Crisis Action reposted this
“I can’t believe it. For the first time in 14 years I cried for hours I am afraid to go to sleep for fear that I wake up and it is a dream. All of my friends are out! All of them are free…some of them have been in prison for 46 years! We are not in a democracy yet, the fight is not over yet but Syria is free from Assad. This is the happiest day of my life!” It’s been a hard year for civilians in conflict and those of us that work to protect them. So the relief expressed by @Crisis Action’s Syrian partners – captured here by our partner Ahmad Helmi, the founder of @Ta’afi that supports victims of enforced disappearance in Syria – has been a source of deep joy. Once again, I’ve felt grateful to do what I do because of the inspirational activists we work with here Crisis Action, in many instances, over many years. Our journey with our Syrian partners is more than a decade long - dating back to the earliest days when the Syrian government's violent response to a peaceful uprising turned into a bloody and brutal civil war. Standing with them, we helped spur a ground-breaking commitment from the UN Security Council to authorise humanitarian aid across the borders from Syria’s neighbours, and the creation of a landmark institution to support the thousands of families trapped in the agony of uncertainty about the plight of their loved ones that were detained by the regime. Our journey with Palestinian and Israelis seeking peace, justice, and security has also been a long one, dating back to Crisis Action’s earliest days. In Lebanon, as we have convened partners and supported our own Crisis Action team members whose homes and families have been under Israeli fire, we’ve been reminded of our engagement in 2006 when we worked to secure support for the ceasefire deal of that year. Now, we are once again standing alongside courageous Sudanese, who are enduring the world’s worst humanitarian catastrophe and trying to spur sufficient political will to pressure warring parties and those that back them to halt their war crimes and the devastation of lives and futures. For every member of the Crisis Action team, it is this privilege, of standing alongside these brave and the determined activists, which sustains us. This renews our determination to confront those that want to silence civil society and crush dissent. This is what us makes us determined to work for a world where no one loses their lives or loved ones to war. And it’s the belief that an alternative future is possible in Syria, Palestine, Israel, Lebanon, Syria, the Sahel, and Sudan. At the turn of a year, our work has never felt more urgent and necessary. And I've never felt more grateful for the example and collaboration of our partners and allies.