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FNOTW: Interview with Syrian Freedom (part 1)
FNOTW is honored to have an interview with Samantha Falciatori, a team member of Syrian Freedom. This part of the interview shares the purpose and activities of Syrian Freedom since the day of foundation.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: What is the purpose of Syrian Freedom organization?
Samantha: Syrian Freedom was set up in October 2011 and started as a news gathering and sharing site, where people concerned about the plight of Syrians could meet, post news, and discuss the situation in Syria in a moderated chatroom.
Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the ongoing conflict and shed light on people’s suffering by offering the public a platform of healthy discussion and reliable information, possibly coming from activists inside Syria.
As you may know, independent coverage of the events on the ground is very difficult as journalists are not allowed by the Syrian regime to enter the country.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: What are the activities of Syrian Freedom? What have you achieved so far?
Samantha: We set up a livestream and we constantly monitor the situation in Syria through the media, the Internet and sources on the ground, always trying to find reliable sources of information. When we get a live feed from within Syria or from other channels of interest, we stream it live.
We daily update our website, tumblr, twitter and facebook pages, posting articles, reports, videos and other useful material. So far we have managed to provide people with good information (which is filtered in order to deal only with documented or proved information) and to help them understand what is going on. The positive feedback we got from our viewers is encouraging and it means many people find our information work useful.
As time went on and the situation on the ground worsened, Syrian Freedom decided to take action by aiding the Syrian people either become refugees or still trapped inside Syria because of the ongoing violence. We therefore decided to found Syrian Assistance, the humanitarian branch of our organization. Thanks to our contacts it was possible to create a net of volunteers and activists who could deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian people. Obviously, in order to make the aid deliveries (mainly food, medicines, clothes and blankets), travels to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria have been made by some of our team members.
A Syrian girl received a gift from Syrian Freedom - Posted in Syrian Freedom facebook page.
Unfortunately, since we have started our aid activities in February 2012, the situation on the ground only worsened and due to security and logistical reasons we were forced to suspend our humanitarian activities. Our latest delivery was done in May 2013 (medical supplies to the medical center in Tal Rifaat, the main one for the region which treats patients from the North Aleppo outskirts).
Nonetheless, during this period we managed to provide many Syrian families with basic aid, including food, milk formula for babies, winter clothes and medical supplies in areas ranging from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, hospitals on the Turkish-Syrian border, Atme refugee camp, to Homs and field hospitals within Syria.
On October 3rd 2012 we delivered over 600 kg of medical supplies coming from Germany to the field hospital in Atme, as part of a very generous donation by the German organization Action Medeor.
The results we achieved in alleviating the suffering of many Syrian families and the smiles we saw on the faces of the Syrian children we helped, despite the huge challenges and difficulties we faced, are surely the biggest achievement we have reached.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: How does Syrian Freedom operate?
Samantha: Syrian Freedom is by nature a net based organization. We are a small group of volunteers coming from all over the world, both Syrians and non Syrians. The founders of the group got to know each other in the Libya Al Hurra livestream, during the Libyan revolution.
As the situation in Syria became more dramatic, these ordinary citizens decided to start up Syrian Freedom to try to support the Syrian people. We are not professionals, we are engaged in this organization in every minute of spare time. Our countries of origin range from Syria, Lebanon, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Italy to Singapore and, therefore, internet is the main tool through which we can coordinate our activities and work.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: Have you had any difficulties or obstacles during your operation?
Samantha: At the beginning the main challenge was to find reliable sources of information. It is not possible to independently verify what happens on the ground so we rely on activists or nets of activists who operate inside Syria and who put their lives in extreme danger in order to document the unspeakable violations occurring in Syria and to let the world know what is happening.
Another challenge we daily face is to raise the awareness of as many people as possible. On the whole, media do not pay sufficient attention to what is going on in Syria and there still are many people who do not have a clear idea about what is going on and why.
For instance, the systematic massacres that take place, the deliberate and systematic extreme torture to which thousands of civilians, including children, are subjected to in the regime detention centers, sometimes even to death, do not get the attention they deserve.
As a consequence, many people do not have a real perception of what is going on and what the real suffering of the people is.
That is why reporting and spreading information is of vital importance, so that people can try to understand and make up their own minds.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: There are many other organizations that also call for Freedom for Syria. Have you found and cooperated with any other organizations that serve the same purpose?
Samantha: There indeed are many organizations that call for a free Syria. We have been in contact with some of them, for different reasons from time to time, especially for our aid activities in order to promote them and to find partnership.
I can quote the Local Coordination Committee, the main Syrian net of activists, and Insaan Rights Watch, an organization which collects evidence and information on the human rights violations occurring in Syria, but our main partners were humanitarian organizations we worked with to deliver aid to the people in need, such as Al Fajer, Action Medeor, In Our Hearts and many activists and doctors on the ground.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: How do you get updated with the current situation in Syria?
Samantha: Like with all of the Arab Spring-inspired revolutions, social media has played an important role in organizing and disseminating information. Many times, news can be obtained from social networks quicker and more accurately than from traditional forms of media.
We get updated through reliable channels of information on the Internet, namely groups of activists who operate from within Syria, as citizen journalism is one of the most accurate source of information, since the Syrian regime does not allow independent journalists in the country.
We also get information from Syrian activists and friends, some inside Syria some outside but with their families still in the country, so we can also rely on first hand information.
