CVT’s Work in Support of Syrians

From healing centers in Jordan, CVT has supported Syrian survivors for over 14 years. In 2011, the team in Jordan significantly expanded its work to meet escalating needs. Our work began with mental health, physiotherapy and social work care extended to refugees living in Jordan, and we also provide psychosocial care in Minnesota, U.S., to a smaller number of Syrian asylum seekers who escaped after the conflict began.

In Amman and Zarqa, as we worked with survivors while they began to rebuild their lives, we heard from them about the need for justice as well as healing. This began expansion of our work into support for civil society, work that has continued to grow over the years.

While widespread violence in Syria has long been associated with the brutality of the Assad regimes, for decades governance in Syria has been defined by targeted assault on fundamental rights and freedoms. Systematic violations—notably arbitrary detention, torture, disappearances, and massacres—eroded civil society and led to popular uprisings aimed at peaceful change, but were met with continued crackdowns, armed opposition and atrocities committed by diverse perpetrators. This has resulted in large numbers of Syrians fleeing their homes, often after experiencing deeply traumatic situations, including torture, and sometimes followed by abuses endured during their flight to seek refuge.

The United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees (UNHCR) 2025 situation overview for Syria projects that 7.2 million people are internally displaced and 6.2 million are refugees, mostly living in nearby countries, including Jordan. These numbers have been among the highest of all countries for numbers of people displaced from home. Many of these people found CVT and care.

In April 2024, Amnesty Int’l reported that torture and human rights abuses were rampant in Syrian detention centers that held 56,000 people, 30,000 of whom were children.

“There’s lots of states that use torture, but the Assad regime did it on an industrial scale,” said Dr. Simon Adams, CVT president and CEO, of the Syrian leader in this Dec. 17, 2024 article in the Minnesota Star Tribune. Assad, he said, was “a world leader in institutional cruelty and widespread and systematic use of torture.”

Resilience and Rehabilitation for Syrian Refugees Living in Jordan

As of 2024, CVT has extended interdisciplinary care to thousands of Syrian refugees living in Amman, Jordan; nearly 75% of our resources in the Amman program have been dedicated to the needs of this population.

CVT Jordan got its start in 2008 caring for Iraqi refugees who came to the country to escape torture and violent conflict. But by 2011, the team was seeing Syrians in large numbers, including men, women and even children.

I don’t deserve life; my father has been killed because of me.”

Jana, former client and 10 year-old girl who was imprisoned in Syria

Partnership with Syrian Civil Society: The Survivors of Torture Initiative (SOTI)

In addition to healing care, CVT introduced the Survivors of Torture Initiative (SOTI) in 2016, work that supports Syrian civil society with a focus on detainees, torture survivors and their families that have been impacted by the conflict. SOTI, or “my voice” (يتوص), aims to strengthen Syrian civil society, advance justice and heal trauma. It recognizes that these goals are inseparable and uses an integrated framework to center the needs of survivors in related efforts. SOTI also recognizes that individual, organizational and societal harms have targeted civil society to undermine the rights of all Syrians. SOTI brings together Syrian trauma rehabilitation experts, psychosocial service providers, human rights defenders, journalists, legal advocates, and others fighting for healing and justice in order to promote collaboration and address shared needs.

97 Syrian organizations have received training and support through SOTI, with nearly 3,500 beneficiaries overall, in more than 29 locations.

The Ongoing Issue of the Disappeared in Syria

CVT has worked for many years with families of people who have been “disappeared” by the Syrian military. Families of the disappeared have a right to know the fate of their loved ones under international law.

I would like to say to the world, We are here; Look at us. There is pain inside of us.”

Noor, former SOTI client

This CVT article from August 2024 describes the trauma and ongoing mental health impacts of having loved ones intentionally disappeared: Impacts of Forced Disappearance

Torture in Syria

Within the first four years of the Syrian conflict, CVT was already hearing from clients about the patterns of torture that they had survived. In 2016, CVT published this report, “Reclaiming Hope, Dignity and Respect,” which shares information from survivors of torture who fled to live as refugees in Amman. And those numbers only grew in the years to come. By 2024, CVT’s Jordan team had extended care to more than 6,000 survivors of Syrian torture and conflict-related trauma.

Therapeutic Documentation Written by Syrian Survivors

As part of the SOTI project, some Syrian survivors wish to share their personal story. In some cases, clients want to preserve the memory or share their experience with family. Some also wish to share their story publicly, shining a light on what their lives were like and what happened to them as the conflict erupted and impacted their lives. Here are stories shared by CVT clients.