Piece of Syria is an international cooperation NGO whose vision is to make Syria "a country you want to visit again." It provides educational support for Syrian children and carries out awareness and peace education activities in Japan. So that children, who are the agents of reconstruction, can receive basic education and build their country's future by their own efforts, it works with local partners to bring education to areas that United Nations and international NGO support has difficulty reaching.
It was founded as a voluntary group in May 2016 and became an NPO corporation in July 2021. On August 4, 2026, it was certified as a certified NPO by the city of Osaka. In 2016 it signed a partnership agreement with an NGO based in southern Turkey and began continuous support for kindergartens and primary schools in the outskirts of Aleppo in northern Syria. It also supports supplementary schools for the children of Syrian refugees living in Turkey.
In Japan, it shares what life was like in Syria before the war, the current state of education and the reasons people became refugees, and holds information sessions, talks and exchange events using the "Syria karuta" card game. In 2025 it received the Shibata Koichiro Prize at the "Lion Standing in the Wind of the Year 2025" awards.
Key points
- Educational support for children in hard-to-reach areas (Syria and Turkey)
- Its name carries the idea of "turning each piece into one connected whole"
- Information sessions and events make it easy to take part from Japan
Why this organization deserves attention
A distinguishing feature is that it treats education as the foundation of reconstruction and has continued support over time with local partners. It also publishes reports, such as parent surveys, that check the results of learning beyond academic scores.
In Japan, it puts effort into peace education that conveys Syria's appeal as well as its challenges. You can learn about the reality on the ground that news alone does not show, which makes it a good starting point for thinking about international cooperation as something close to home.
Editor's comment
Even if each person's strength is small, putting pieces together can make a great force. This idea in the organization's name seems to be addressed to us readers as well.
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