Longitudinal findings from Injaz’s social reintegration pilot program in Syria: A rise and regression in wellbeing

• In Event: Community and Social (Re)Integration after Conflict and War through Education

Proposal

Education can transform an individual’s perception, attitudes, habits, and treatment of others. However, positive shifts can be limited in breadth and longevity if household and environment shifts do not take place as well. The Chemonics Injaz project in Syria presents ex-post assessment findings of a social reintegration program with children released from Al Hol into local communities in Syria. This program seeks to foster community, critical thinking, life skills, and independence of thought, all of which are needed to find one’s voice and break patterns of conflict and violence. The findings demonstrate improvements in wellbeing at the end of the program, but these improvements were not longer-lasting.

Background

As of early fall 2022, over 40,000 children were being detained in the Al-Hol and Roj camps in northeast Syria (Mehra et al., 2022). Many of these children stem from families with close ISIS connections (e.g. a family member was an ISIS fighter), the majority are under the age of 10, and with no access to education (ibid.). They have experienced prolonged exposure to conflict and insecurity that can negatively impact their wellbeing (Tanyu e al. 2020), as can simply living in isolation in these camps (Save the Children, 2022).

In 2019, tribal leaders in northeast Syria negotiated with the SDF to release family members of ISIS fighters from isolation camps through the Tribal Sponsorship Program. Successful negotiations have led to 4,300 Syrians being released (informal coms. with camp management, June 2023).

When these children join a community, their reception can play a strong role in whether they will become a part of the community or remain outside of it. If they do not integrate, they could be motivated to engage in extremist activities that have been modeled for them. We, therefore, see the reintegration of children from such camps and the building of their wellbeing as an integral component of building community, solidarity, and problem-solving skills, allowing for people to become active actors seeking positive change.

Program

Chemonics Injaz developed its social reintegration program to help integrate children with ISIS affiliation returning from camps into local communities. The pilot eight-week curriculum was developed by a leading expert in preventing/combating violent extremism (PVE/CVE) programming, with experience in Pakistan and Nigeria. The curriculum focuses on building children’s: Social and Emotional Learning (SEL), Resilience, Critical Thinking, and Peacebuilding through activities that allow them to explore, share, and actively work out problems together.

The program targets children between the ages of 8 and 14 already settled in the community and those reintegrating into it. Both groups are targeted to prevent further stigmatization of children returning from Al Hol, as well as acknowledging that children in receiving communities also struggle with wellbeing.

Research Methodology

This paper explores the findings of a longitudinal study conducted with the 2021 pilot cohort children of social reintegration. Utilizing a bespoke survey tool, we measured aspects of the four learning domains over time. The questions were inspired by validated tools such as the Social-Emotional Response and Information Scenarios (SERAIS), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, Connor Davidson Resilience Scale, My Learning Mind, and Empathy Questionnaire for Children and Adolescents.

A random sample of children from the pilot cohort were surveyed at three distinct periods of time: Baseline, End of program, and 17 months after the end of program.

This allowed us to measure shifts in wellbeing over the life of the program and longer-term. We have data from 102 of the 230 children registered (MOE of 7.25%, 95% confidence interval), with individuals’ responses matched across the three surveys. The data analysis utilizes descriptive statistics and parametric statistics calculated using paired t-tests, unpaired t-tests, and ANOVA. Additionally, we calculated the effect size of important shifts to understand their magnitude.

In this paper we look at the data by learning domain across the three sets of data collected, while also breaking the findings down by four main points of disaggregation: Gender, Age Group, Reading Ability, and ISIS Exposure.

Research Findings

We measured positive and statistically significant shifts in three of the four domains at the end of the program, indicating increased wellbeing for the children over the life of the program. We also measured negative and statistically significant shifts in all four learning domains 17 months after the program ended. The decreases measured at the ex-post were so large that it represents a statistically significant regression in three of the four learning domains from the baseline.

We explore different theories for why this might be and the efforts we have made and plan to make to address them. Some of the reasons we consider include: 1) external events outside of Injaz’s control, such as earthquakes, active fighting, or living in an unstable environment; 2) the program duration not being long enough and the children not being provided continued support; and 3) the program addressing children, but not their community environment. Additionally, we explore where the curriculum might be falling short and how we could improve the survey questions.

Seeing a positive shift in wellbeing at the end of the program and then seeing that positive shift turn into a regression is not what any team wants to see, but we are grateful that we have measured it and can use what we have learned to try to think in a larger scope about our programming, not only temporally, but also spatially in thinking about the different environments the children operate in to determine how to better support them and their wellbeing.

Sources Cited

Mehra, T., M. Wentworth, and A. Thorley (2022). The European Court of Human Rights Sitting on the Fence? Its Ruling and Impact on the Repatriation of European Children from North-East Syria. International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.

Save the Children (2022). Remember the Armed Men who Wanted to Kill Mum? He Hidden Toll of Violence in Al Hol on Syrian and Iraqi Children. Save the Children.

Tanyu, M., et al. (2020), Improving education outcomes for students who have experienced trauma and/or adversity, OECD Education Working Papers, No. 242, OECD Publishing.

Authors

• Mary Beth Wilson, Chemonics

• Dima Al-Shoura, Chemonics International