FNOTW is honored to have an interview with Samantha Falciatori, a team member of Syrian Freedom. This part of the interview shares the purpose and activities of Syrian Freedom since the day of foundation.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: What is the purpose of Syrian Freedom organization?
Samantha: Syrian Freedom was set up in October 2011 and started as a news gathering and sharing site, where people concerned about the plight of Syrians could meet, post news, and discuss the situation in Syria in a moderated chatroom.
Our main purpose is to raise awareness of the ongoing conflict and shed light on people’s suffering by offering the public a platform of healthy discussion and reliable information, possibly coming from activists inside Syria.
As you may know, independent coverage of the events on the ground is very difficult as journalists are not allowed by the Syrian regime to enter the country.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: What are the activities of Syrian Freedom? What have you achieved so far?
Samantha: We set up a livestream and we constantly monitor the situation in Syria through the media, the Internet and sources on the ground, always trying to find reliable sources of information. When we get a live feed from within Syria or from other channels of interest, we stream it live.
We daily update our website, tumblr, twitter and facebook pages, posting articles, reports, videos and other useful material. So far we have managed to provide people with good information (which is filtered in order to deal only with documented or proved information) and to help them understand what is going on. The positive feedback we got from our viewers is encouraging and it means many people find our information work useful.
As time went on and the situation on the ground worsened, Syrian Freedom decided to take action by aiding the Syrian people either become refugees or still trapped inside Syria because of the ongoing violence. We therefore decided to found Syrian Assistance, the humanitarian branch of our organization. Thanks to our contacts it was possible to create a net of volunteers and activists who could deliver humanitarian aid to the Syrian people. Obviously, in order to make the aid deliveries (mainly food, medicines, clothes and blankets), travels to Turkey, Lebanon and Syria have been made by some of our team members.
A Syrian girl received a gift from Syrian Freedom - Posted in Syrian Freedom facebook page.
Unfortunately, since we have started our aid activities in February 2012, the situation on the ground only worsened and due to security and logistical reasons we were forced to suspend our humanitarian activities. Our latest delivery was done in May 2013 (medical supplies to the medical center in Tal Rifaat, the main one for the region which treats patients from the North Aleppo outskirts).
Nonetheless, during this period we managed to provide many Syrian families with basic aid, including food, milk formula for babies, winter clothes and medical supplies in areas ranging from the Bekaa Valley in Lebanon, hospitals on the Turkish-Syrian border, Atme refugee camp, to Homs and field hospitals within Syria.
On October 3rd 2012 we delivered over 600 kg of medical supplies coming from Germany to the field hospital in Atme, as part of a very generous donation by the German organization Action Medeor.
The results we achieved in alleviating the suffering of many Syrian families and the smiles we saw on the faces of the Syrian children we helped, despite the huge challenges and difficulties we faced, are surely the biggest achievement we have reached.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: How does Syrian Freedom operate?
Samantha: Syrian Freedom is by nature a net based organization. We are a small group of volunteers coming from all over the world, both Syrians and non Syrians. The founders of the group got to know each other in the Libya Al Hurra livestream, during the Libyan revolution.
As the situation in Syria became more dramatic, these ordinary citizens decided to start up Syrian Freedom to try to support the Syrian people. We are not professionals, we are engaged in this organization in every minute of spare time. Our countries of origin range from Syria, Lebanon, UK, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Italy to Singapore and, therefore, internet is the main tool through which we can coordinate our activities and work.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: Have you had any difficulties or obstacles during your operation?
Samantha: At the beginning the main challenge was to find reliable sources of information. It is not possible to independently verify what happens on the ground so we rely on activists or nets of activists who operate inside Syria and who put their lives in extreme danger in order to document the unspeakable violations occurring in Syria and to let the world know what is happening.
Another challenge we daily face is to raise the awareness of as many people as possible. On the whole, media do not pay sufficient attention to what is going on in Syria and there still are many people who do not have a clear idea about what is going on and why.
For instance, the systematic massacres that take place, the deliberate and systematic extreme torture to which thousands of civilians, including children, are subjected to in the regime detention centers, sometimes even to death, do not get the attention they deserve.
As a consequence, many people do not have a real perception of what is going on and what the real suffering of the people is.
That is why reporting and spreading information is of vital importance, so that people can try to understand and make up their own minds.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: There are many other organizations that also call for Freedom for Syria. Have you found and cooperated with any other organizations that serve the same purpose?
Samantha: There indeed are many organizations that call for a free Syria. We have been in contact with some of them, for different reasons from time to time, especially for our aid activities in order to promote them and to find partnership.
I can quote the Local Coordination Committee, the main Syrian net of activists, and Insaan Rights Watch, an organization which collects evidence and information on the human rights violations occurring in Syria, but our main partners were humanitarian organizations we worked with to deliver aid to the people in need, such as Al Fajer, Action Medeor, In Our Hearts and many activists and doctors on the ground.
FNOTW - Free News of the World: How do you get updated with the current situation in Syria?
Samantha: Like with all of the Arab Spring-inspired revolutions, social media has played an important role in organizing and disseminating information. Many times, news can be obtained from social networks quicker and more accurately than from traditional forms of media.
We get updated through reliable channels of information on the Internet, namely groups of activists who operate from within Syria, as citizen journalism is one of the most accurate source of information, since the Syrian regime does not allow independent journalists in the country.
We also get information from Syrian activists and friends, some inside Syria some outside but with their families still in the country, so we can also rely on first hand information.
