2014
investing in the
future of syria
I am writing you as the departing Board Chairman of the Syrian Expatriates Organization, thanking you for your continuous support. SEO continues its sworn duty to support the Syrian people in their struggle for freedom and democracy as they confront one of the most challenging years in their history. We enter our fifth year with more determination to serve and reach out, despite all the challenges we face.
The year of 2014 witnessed the fruits of our transformation plan. SEO shifted its project portfolio towards more educational and developmental projects. We supported projects that had a long-term development focus and operated in priority need areas, ensuring projects were meaningful and most valuable to the local communities they served. In every project that we carried out, there was a new perspective that we looked into more carefully in terms of capacity built and long-term benefits incurred.
In 2014, SEO sponsored three schools, educating more than 1000 children, employing hundreds of educators, and equipping them with a means towards a brighter future. With the help of Women For Humanity Organization, one of our dearest partner organizations, SEO created a University Scholarship Program that is currently providing 11 students with full scholarships to pursue their dreams and future careers. Our Project Mihaad continued to train activists on project management and entrepreneurial skills. Beyond building human capital, Project Mihaad supported a computer-training project for youth who suffered permanent disabilities from war injuries in Syria. The project is now functional in Turkey and is helping our youth gain a source of livelihood and personal advancement. Our Medical Committee continued to support our primary-care clinics and expand our Tele-ICU Program. SEO’s team of volunteer doctors helped in providing medical care to patients in ICUs inside Syria utilizing online technologies. Our medical work does not stop at providing patient care, but extends to promoting education in our trainees, raising quality of care, and conducting clinical research to better serve our patients.
In addition to the shift in our projects, our work has also become more structured, shifting from a completely volunteer based organization into having three employees to enhance SEO’s operations and support volunteer committees. We are continuing to expand, planning to have staff and offices in both Turkey and the US by the end of 2015.
We would have never achieved any of these accomplishments alone. Your generosity, support, and countless hours of hard work make us one year closer to our bright future. Thank you for being incredibly devoted and generous with your talents and resources. It was my honor to serve you as SEO Chairman.
I wish Dr. Mazen Hasan, the 2015 SEO chairman, and the rest of the board the best in continuing SEO’s journey. I look forward to seeing how SEO continues to grow and advance its vision of a free, democratic, and prosperous Syria.
Sincerely,
Dr. Abdullah Chahin
Chairman
Letter from the Chairman
SEO is investing in:
• 90+ Educators & Administrators Employed
• 2 Schools Rehabilitated
• 1,000+ Syrian Children Educated
• 11 Scholarships Funded
Our Future Leaders
•
Millions of Syrian stories heard
• 1000s of human rights abuses
documented and advocated
• 1,000 Syrians with access to water
The Syrian Cause
• 5 Primary Care Clinics serving over
30,000 Patients
• 500 tele-medicine consultations
• 1,000s of medical visits
•
Basic humanitarian needs
• Don’t Leave Syrians Hungry• Education and training
• Killee School • Beit Naiem School
• Al-Gharaa Secondary School • University Scholarship Program
2014 Projects
Where we work
• Media
• Al-Gherbal Magazine • Salib and Moujib
• Moaddamia Media Center • Free Media Association of Homs
• Supporting medical needs
• Primary Care Clinics • Tele-medicine
• Help civil society activists
• Project Mihaad
Syrian Expatriates Organization is a charitable organization comprised of Syrians
and their supporters that aims to strengthen Syrian civil society through short-
term relief, assistance, and long-term capacity building projects.
Our Vision is to support, empower, and invest in the Syrian people to develop a
free, democratic, and prosperous Syria.
Development and Support Committee
Al-Gherbal Magazine
Al-Gherbal Magazine works to spread news and promote free speech and independent media by covering stories in northern provinces of Syria. As a result of its work highlighting atrocities on the ground, the magazine has been constantly targeted by outsiders to suppress its operations. Despite these challenges, Al-Gherbal Magazine has sustained operations, and with your support, was able to fund printing and delivery expenses to help spread the word inside Syria.
Moaddamia Media Center
The Moaddamia Media Center works to raise awareness of the Syrian struggle through documentation of atrocities and human rights violations occurring on the ground. SEO supported this initiative by providing the center with salaries for staff, media equipment, and communication infrastructure needed to publicize their work.
