Steunpunt Sabr

Steunpunt Sabr (the Arabic word for ‘patience’) is a women’s organisation that is situated in the neighbourhood Schilderswijk (The Hague), and is active both in the Municipality of The Hague and nationally. Sabr is an independent and autonomous NGO, that works bottom-up and offers support to and empowers vulnerable woman.

Sabr organises activities for woman in a trusted and safe environment, it is a place where women meet each other and interact around the kitchen table or living room. Sabr supports these women with their questions and needs, and empowers them to take care of their problems themselves. If the problems are too complex, Sabr will refer these women to other professional support and care organisations.

With the growing challenge of youngsters leaving to Syria from this area, Sabr has organised a support group for parents whose children have left for Syria. The group consisted of parents from different cultural backgrounds and both Muslim and converts, and was growing fast.

Parents joined the group voluntarily and usually knew about the support group through their networks. Sabr also had close connections with community police officers who referred parents, also from other areas, to the support group.

Sabr facilitated the meetings and was present to support the parents where necessary. The needs of the parents were the staring point of the conversations. When a lot of questions were raised about the Syria issue for the government and municipality, Sabr arranged for government and municipality officials to join the group and answer their questions.

Participating parents were very happy with the support group since it offered them a place to share their experiences and learn from each other how to deal with the situation. Key factors to this were the low entry levels (very local, short communication lines), closed meeting in a safe space (trust between participants and the organisation) and the independent nature of Sabr.

Contact details:

Karima Sahla
Email: info@steunpuntsabr.nl
Tel: (+31) (0)614427888
David Blesstraat 13
2526 BG Den Haag
The Netherlands