Dear Community, We are excited to share important news regarding the growth of Capoeira4Refugees. We are happy to announce that our organisation will be going through a rebrand as of the 30th of January and will subsequently be operating as RealtimeAid, an umbrella organisation under which Capoeira4Refugees will be placed. By rebranding ourselves, we can ensure that charitable activities continue to successfully support those most in need and reach more than before. Our organisation has worked in Syria since 2007; over that time, we have seen how it was almost impossible for grassroots project ..read more

By Marianna Castaldo Many studies show how large of an impact physical exercise – from running to water sports, from football to aerobics and martial arts, from horse riding to trampoline training, and so on – has on children with special needs. At Capoeira4Refugees (C4R) where we made our mission to spread the martial art of Capoeira to increase the overall psychosocial wellbeing of young people impacted by conflict, with fun, resilience and happiness, we strongly support this belief. As a matter of fact, we often organize Capoeira workshops in a facility, in Al-Raqqa, that is entirely dedica ..read more

By: ALessia Baker Women for Peace is a local civil society organisation operating in North and East Syria since 2017. It’s core mission is to empower and offer protection to the local community in the region, especially women, children and adolescents. Women for Peace is committed to strengthening education, capacity building, together with building economic development to support people’s livelihoods. The organisation’s work is playing an important role in supporting society’s cohesion and development, having an invaluable impact on communities in the war-stricken city of Al-Raqqa.  The ..read more

By: Marianna Castaldo Amidst the devastating consequences of the Syrian War, Capoeira4Refugees was able to assist 130.000 students and many young locals and families in Al-Raqqa renovating and giving back safe learning spaces to the community, where a sense of normalcy could have brought back. Among the many, tragic consequences of the 10-year long conflict, Syria has also faced a dramatic education crisis. Before the crisis, Syria had a strong education system with almost universal primary school enrolment and 70% of children attending secondary school. However, the worsening crisis put an en ..read more

Mohammed shares his experiences in Raqqa By: Catri Foot Mohammed became a trainer, because of his love of the special sport. There he saw a chance to provide a new culture for both himself and the community that he lives in, as well as a job opportunity that suited him.  He mentions what distinguishes the support “is that there’s no winner or loser”. He first got involved with Capoeira at the beginning of the project after Faris, another trainer, proposed the idea to him. “Without my love of sports, and glory to be Allah, it came to my heart. It’s different, it has music, I even heard th ..read more

Ali shares his experiences in Raqqa  By: Alessia Baker It was the harmony and movements of capoeira that attracted Ali to explore the new sport in Raqqa. In a game of capoeira, there were no discussions among the children about who had won, as it often happened during a game of football. Capoeira has a magic power to entertain all children, everyone enjoyed some part of the sport and they all wanted to join in. The sound of the music and the berimbau are very pleasant and the training sessions made the children always happy. One time, they created the ‘tree of feelings’ and all the kids e ..read more

By: Catri Foot This sport is different from all the sports. Whoever follows it or watches it, it’s obvious that it’s different from all the sports Our Capoeira trainer Abd, thinks sports in general are perfect for entertaining oneself, especially children. He agrees with Fares, another trainer in the sense of justice that arises from having no winner or loser – no chance for a discouraging defeat. Capoeira he says breaks the barrier of shyness for children, developing a beautiful cooperation and assistance between each other. Abd first learned of Capoeira through Fares, another trainer and a ..read more

Fares shares his experience as a capoeira trainer in Raqqa By Alessia Baker Fares became a trainer in 2013, he came to know capoeira through Amr Al Berzawi, another trainer that arrived in Al Raqqa, Syria, and started organising classes for children in the house where he lived. The first thing that attracted Fares’ curiosity was that capoeira was the only sport he knew that used musical instruments. Another aspect that he liked was that it was based on equality, it brought everyone together and there were no winners or losers in the game. He also noted that the classes were a way for kids to ..read more

By: Alessia Baker FrontlineAid was born from the search for a practical and transparent solution for the remote management of locally owned projects, in order to support the operations of local organisations and facilitate their access to funding. The background story: challenges to accessing funding  It is often the case that many local organisations in remote or conflict areas are aware of communities’ necessities, but they lack the access to aid funds to develop their much needed projects. Instead, larger aid organisations control the money flows while falling short of understanding lo ..read more

By: Alessia Baker From the 19th to the 21st of January the virtual international conference organized by BMZ and Kfw discussed how digitalisation and Remote Management, Monitoring, and Verification (RMMV) can help organisations and institutions to improve the impact in global development cooperation. Under the title ‘Remote Beneficiary Involvement; can it work?’ FrontlineAid was invited to share their experience in using technology as a solution for localization of projects in the conflict-stricken city of Raqqa, Syria. Ummul Choudbury, Co- Founder of FrontlineAid explained how the organisatio ..read more