will not be able to address. This is quite frustrating.

Can you tell us a particularly transformative encounter or event that continues to inspire you in your commitment to JRS?

One thing I always enjoy is joining the groups of children who come on Fridays. They are children subjected to child labour, who are between 10 and 12 years old, who sometimes collect rubbish or work in factories. It is always nice to be able to share moments with them and try to give them some joy. Last month, one of them happened to tell us that he is unemployed and looking for a job. He has already experienced having a job, losing it, and searching for another, and he is only 10 years old. At that moment, I realised that even though the country is so unstable and despite not knowing what to do, if these children come to us on Fridays and are happy to be with us, it is our duty to do everything we can to keep the projects open, even amidst the current difficulties.

What are your hopes for the future?

Now that everything is unstable, we want to continue walking alongside the people. We’re trying to say to the people “we are with you,” and “we’ll stay with you.” I hope that we will be able to accompany them in their suffering, to be despaired with them, so that they do not feel alone. I also hope that we will always find ways to remind ourselves that hope still exists.