From December 2013 to December 2014, our 'Sa'a Suriyya' (The Hour of Syria) 'Radio-Emergency' programme was active, involving Syrian refugee children in Jordan in the production and broadcast of news reports on their situation.

The aim was to give a voice to the Syrian community that fled the violence in the country, providing them with a dedicated space, with a focus on young people and women.

The programme was broadcast by Radio Yarmouk, the radio station of the University of Irbid, a city in the north of Jordan, and hosted 16 broadcasts involving experts, doctors and operators of humanitarian organisations who addressed sensitive issues from time to time. From child exploitation to gender-based violence, from human trafficking to the right to education, including practical information on access to education and basic health services to which refugees were entitled.

In each broadcast, in addition to interviews with emergency actors, there were musical segments chosen by the young autorə and practical information on how to access the services available to refugees in Jordan.

The project was supported by the Swedish and Japanese Cooperation and Unesco, which then narrated its main stages through a documentary.

This was accompanied by the distribution of 3,000 portable radios to the Syrian refugee community in the four governorates of Jordan where other projects as part of our programme of assistance and support to Syrian refugees were underway: Amman, Zarqa, Irbid and Mafraq, to make information from Sa'a Suriya accessible to allə.

Between 2012 and 2014, Un Ponte Per initiated a wide-ranging programme to support activists from the southern shores of the Mediterranean in the defence of human rights and freedom of expression, particularly Tunisia, Morocco, Egypt and in Iraq.

Over the course of 24 months, Iraqi, Egyptian, Tunisian and Moroccanə activistsə explored civil and political rights issues, with a focus on freedom of expression. Twelve organisations received micro-funding to support awareness-raising and advocacy activities in their countries.

In 2013, three media centres were set up in Tunisia and a regional group for the defence of freedom of expression was formed, made up of experts from the southern and northern shores of the Mediterranean, tasked with drawing up an analysis of the situation in each country involved in the project.

On the other hand, the organisation of a regional conference in 2014 aimed to create a coalition for freedom of expression in the MENA region and an international workshop with the participation of mediactivistsə from Eurpopa, North Africa and West Asia to exchange good practices and build alliances between civil societies. The coalition soon took part in the World Forum for Human Rights in Marrakech, Morocco, in December 2014, organising some independent activities to facilitate discussion between civil societies from the North and South shores on the right to communication, information and freedom of expression.

As part of Un Ponte Per's commitment to freedom of expression in the Mediterranean, the association is also a partner of the Tunisian 'School for Mediactivistə', created to provide specific knowledge against cyber-censorship, web and social media use to Tunisianə, Palestinian, Sudanese, Syrianə and Iraqiə activists and journalists.

Since 2009, together with the International Civil Service (ICS), the IPRI Network, the Sereno Regis Study Centre and Assopace Palestine, we have been running our Civil Peace Intervention programme in Palestine in October.

Every year some young Italian volunteers are selected among numerous candidates, trained and then sent to Palestine to support the activities of our partners Popular Committees for Nonviolent Resistance and Youth Against Settlements.

Their work takes place during the traditional period of the olive harvest, when Palestinian farmers are exposed to the risk of aggression by Israeli settlers and the army when they go to their fields for the harvest, which is prevented by military forces.

The intervention is therefore aimed at the accompaniment and protection of Palestinian peasants, to protect their right to access their own land, in an attempt to defuse violent processes and mitigate the aggressiveness of settlers and soldiers, as is generally the case when there is an international operatorə presence in the area.

The initiative, which involves updating the 'Gathering Peace' blog each year with articles and collected testimonies of young volunteers, is part of the actions implemented by the international community such as the Boycott(BDS), financial support, direct solidarity with Palestinian activists, and the awareness-raising projects we carry out annually.

As part of our Sponsorship Programme for children in conflict or post-conflict zones, which has programmes in Iraq and Lebanon, we also have 'Svetlost - Light on Invisible Children', designed to financially support orphans or families in need in Serbia together with the Kraljevo Red Cross.

After 20 years, the war in the Balkans continues to claim victims: cases of children born with malformations have quadrupled, as has the number of carcinomas from depleted uranium. The NATO bombing in 1999 made over 250,000 people refugees, who fled from Kosovo to southern Serbia.

To minors and families who have lost everything in the war we ensure assistance and schooling together with our local partner, thanks to the long-distance support of numerous Italian families.

Within the framework of our Sponsorship Programme for children in conflict or post-conflict zones, which has programmes in Iraq, Serbia and Kosovo, is also 'Family Happiness', a sponsorship for Palestinian children in Lebanon.

