MASA SULTAN

LATTAKIA — Basic services that the community support system is supposed to provide are absent or almost nonexistent in the villages of the Syrian coast, especially in the fields of psychological and social support, family counseling, and protection programs for women and children, in addition to economic empowerment projects directed at the most vulnerable groups, leaving a wide segment of rural women outside the scope of community response.

Funding crises, administrative obstacles, and security instability top the list of challenges that prevent the establishment of new associations or ensure the continuity of existing ones in the region.

The community support system faces severe difficulties, starting with the decline in grants and donations and the rise in operating costs, and not ending with the complications of licensing procedures and administrative routine, in addition to the scarcity of specialized cadres. Fundamental questions also arise about the extent of institutional and material support available to local women's initiatives, amid structural obstacles that limit women's ability to establish and manage civil organizations concerned with their affairs.

Security conditions and the tensions witnessed in the coastal areas further complicate the civil work scene, as security fears and movement difficulties have cast their shadow over the ability of associations to reach remote villages and implement their field programs. According to field reality data, the state of security instability has hindered the work of female volunteers and workers in the humanitarian sector and pushed many supporting parties and community initiatives to refrain from expanding into rural areas, which has deepened the service isolation of villages.

Women of the Syrian coast in direct confrontation with crises

Amid this institutional vacuum, women in the coastal countryside find themselves in direct confrontation with crises without support. The absence of nearby centers for family counseling, vocational training, and social protection deprives them of any safe haven or path to empowerment.

Many women of the coast believe that the decline in interest in rural women is due to the absence of justice in the distribution of activities of associations and institutions concerned with women's affairs. This happens even though rural women are the most in need of this support, given the growing social, economic, and psychological burdens on them.

This disparity raises questions about the priorities of the competent authorities and the mechanisms for distributing support and protection programs, and the extent to which rural women are treated fairly in obtaining the same services available to their counterparts in cities. Confining efforts to urban centers and keeping villages outside the scope of actual attention perpetuates a service gap, in addition to deepening rural women's sense of exclusion and marginalization, and raises fears of a deliberate tendency to keep them away from the umbrella of civil work and programs dedicated to supporting and empowering women, attributed to sectarian or regional motives.

The importance of activating local women's initiatives

To overcome this gap, specialists and observers in women's affairs propose a package of practical solutions, most notably the establishment of mini community centers to support the family, the operation of mobile teams that reach distant villages, and the activation of local women's initiatives. Experts also stress the need to simplify licensing procedures, allocate sustainable funding programs, and strengthen partnership between civil associations, official bodies, and humanitarian organizations, affirming that involving rural women in formulating solutions represents a necessity to ensure that women's right to care and protection does not stop at the city limits.