Syrian Arab News Agency S A N A
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Lattakia, SANA – Seven full-of fun stages are the core of an exploration adventure launched by Massar, one of the projects of The Syria Trust for Development, targeting children aged 5-15.
Massar, which worked from 2005 to 2011 and contributed effectively to setting The Trust new strategic direction, provided kids and young people in Syria with life skills to become active citizens capable of building their future. It encouraged creativity, thinking outside the box, respectful dialogue, freedom of expression, initiative taking, and character building.
Massar Adventure, which kicked off in mid July in Lattakia, provides non-didactic methods of education through seven stages, according to Kenana Hamdan, a societal coordinator at the Trust, which is a non-governmental, non-profit organization established in 2001 to empower individuals and communities in Syria to fulfill their role in building their society and shaping their future.
“We aim through the adventure to instill into our children national, social and moral values that will help bend their lives toward a positive future,” Hamdan, who is in charge of the adventure, told SANA reporter, noting that the best means to achieve that end is through interaction with the children.
She said that a child needs seven and a half hours to go all the way to complete the entire adventure with its seven stages in one day. Children, she however noted, have the option of pursuing the adventure over four days on average; two and a half hours each day.
In the first stage titled “The Beginning”, Hamdan said, the children come to know how to identify who they are and determine what they want to be when they grow up. They also get to recognize what connects them with their peers and families, “which is all very important in terms of enhancing the child’s ability to communicate with their surrounding,” she added.
Once the first stage is done with, the child then moves gradually to the other six stages which are titled “Life”, “Our World”, “Thoughts”, “Accomplishments”, “I’m Able” and “Participate with Us”.
The participating children will be divided into groups of five members and will take part in specialized contests and programs under the supervision of volunteers from the Trust.
“The adventure,” said Hamdan, “is largely based on research, deduction and activating the senses for the children to come to recognize their physical ability.”
She added that there will be focus on introducing the children to the history, heritage, environment, folklore and traditions of Syria.
The volunteers, Hamdan said, will concentrate on raising the children’s awareness of the importance of them expressing themselves and voicing their ideas and opinions freely as well as listening to and respecting the others’ views, “in a bid to develop the sense of responsibility and independence of the child.”
“The fact that the child will be involved in the adventure on their own with their families not around is very important to help children depend on themselves and develop the ability of solving any emerging problems by themselves,” she added.
Coordinator Hamdan stressed that the adventure will be running for a year and that thousands of children could take part in it.
“The plan is to receive 50 children daily at the headquarters of the Trust at Dar al-Assad for Culture in Lattakia province,” she said, pointing out that all the volunteers who are involved in the adventure had undergone a training course in means of dealing with children and tackling whatever challenges that could arise in the course of the work.
Hala Zain/Haifa Said