The project is shared by associations from 12 countries (Japan, Switzerland, USA, France, Belgium, Great Britain, Egypt, Qatar, Norway, Finland, Germany and Italy) and implemented thanks to our local partner Assomoud, which has been present in the country's refugee camps since 1976.

In Lebanon, half of the Palestinian refugee population is under the age of 18, but only 35% manage to complete primary school. Boys and girls grow up in refugee camps, in a context characterised by severe limitations in access to essential services, including health and education.

The right to health and education for Palestinian people in the country are still denied, even though they have been living in camps since 1948.

For years, together with our partner Assomoud, we have been running the sponsorship programme, which since 2013 also welcomes Palestinian Syrianə children who have fled the war in Syria and the camps in which they were living.

For them, we organise school activities and run small clinics to provide access to education and the right to medical care thanks to the contribution of many Italian families.

Within the framework of our Sponsorship Programme for children in conflict or post-conflict zones, which has programmes in Lebanon, Serbia and Kosovo, we also have 'Farah' (Joy), dedicated to children in Iraq, doubly affected by decades of war and continuous humanitarian emergencies.

About 3 million children in the country are malnourished and do not have access to adequate health care. There are also increasing cases of cancer and leukaemia caused by the use of chemical weapons, a disastrous legacy of the war.

Years of conflict and sanctions have had a dramatic impact on the childhood and rights of so many children. Thanks to the long-distance support of many Italian families, we ensure regular care for chronically ill Iraqi and persecuted minority children in cooperation with our local partner Yaum al-Hurriyya.

To activate long-distance support and accompany a child on its care journey, click here.

In 1999, with the war in the Balkans, 'Un Ponte per Belgrado' (A Bridge for Belgrade) was born, an initiative that, in addition to setting up health centres and sending medicines, offered assistance to over 10,000 displaced persons.

In recent years, the Association has intensified its relations with the Serbian community in Kosovo, organising vocational courses, distance support programmes and childcare hospitality.

The 'There is a child who...' project is part of our child protection activities and is designed to offer support to displaced persons from Kosovo, who are accommodated in the Kraljevo district.

The initiative aims to strengthen the relationship of solidarity between the two sides of the Adriatic Sea, through contact with Italianə children, to foster mutual knowledge and friendship, with a view to increasing awareness of the values of peace and solidarity.

Since 2002, each hospitality initiative, which takes place during the summer period over a period of three weeks, involves about 30 refugee children or children in conditions of severe social hardship and as many families of employees and collaborators of the University of Rome Tor Vergata.

The project also includes awareness-raising campaigns, through the production and screening of films, photo exhibitions and public events, knowledge trips, donations of clothing, computers, school and food supplies, as well as the launch of new distance support.

Three projects, one goal: to protect Iraq's millenary cultural heritage. With our programme 'Knowledge that endures' we have been working for over 12 years.

The House of Books

Back in 2004, we met Saad Eskander, the current director of the National Library and Archives in Baghdad. Together we conceived the 'House of Books' project, thanks to which this ancient institution managed to survive and rise again from the ashes of a terrible fire and the horrors of the civil war that was devastating the country at the time.

With the collaboration of another symbolic place of world culture, the National Library of Florence, which had experienced a similar tragedy with the flood of 1966, we were able to restore, preserve and digitise thousands of texts, some of them very old, protecting them from future destruction.

With Italian espertə we also ensured that the skills transferred to Iraqi librecarə became the heritage of the whole country, expanding the training to all public libraries in Iraq. Today we are happy that the Baghdad Library website boasts thousands of visits each month from scholarsə and enthusiastsə.

Books of reconciliation

In 2013, we launched a new project dedicated to the preservation and restoration of the archives of the country's thousand-year-old minorities. 'Books of Reconciliation' involved the Turkmen, Christian, Chaldean, Armenian, Sabaean and Mandean, Shabak, Kaka'i and many other communities. Experts from Baghdad trained within the framework of the 'House of Books' project helped the librarians of each community to preserve and restore their book and archive heritage. In a process that lasted two years, training courses, technical studies and a census of the literary history of each community were carried out.

All activities were conducted by creating common moments of dialogue and study between all minorities involved, fostering dialogue.

The work culminated in the production of the book'Books and Documents, Heritage of Iraqi Minorities', published in English, Arabic and Sorbian Kurdish, which collects for the first time detailed information on the history of book collections and cultural traditions of Iraqi minorities.

Sounds from Iraq

At the same time, with Sounds from Iraq, Khyam Allami, a young and passionate Iraqi musician, helped to create the first national sound archive at the Baghdad Library, where original recordings that survived the war are stored, with the aim of recovering and disseminating the country's many musical genres.