After the return of many refugees to Syria, we are supporting the reconstruction of a village near Homs, the home of our Syrian friends from Lebanon. For this work, we urgently need donations. At the same time, our work in Lebanon is largely completed.
By Simon Bethlehem
Bonn, April 21, 2025 – When we first visited the village of Buwyadah in early January to see our Syrian friends from Camp Wadi Swed in Lebanese Aarsal in their hometown, there was hardly anything left standing. Piles of rubble lined the street. The people, some of whom had lived as refugees in Lebanon for more than ten years, had brought their wooden shacks from Lebanon and rebuilt them here upon returning to their homeland. Despite all the destruction, the joy of finally being home again prevailed. (Read more about our impressions from January)
Today, the Syrians have a realistic picture of the immense task ahead of them to make their village their home again. In addition to all the private houses, the schools and the medical center need to be thoroughly renovated or completely rebuilt.
Getting school operations up and running again
Shortly after our first visit, we started by building school benches for the primary and middle schools. We equipped our welder Abu Abdu with a welding machine, obtained coated wood fiber boards, which we cut and mounted for the seating and table surfaces. Within a very short time, school benches for 200 children were built and put to immediate use.
New School Benches for Buwaydah
The task of renovating the middle school is now larger. The two-story building includes twelve classrooms and two teachers’ rooms. The basic structure survived the war largely undamaged, however, windows, doors, and electrical systems were torn out. Countless bullet holes in the plaster and a shell impact hole testify to the fighting that took place here.
We have now started the renovation: The holes are being plastered, new electrical systems installed, steel windows and wooden doors produced and fitted. The walls are getting a new coat of paint, and the sanitary facilities are being completely renewed. The approximately 350 children of the middle school will thus get a nice new learning environment. During the transition of renovation work, the rooms of the primary school are still being shared, although it is already bursting at the seams.
The School in Need of Renovation – and the First Completed Room
Reconstruction of the Medical Center and Support for Private Rebuilding
Our next reconstruction project will be the local medical center. The old building, which housed a general practitioner, a gynecologist, a dentist, and an orthopedist, was completely destroyed by the Syrian army and the occupying Hezbollah. The health authority of the Homs region has already developed plans for rebuilding the house, which we will now implement.
The reconstruction creates many jobs in the village. Through their earnings, our employees can rebuild their destroyed houses in the medium term. But we also provide direct support: We have mounted a mobile solar power plant with battery storage on a trailer, which residents can borrow for demolition work, allowing them to use heavy jackhammers to break up and remove debris on their properties. Public electricity is only available for a few hours a day for the foreseeable future, so the mobile power plant provides significant support to people during cleanup work.
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TV-documentary about Syria
The german television (ZDF, public broadcaster) has filmed the three-part documentary “Tatort Syrien” (crime scene Syria). Part 1 is about the liberation of Syria, part 2 is about the trauma of the Assad era and part 3 is about the future and reconstruction in liberated Syria. Part 3 also features the Green Helmets and our colleague Abu Feyrous (from minute 26). The documentary can be found in the ZDF media library (click here).
Broadcast date: May 21 from 0:45-1:15 (part 1), 1:15-1:45 (part 2) and 01:45- 02:15 (part 3).
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Farewell to Lebanon
In Lebanon, on the other hand, our work is largely completed after almost seven years. After the cold winter months, about 90 percent of Syrian refugees have returned to their home towns, and the place is returning to calm after years of exceptional circumstances in which up to 80,000 Syrians found refuge here.
We had already completed our work in the camps, where we had winterized hundreds of tents and renewed the electrical systems of nearly all 12,000 tents in Aarsal for fire safety reasons. Support for informal Syrian and public Lebanese schools through additional classrooms or roof renewals had already been made more difficult last year by additional reprisals from the authorities.
Participant of the carpentry course with journeyman’s piece
We maintained our Carpentry-for-Future project until the end of January, but now the last of our apprentices have also left Aarsal. Over the past six years, around 120 students have participated in our courses. Many of them completed the one-and-a-half-year part-time training with a journeyman’s piece. What a success! We hope that all our former Carpentry-For-Future students can now use their skills in Syria or elsewhere.
The Skate Park in Aarsal
Our skate park in Aarsal, which caters to both Syrian and Lebanese kids, continues to operate. But here too, the number of skaters has significantly decreased since the refugees returned to Syria. Together with our partner Jassour al-Nour, we are currently discussing a concept to generate even more enthusiasm for skating among Lebanese youth and thus continue operating the park.
Urgently In Need of Donations for Reconstruction Projects
For almost seven years now, we have known the families from Buwaydah, who can finally be in their hometown again. We have often imagined how wonderful it would be to support these friends in their return and reconstruction.
More About Our Work in Syria:
First Green Helmets Projects Started in Liberated Syria
After the return of many refugees to Syria, we are supporting the reconstruction of a village near Homs, the home of our Syrian friends from Lebanon. For this work, we urgently need donations. At the same time, our work in Lebanon is largely completed.
Going home
Thirteen years after fleeing Assad's bombs, our Syrian friends who had found refuge in Lebanon were now able to return home. We visited them there - and prepared the first reconstruction projects.
There is life after Assad!
Back in 2013, our founder Rupert Neudeck was already optimistic that the oppression of the Syrian people by the Assad regime would not last forever. At the time, no one expected that the liberation of Syria would take more than ten years.