Damma

Damma is an organization built by young and middle-aged Syrian women, who left Syria a important leaders and contributors in negotiating peace in their local city of Al-Zabadani. When the safety risks became too high, the women of the Damma group had to leave to Lebanon, where the group settled in the Valley of Beqaa. Damma core team, hence, is a group of Syrian female refugees themselves. Damma established an office in the heart of Beqaa, a community center and a educational center, providing basic services and support to the Syrian women and children finding themselves in difficult states of displacement. Many of Damma’s members and leaders have since been forced to leave Lebanon as well, due to risk of persecutions and lack of legal protections as for all Syrians and migrants generally in Lebanon. Nevertheless, today a strong team of Syrian women, men and youth are running Damma’s office and centers, and continue to be closely linked to the local communities with whom they work with. Our approaches are holistic, in the sense that we seek to provide both educational, protection and livelihood activities to the women, youth and children in Bekaa. Damma's physical presence in Bekaa, means that it remains able to perceive the needs of our communities; and better measure genuine impact.
Damma's management team is based in Bekaa, closed to its field teams working in the impoverished communities across West and Central Bekaa. The annual budget used to be above 400K USD per year, however today it doesn't exceed 200K USD. The sources of funding are received from different INGOS, such as Kinder not Hilfen, Heinrich Böll Stiftung and Kvinna till Kvinna (through Sub-grants).