In 2010/11, Rawafed, began to implement a series of workshops in Homs, under The British Council’s Active Citizenship Programme, which were tailored to help   residents build cultural projects that could engage people, provide platforms and outlets for cross-village dialogue, nurture creativity, and demonstrate how residents can actively lead and participate in initiatives that improve their lives and communities.

The Active Citizenship works shops took place in partnership with The Homs Governorate, The British Council, and the Delegation of the European Union to Syria.

Workshop participants selected and received a grant from The British Council and Rawafed to implement the following initiatives:

1. A Mobile Cultural Club that implements cross-village cultural activities. The project will conduct a preliminary survey in universities and schools to pinpoint cultural activities that young people in the area are interested in.

    

2. Nurturing Creative Talents and working with parents to raise awareness of the important role they have in developing their children’s talent. This will culminate in an open day to showcase the children’s artistic work.

    

3. Reviving Traditional Handicrafts in Wadi Al Nadara, works with skilled craftsmen and women to promote and teach their crafts to others in the community. Focuses on straw products.

    

4. Activating Al Hosn Cultural Centre, one of the important but hardly used centres in the area. This initiative aims to breathe life in this centre through several activities related to reading, poetry, film etc.

    

5. Traditional handcrafts and arts training (with focus on young and unemployed women in Al Wadi) The initiative will hold workshops to raise the awareness about some of the area’s traditional handcrafts while giving unemployed women a chance to socialize and learn a new set of skills that can help them generate income.