Free Media Association of Homs
The Free Media Association of Homs aims to increase transparency of events happening on the ground in Homs. Through their documentation and reporting, the association has helped raise awareness of atrocities to human rights activists to publicize and advocate for change, and to service providers to provide assistance.
Center for Human Rights Watch
The Center for Human Rights Watch is an independent agency that promotes human rights in Syria through documentation of abuses. The documentation is used to seek justice for individual case, as well as to advocate for policy change in international councils.
PROJECT MIHAAD
In addition to direct project support, SEO empowers hundreds of Syrian entrepreneurs to design and implement their own projects through Project Mihaad. Aimed at capacity building and micro-finance, SEO held a series of online workshops focusing on managerial skills, non-profit management, and project financing for startups.
Project Mihaad held an entrepreneurship competition to fund projects that showed exemplary management and promising operations. With your engagement and input, Project Mihaad awarded $10,000 to the winning project, the Youth Training and Employment Center. The project is a mobile computer lab based in Turkey that provides disabled Syrians in rehabilitation clinics with technical training and computer labs. With this training, the Center provides disabled Syrians with an opportunity to move towards self-reliance, providing them with a means of financial independence.
Project Mihaad has helped empower Syrian entrepreneurs and inspire new projects to come to fruition.
Development and Support Committee
2013 PROJECT UPDATE:
TELECOMMUNICATION REHABILITATION IN RAQQA
SEO also helped to restore phone and DSL service to many areas in Raqqa, Syria, allowing medical practitioners and service providers to maintain operations, media outlets to relay information, and families to communicate with their loved ones. In coordination with the local council in Raqqa, SEO sponsored the Raqqa Telecommunication Rehabilitation project in 2013 to restore internet and phone lines that were damaged from the ongoing conflict. Due to security and logistical issues in Raqqa the project has been on hold for most of 2014.
IT SUPPORT
SEO provided IT support to enhance online security for activists, bloggers, and medical personnel. This support was delivered in the form of cameras, satellite telecommunication equipment and internet security services. This project continues to help the networks of activists that rely on our help and support to continue their civil activism, tele-medical care, and journalism. With your contributions, we were able to help Syrians make their voices heard.
COOKING A HOME
Cooking a Home is a collection of personal stories detailing the lives and struggles of refugee Syrian women in Jordan, and a collection of their favorite Syrian recipes that help them maintain connection and relive memories of their lives in Syria. The book was written by Spanish philanthropist Pilar Cortada. SEO helped Cortada spread the stories of Syrian women by sponsoring the publication.
Salib and Moujib Show
SEO sponsored the Salib Moujib Show with Syrian symbol Tawfik Hallak which aims to raise awareness of the Syrian struggle by highlighting stories of activists, physicians, and families within Syria as they operate amidst the crisis.
University Scholarship Program
SEO is a co-sponsor for the Women For Humanity Scholarship Program for secondary education based in Amman, Jordan. Women For Humanity granted and currently administers academic scholarships for eleven promising Syrian students in Jordan. The students were awarded scholarships based on their academic merit and financial need, and are pursuing degrees in areas such as medicine, engineering, and education.
Al-Gharaa Secondary School
SEO has also invested in our youth, partnering with Women For Humanity to provide secondary education to 11th and 12th grade Syrian refugees in Amman, Jordan. Al-Gharaa School graduated a total of 110 students in 2014 and provided continuous secondary education to an additional 150 students.
Public Appeal
:
Scholarships for Refugees
Humanitarian Committee
Women For Humanity
Women For Humanity is group of women dedicated to empowering humans in need regardless of race, religion, or gender. Women For Humanity’s mission is to work closely with local organizations to develop and sustain people in times of crisis. Over the years, Women For Humanity has focused on programs that sustain and empower Syrians and refugees. The organization’s main objective has been developing and supporting multiple education projects based in Amman, Jordan in cooperation with SEO and Al-Gharaa.
Killee Secondary School
In partnership with Ataa Institution, your contributions helped to support the Killee Secondary School near Idlib, Syria. The area has undergone intense violence throughout the year and was in dire need of support.
SEO acted in response, providing infrastructure and utility support to rebuild the school. In addition, the project supported 322 secondary school students for an entire academic year. The students received accredited education through an established UN curriculum, in addition to recreational activities and psycho-social support. By providing monthly salaries to teachers, your contributions provided a source of income and employment for over 50 teachers.
