A Child’s Path to Recovery: Aran’s Story
A Child’s Path to Recovery: Aran’s Story
A Child's Path to Recovery:
Aran's Story
Location
Al Hasakah, Syria
Focus
Reintegration
IMplemented by
Salam For Hope Foundation
In Northeast Syria, GCERF’s investment partner, Salam for Hope Foundation, mobilised its team and resources as part of an emergency response to the mass displacement of people from conflict-affected areas in Aleppo, Raqqa, and Deir ez-Zor. The response also worked to strengthen local communities in preparation for future reintegration cases — reflecting GCERF’s whole-of-society approach to Preventing Violent Extremism (PVE).
Through GCERF-supported emergency response activities implemented by Salam for Hope Foundation, displaced children in Northeast Syria are receiving psychological first aid and steady support to help them rebuild a sense of safety.
This was Aran’s fourth displacement. Just eight years old, he arrived with his mother at a shelter in Al Hasakah — tired, uprooted once again, carrying more than a child his age should have to carry.
During a team visit to the shelter, Salam’s outreach workers noticed it immediately: the unease in his eyes, the fear he couldn’t quite hide.
They sat with him. Gently, they offered Psychological First Aid (PFA), creating a safe space where Aran could begin to express what he was feeling, at his own pace. Support extended to his mother too, his main caregiver, with guidance on how she could help him through the difficult days ahead.
And little by little, something shifted. Aran began approaching other children at the centre. He started to play. To laugh. To simply be a child again — a quiet but powerful sign that healing was underway.
The case management team continued to closely follow up, prioritising trust-building and the gradual restoration of safety and stability in Aran’s daily life.