The SecDev Foundation

At Jubilee Institute in Amman last month, a group of high school students performed a play about online harm, identity, and growing up behind a screen. Then they debated it. Then their peers decided who won the debate.

The adults in the room — including a former Minister of Education — spent most of the day listening.

This is what it looks like when young people are trusted to lead the conversation.

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Page to Stage: Youth Novel About Digital Dangers Inspires Theatre and Debate - The SecDev Foundation In Jordan, a novel about online identity, pressure, and harm inspired a rich student-led day of theatre, debate, and dialogue.

In conflict settings, harm does not move only through streets and front lines. It also moves through the digital channels people rely on for information, connection, and support — through scams, manipulation, and attacks that exploit people in crisis.

A Humanitarian Grand Challenge case study examines Siraj, the youth-led digital safety initiative in conflict-affected Yemen that we developed with مؤسسة شباب سبأ - Sheba Youth Foundation.

Our own short review draws out a few wider lessons: what leadership on the ground makes possible in crisis settings, how initiatives like this can strengthen organizations over time, and the value of models designed to leave trust, tools, and capability in local hands.

What Siraj Teaches Us About Digital Resilience in Conflict - The SecDev Foundation A new case study documents a pilot initiative empowering Yemeni youth to push back against scams, misinformation, and other digital harms.

Syria is rebuilding after years of conflict and trauma — and leaning hard into digitization. That brings real promise, but also new risks for ordinary people and the civil society groups supporting them.

We sat down with SalamaTech’s Nada, who recently returned to Syria for the first time in years. She shares what she saw on the ground: what’s changed since the regime fell, what hasn’t, and what digital resilience needs to look like now.

Read the conversation here:
https://secdev-foundation.org/after-the-fall-digital-safety-in-todays-syria/

After the Fall: Digital Safety in Today’s Syria - The SecDev Foundation Just over a year after the fall of the Assad regime, a longtime SalamaTech project leader shares her take on what’s changed in Syria—and the digital dangers people face now.