A Glance at the Activity of the Women's Associations in Damascus

Women's social activity in Damascus rests on the efforts of the women's institutions, which bring together an elite of the finest ladies and young ladies of Damascus, forming fourteen associations. They work with souls full of resolve and sincerity, and hearts abounding in love of good and in striving to realize the loftiest principles and the noblest aims, so as to raise the level of the people and set it in its rightful place on the ladder of life and humanity.

The Arab Women's Union Society

This association was founded in 1944 and is presided over by Mrs. Adila Bayhum al-Jaza'iri. The services this institution renders are predominantly social and charitable in character. Among its chief aims: striving to obtain woman's political right; strengthening the bonds among the unions of Arab women; taking part in the conferences and circles that examine woman's condition and her political and social affairs; holding functions; aiding imprisoned and needy women; extending material assistance to the classes of society in times of hardship; and securing foodstuffs for the wounded, the families of the martyrs, and the men of the army. Its particular beneficiaries are the children of the victims of the French aggression, part of whose school fees the Union pays at the Dawhat al-Adab Institute.

The Drop of Milk Society

Founded in 1922, presided over by Mrs. Zahra al-Abid; its motto is the care and service of the child, and the provision of his food and clothing. Its beneficiaries are, in general, children who have not completed their second year: the society takes them under its care from birth until that age, with all the necessities of life they require. There are other services the society renders as well, such as helping refugees and the poor in certain overwhelming circumstances.

The Women's Red Crescent Society

Formed in 1942, it follows the international rules and conventions issued at Geneva in 1864 and the resolutions adopted at The Hague in 1907. Its honorary president is Mrs. Zahra al-Abid and its working president Mrs. Sa'diyya al-Habbi. The society's purposes are confined to the relief of sick and wounded soldiers, the founding of hospitals, aid to the wounded and sick of belligerent states, the training of its members in methods of first aid, and the forming of branches for Syrian ladies in all the Syrian regions.

The General Relief Society

Founded in 1945; its motto is the rescue of those on whom disasters have fallen in the various lands and crises. Its president is Mrs. Asma Faris al-Khoury, and its honorary president Mrs. Zahra al-Abid. It aims at

helping the stricken and the wounded, and at opening a sewing workshop for the poor in peacetime. It also approaches the competent authorities to bring about legislation protecting children and working men and women; it supervises the juveniles' home and the home for the aged; and it trains ladies in methods of first aid, supplying them with the information needed for this purpose.

Founded in 1942; its motto is the raising of woman's cultural and social level, and its president is Miss Hirbah Mawsili. It aims at founding a library for public reading, at delivering lectures in its club, and at making rounds to seek out poor illiterate women and help them. Its beneficiaries are poor women who belong to families whose traditions prevent them from making their poverty known. And there are a number of girl students whom the society takes under its care.

Founded in 1927; its motto is the raising of woman's cultural and social level, and its president is Su'ad Mardam Bey. Its purpose is the delivery of cultural lectures in its club, which is known by her name; the extension of material assistance to families in quiet want; the employment of a number of working women in its workshop, which takes in sewing and certain kinds of handwork; and the revival of the national industries anew.

Founded in 1928; its literary president is Mrs. Munira al-Haribi. Among its purposes: the opening of a family women's club; the founding of a magazine of education, instruction, and letters; the delivery of speeches and lectures on educational, moral, developmental, and economic subjects; the giving of special lessons to illiterate women; the performance of school plays; the holding of women's functions at which the various national manufactures and women's handwork are shown; the support of women's magazines; the securing of work for graduates of the teachers' colleges; and the assistance of small schoolgirls from poor families. It has a shelter, known as Dar al-Kafala, which provides poor schoolgirls with food, clothing, and instruction.

Founded in 1943, its purpose purely cultural, its president Zahra al-Abid. Among its aims: the diffusion of letters; the endeavor to enlighten minds; the raising of woman's level in a manner suited to the spirit of the age, taking from the best of the two civilizations of East and West; the support of national manufactures; the delivery of lectures in various languages; the founding of a magazine examining women's questions; the holding of women's functions at which national manufactures and women's handwork are shown; the care of certain poor schoolgirls; and the opening of a women's cultural club.

Founded in 1928, its headquarters

in Damascus, with power to establish branches in the other Syrian cities; its president is Mrs. Adila Bayram al-Jaza'iri. It has taken upon itself the opening of numerous schools, secondary and elementary, with boarding sections, and kindergartens. It finances its projects out of school fees, government grants, the proceeds of functions, and lotteries. In certain circumstances it renders assistance to the poor; its schools also include a number of girl pupils exempted from school fees, and others at a fixed reduction. Among its chief purposes is to rear the Arab girl soundly and to give her a national upbringing.

Founded in 1944; its president is Mrs. Alice Qandalaft. It strives to bring woman to her full political rights, to realize the Arab national aims, to help the Palestinian refugees, and to spur women to work in the national causes and to raise national consciousness in their ranks.

Founded in 1945; its president is Miss Afaf al-Yusuf. It aims at the spread of learning and the fight against illiteracy; at providing poor children with the books and clothing they need; at furnishing work for poor women by teaching them handcrafts; and at comforting wretched families in quiet want. Among its aims also are the raising of the level of the villages, their revival, and the furnishing of them with all manner of health and social counsel.

Founded in 1945; its president is Mrs. Zahra al-Abid; its character is purely literary. It has

Founded in 1922; its president is Mrs. Sara Mu'ayyad. Its purpose is the raising of woman's literary and cultural level, the delivery of lectures, the holding of functions, the distribution of food and clothing in all manner of circumstances, the assistance of the men of the Syrian army, and the education of a group of boys at the club's expense.

periodic meetings at which literary lectures are delivered; it brings together an elite of men and women of letters who take up in them all manner of subjects of prose and poetry.

This institution was established in 1941; its president is Mrs. Marie Jallad. The chief aims of this association are the feeding of poor youngsters of all communities, and the supervision of the course of their growth by periodic medical inspection, visiting their families to look into their manner of living, mending what has gone wrong in their upbringing, following up their illnesses, stamping out the contagious among them, and providing the treatment and care they require.

Damascus
Tal'at al-Rifa'i
Inspector of Labor and Social Affairs
in the Ministry of National Economy