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About The Project

The SalamaTech Project builds the capacity of non-violent Syrian citizens and civil society to communicate safely and effectively online

Building Digital Resilience in Syria

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SalamaTech began out of a need to protect Syrians caught in conflict, but has grown to focus on digital safety awareness and capacity building, particularly for women and youth.

The Syrian conflict is the first protracted war to be fought on and through the internet. All actors use the internet to organize, plan, and share information; some use it to document human rights abuses and bear witness; others use it to propagandize, collect intelligence, sow fear, and win followers. Now, as the conflict drags on, many use it to maintain family and social connections, continue formal education, and learn new skills for the future.

The Syrian social media space has been dominated by the voices of militant actors. Social media is used as a weapon of war. By contrast, the voices of Syrian non-violent actors have been drowned out by the noise of violence and extremism. To the outside world, the concept of Syrian civil society has been largely reduced to that of powerless “refugees.” SalamaTech has been working hard to correct this.

Syrian non-violent citizens – who believe in peace, in human rights, in justice – are still there, working hard on the ground and in their places of refuge for a better future. Some of their important work includes training centres that have sprung up to fill the void left by formal education interrupted by the conflict. It is these courageous men and women – both inside and outside Syria – that SalamaTech aims to empower.

 

The destruction of war has also left many women as the heads of households. As such, they are continuing education to learn much needed skills, including digital literacy, to find work and contribute to improving Syria.

st-en-site-tempSince 2012 SalamaTech has helped non-violent Syrians stay safe online and make their voices heard. In providing Emergency Tech support, we assist Syrians who have been arrested or had their accounts hacked. We protect Syrian civil society organisations with Digital Safety Audits and Real-Time Remediation. Our network of on-the-ground Digital Technology First Responders provide in-person and remote training to empower women, and youth, to become active drivers of peace and development. Together we are empowering and protecting a chorus of Syrian voices – who will be heard.

Fostering these authentic, local voices is key to peace-building. In supporting Syrians – in particular women and youth – SalamaTech takes an alternative approach to preventing violent extremism by empowering non-violent civil society to participate and lead in building a better tomorrow.

Our Work By The Numbers

7648088

User Engagements

17172

Syrians Supported Through Our Emergency Help Desk

165

Civil Society Organizations Protected

11876

Syrians Trained on Digital Safety

192000

Followers on Facebook

285

Digital Safety Alerts Shared

603

Digital Safety Resources Created

18

Training Modules Published

How We Help

SalamaTech First Responders (SFRs): Supporting Syrians On the Ground

Women, Peace and Stabilization

Emergency Digital Response

Fostering Peace and Stabilization Image

Protecting Syrian Civil Society

Online Resources (Arabic)

What Syrians Are Saying About Our Work

  • The training was great. We found it extremely useful. In Northern Homs, we never had training. On the one hand, we are happy that we learned something new. On the other hand we just feel that we were doing everything wrong. It is true, we hardly use Twitter. We post videos without any descriptions. We are looking forward for more trainings.

    - Al-Rastan Media Centre, Homs

  • We mainly worked on social media topics, like Twitter and Facebook, as well as some promotional and technical topics. We also spoke about important things, including lectures with those responsible for publishing, and the those in the press office in the Suburbs of Damascus. The results are really great. We got a lot of feedback on how our performance improved from the Civil Defence Headquarters. People are engaging more with our content. Thanks to Salamatech, now people can see what our brave youth is doing.

    - Trainee from White Helmets in Ghouta

  • We really appreciate Salamatech’s assistance. We are working in very difficult and dangerous situation. Sometimes, we wonder if people know that we exist. What hurts us most is that when we communicate with donors or humanitarian organizations they are surprised to know that there are civilians in our area. Yes, we serve a population of 50,000 in a besieged area. We need people to know that there are brave people here who are risking their lives to save lives. It means a lot for those courageous volunteers.

    - White Helmets, Douma

  • We have seen a substantial change in our page. The level of engagement has increased significantly. Targeting the right audience with relevant messages has really had a great impact on the page. Thanks to Salamatech.

    - LAC Darayya, May 2016

  • Thanks for Salamatech’s help. Our accounts and devices were hacked several times as we are on Skype groups and we get all sorts of link. Many of us know how to use technology, but we lacked awareness and neglected our responsibilities and ability to protect our devices and data.

    - Auditee in Homs, May 2016

  • We, the Facebook Media Group, have worked since 2011 as citizen journalists in Syria. Our mission is to pass information to the outside world. Some of our people have lost their lives to deliver this news on our Facebook pages. However, we have had a lot of our Facebook pages closed. Thanks to SalamaTech we now better understand Facebook community standards. Thank you. We wish that your team could act as a permanent mediator between us and Facebook.

    - Founder of Media Facebook Group, Syria

Samples of Our Work