Beit Naiem School
SEO also sponsored Beit Naiem School, located in a small town in Eastern Ghouta. Operating for three years under Siege, SEO was able to support the dedicated staff of 20 teachers to provide salaries so they could rebuild the needed infrastructure and sustain operations. The school is able to support 500 primary and mid-level students, providing them with security, stability, and continued education amidst desperate conditions.
Humanitarian Committee
Don’t Leave Syrians Hungry
SEO took part in the ‘One Million Meals’ 2014 Ramadan Campaign to provide 6800 Syrian families with food baskets. Food was delivered to 19 areas throughout Syria, including besieged areas such as Ghouta, and Idlib.
Gas Project
During the first Quarter of the 2014 the Eastern Ghouta was under siege and one of its major field hospitals ran out of income to sustain operation. SEO contributed by providing financing for gas to sustain operations, allowing the hospital to continue to serve patients under siege.
Al-Yarmouk Camp Project
In partnership with Jafra volunteers and UNRWA, SEO provided $45,000 in food baskets to families inside Al-Yarmouk Camp that had been living under siege in extreme poverty, unable to escape.
Tele-Medicine
Leveraging your medical expertise, our valuable members not only contributed financially to help support clinics, but also volunteered their medical expertise to provide medical consultations. Through tele-medicine, we established direct connection with physicians in Syria to provide patient care through daily rounds and subspecialty consultation. Our members helped us support full-time consultation, ready to respond to emergencies 24/7. In addition to medical consultation, our efforts made long-lasting contributions by providing training sessions to build capacity and expertise of medical workers inside Syria. SEO also funded the IT and infrastructure needed to facilitate tele-medicine.
Primary Care Clinics
With your generous contributions, SEO supported five primary care clinics in areas under siege. The clinics provided primary care services, as well internal medicine, pediatrics and other subspecialties. With an average of 20 to 30 visits to each clinic daily, SEO helped deliver medical care for thousands of Syrians. Your contributions not only provided medical care, but also infrastructure support, medicine, salaries for physicians and staff, and medical equipment.
Medical Committee
In addition to our support, SEO also engages our members through events, fundraisers, and informational sessions to raise awareness about conditions in Syria.
• Hope and Resilience • SEO GA
• Tales of Hope from Syria: Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Washington • Walk For Syria
At SEO, we know our valuable donors are seeking to fund projects and organizations that have the greatest impact and serve the greatest need. As concerned Syrians and global citizens, we are just as invested in making a positive impact to maximize the value of your contributions, and recognize your concerns.
Financials
•
Why join SEO?
• Vote in the SEO’s leadership elections • Receive invitations to special events with famous speakers and performers
• Direct where your donation dollars go • Engage with the SEO’s projects • Build the future of Syria
We maintain a separate ‘expansion fund’ that funds a proportion of SEO’s administrative costs.
We fund projects that have long-term benefits beyond short-term relief to ensure the impact of your dollar has positive externalities in the present, and compounding benefits for continuous future impact.
We maintain active partnerships with project managers so we are fully informed of project operations.
We collect periodic documentation of financial receipts and transfers to ensure each dollar you contribute goes towards its intended beneficiary.
SEO aims to enhance transparency of operations so you can track your impact. • • • • •
Budget Breakdown
Financial Summary for the fiscal years ending December 31 2013 and Dec 31 2014
* Software support, professional and legal fees, and independent contractor expenses. ** Advertising, conference, and fundraising events expenses.
Support and Revenue
Project Deployment Cost & Expenses
Net Result:
Support & Revenue Over Expenses
Category % Total Expenditure $390,201.98 $16,106.37 $12,298.90 $192,910.73 $611,517.98 $238,431.23 $53,375.50 $52,004.28 $343,811.01 69% 16% 15% 100% $267,706.97 2014 2013 Donations Partnership Projects (5%-10%) Events Tickets
Net Result from Previous Year Total Support and Revenue
Project Deployment Cost General Administrative* Fundraising**
Total Project Deployment Cost and Expenses
Project Deployment General Administrative Fundraising $437,567.32 $41,012.53 $17,029.88 $326,905.77 $822,515.50 $478,212.60 $114,442.72 $36,949.45 $629,604.77 $192,910.73