AWARENESS + ADVOCACY
Browse through our key campaigns, collaborations and advocacy activities.
2025
Mar 2025
We joined YHS 2025, where Waad took part in a panel discussion on how storytelling can foster empathy and bring humanitarian principles into everyday life. The summit also featured a special screening of Waad’s documentary We Dare to Dream.
YOUNG HUMANITARIAN SUMMIT
Oct 2025
AFS was invited to the Disinfo Lab Conference 2025 in Ljubljana, where Waad chaired a session on countering disinformation, while Hamza presented on attacks on healthcare and joined a plenary on war narratives from Aleppo to Gaza.
EU DISINFOLAB CONFERENCE
Apr 2025
On 27 April, we organised a public memorial at the site of the former Al-Quds Hospital in Aleppo, to mark nine years since the airstrikes that killed at least 55 people. This was the first time the attack could be publicly acknowledged, made possible by the fall of the regime that once silenced these truths.
AL QUDS MEMORIAL
Nov 2025
AFS participated at the 2ns EWIPA Conference and Protection Forum in San Jose, where we shared For Sama as part of broader discussions on civilian harm and advocacy, and contributed to sessions on strengthening protection of civilians from explosive weapons.
EWIPA CONFERENCE +
PROTECTION FORUM
Aug 2025
In 2025, For Sama returned home, with its first ever screenings inside Syria, bringing the story back to the communities where it was lived.
Across Aleppo, Masyaf, Hama, and Homs, more than 1,300 people gathered in universities, churches, cultural and medical spaces to watch, speak, and remember.
FOR SAMA SCREENINGS IN SYRIA
Dec 2025
WAR & DISASTER MEDICINE CONFERENCE
Invited by Estonia’s National Health Board to speak at Conference in Tartu, Dr. Hamza shared his experience delivering healthcare in Aleppo through a For Sama screening, Q&A, and presentation on medicine in war.2024
Feb 2024
EARTHQUAKE ANNIVERSARY
We hosted a screening of Waad’s film Death Without Mercy, followed by an emotional vigil to Trafalgar Square, to mark the 1 year anniversary of the Syria / Turkey earthquake.Apr 2024
EWIPA CONFERENCE + PROTECTION FORUM
We were at EWIPA’s conference to review implementation on the Political Declaration on Strengthening the Protection of Civilians from the Humanitarian Consequences Arising from the Use of Explosive Weapons in Populated Areas.
Apr 2024
EUROPEAN HUMANITARIAN FORUM
Hamza spoke on session entitled "Protecting Civilians in Conflict and Recovery”, where he emphasised that the deliberate targeting of civilian infrastructure is not incidental but strategically employed to obliterate any possibility of survival and hope.
June 2024
REFUGEE WEEK: IOM + MUSEUM OF THE HOME
We held a screening of We Dare To Dream at Museum of the Home in partnership with IOM, featuring a post film Q&A with Waad and refugee athlete Wael.July 2024
OLYMPIC GAMES CAMPAIGN
AFS supported The Syria Campaign’s campaign, demanding Syrian war criminal Omar Aroub is banned from attending the Paris Olympic Games.
Dec 2024
WAAD’S UNSC SPEECH
Waad addressed the United Nations Security Council in the first meeting on the political and humanitarian situation in Syria since the fall of Assad.
2023
Nov 2023
UNINVITE ASSAD: COP28
Waad’s message outside Manchester City's Etihad Stadium, urging Assad to be uninvited to the COP28 climate conference.
Jun 2023
‘Belongings’: our pop-up exhibition in collaboration with the International Organization for Migration to raise awareness on refugee stories and forced displacement.REFUGEE WEEK: IOM
Aug 2023
WAAD VISITS UKRAINE
To commemorate the 10th Anniversary of the Chemical Weapon attacks in Syria, Waad joined other Syrian civil society members to engage high-level officials in Kyiv.
Feb 2023
SYRIA HOUSE: LONDON
A ‘home away from home’ in Trafalgar Square, created by the Syrian community for all those who wished to pay their respects to the lives lost in the Syria-Türkiye earthquakes.Aug 2023
FREE SYRIA’S DISAPPEARED
AFS joined FSD as a founding member of a Syrian-led advocacy coalition building a global movement to demand freedom for Syria’s disappeared.
Feb 2023
HERO TO ZERO: UN STAND NYC
We delivered a message outside UN HQ in New York about the inaction of the UN to the earthquake response, particularly in NW Syria. 2022
Oct 2022
WALK WITH AMAL
Waad and Sama meet Little Amal - a 12 foot puppet of a Syrian refugee girl walking across the globe, drawing attention to the huge numbers of children fleeing war, violence and persecution. Jun 2022
MP ACTION: DEPORTATION OF ASYLUM SEEKERS
Waad encourages the public to email their MP to oppose the UK government’s plans to deport dozens of asylum seekers to Rwanda. Jun 2022
DISINFORMATION REPORT
Hamza contributed to a powerful disinformation report by The Syria Campaign about how online conspiracies about Syria cause real-world harmApr 2022
STOP BOMBING HOSPITALS CAMPAIGN
A global campaign to shed light on the attacks carried out against healthcare workers in Syria and Ukraine.Mar 2022
INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY TALK
“We Are The Women of the Syrian Revolution” webinar featured Waad, Mazaya and The White Helmets sharing insights on women on the ground in Syria, their work, vision and hopes for the country.2021
Dec 2021
WAAD: UN SECURITY COUNCIL SPEECH
Waad al-Kateab spoke at the UN Security Council’s Arria Formula meeting on Accountability in Syria. Dec 2021
DISPLACEMENT VIDEO SERIES
AFS launched a storytelling series featuring video interviews about displacement. Voices include first responders, humanitarians, local council members, journalists and families. Jun 2021
On World Refugee Day AFS revealed special wall murals in East London and Idlib which became hubs for discussions on accountability and justice, refugees and for the fight to free detainees.REFUGEE DAY WALL MURAL
10 YEARS: SYRIAN REVOLUTION
Mar 2021
To mark 10 years since the Syrian revolution, AFS launched a campaign featuring viral FB Frame and bespoke “We Dared to Dream” paintings given to celebrity supporters of AFS.June 2020
2020
WATCH FOR SAMA, ACT FOR SYRIA
On the 9th anniversary of the Syrian revolution, AFS launched a movement with The Syria Campaign to ask British MPs to watch For Sama and act to protect civilians in Idlib.Feb 2020
WAAD’S OSCARS DRESS
Waad makes a statement at the 2020 Academy Awards, wearing a dress covered in Arabic embroidery "We dared to dream, and we will not regret dignity."Jan 2020
PUBLIC STAND OUTSIDE UN HQ
AFS joined forces with a coalition of NGOs to deliver a critical message about the international community’s failure to act to stop the killing in Syria.
