Facts You May not Know about Molham Team

By: Ahmad Abu Shaar, Co-founder of Molham Team

The Early Days

Molham Team was first founded when we were university students, who had no idea about administrative expenses, operational requirements, or salaries. Everything we needed for our work was covered from our own pockets. For example, the car we used for work belonged to one of the volunteers, and our office was basically a room in the home of another volunteer. All fees to do with visiting a medical case was at our personal expense.

We remained so until we launched our website and the team was officially registered in Turkey.

Administrative Expenses

After registering the team and expanding our volunteer work, we came to learn new, indispensable aspects of work, such as administrative expenses, wages of the accountants and legal consultants, operating expenses, as well as volunteer allowances and bonuses, which should be given to volunteers who undertake major responsibilities.

Fortunately, we were introduced to a donor who pledged to cover all our administrative expenses under one condition, which is to declare all received and spent donations through the Transparency File. And that is what he from 2015 up until the beginning of 2020, when donations doubled and reached 4 to 5 million dollars annually. Consequently, the need to supervise, manage transactions, donations, and disbursements, has increased, in addition to the need for more executive staff. In the light of all these developments, the donor was no longer able to cover those expenses.

Therefore, we ended up implementing and announcing a new policy of deducting a percentage of 3% of the received donations to cover administrative expenses. In addition, a tab has been added on our website that appears with every donation process, with the phrase "Would you like to add a small amount for the support of Molham Team's administrative expense?"

Salaries

The nonstop work on volunteer basis had drained the energy of volunteers and gave rise to many negative consequences, since they work full time for the team with no income while they lack even living expenses. 

Taking this into consideration, we have decided to pay them salaries that protect them from being in need. However, the salaries that Molham Volunteering Team pays for volunteers are considered as the minimum salaries compared to all similar organizations. Even though this could raise the feeling of underestimation for our volunteers, in our case it was a reason behind our success as Molham Team. 

Following this deduction for administrative payments, the number increased of the staff of projects, monitoring, and evaluation programs, in addition to financial and management. 

Alongside, the team could raise the fundraising from $4 million annually to $10 million in 2020 and $12 million in 2021. We were able to be the pioneers in the implementation of non-urgent sustainable and developmental projects and relief projects such as shelter projects that started to fruit nowadays.

Are we Volunteers?

Molham Volunteering Team has more than 450 members all around the world. Only less than 100 of them receive salaries as employees, while the rest work on volunteer basis. For example, the work in the German, Turkish, and English translation departments is fully covered by volunteers. However, these volunteers' role is critical, as it ensure we meet legal requirements and reach different audiences.

In fact, around 20% of the team's budget is implemented by our volunteers in Turkey, most of whom are university students. They work as field volunteers for orphans' sponsorships, as well as medical and humanitarian cases. 

In the Media department, we have volunteers who always impress us with their creative ideas. We also have volunteers spread all over the world; in Europe, Canada, and Palestine, who participate in fundraising. Molham Team's volunteers in those countries hold heavy legal responsibilities, such as bank accounts' management. 

This brings us to the essence of Molham Team's model of work, focused on harnessing the energy of youth worldwide by volunteering to serve displaced and refugees Syrians. However, it was absolutely necessary that we dedicate full-time employees to handle executive and critical work that require intensive efforts that could not be borne by a volunteer who has other responsibilities. 

In the light of this all, why would we remove the word "Volunteering"?

No. We are proud of every volunteer and every member in this team.

A Message to the Skeptics

Since the early days of Molham Team, we have been trying to create a grassroot Syrian experience in relief and humanitarian work, one that is unique to Syrian people and their needs. An experience founded on transparency, independent in decision-making, deriving its strength from the support and love of people, and achieving real results on the ground. All these years, we have been repeatedly the subject of smear campaigns. However, we have been and will always be determined to continue our work and commitment to our cause, and we haven't and will not change our principles.

A Message to our People in Northern Syria and Around the World

We consider your suffering our own. It breaks our heart that you continue to suffer. We feel guilty about the fact that we live in safety, while your children live in fear. We feel bad that we were able to continue our education, while many of you were forced to quit their studies. It hurts us knowing that many of you live in dire conditions and that many of you have lost their families, jobs, and homes.

Every day, we strive to offer a better reality for you and to put an end to your suffering, and whatever we do, we will always feel that we have to do more.

Please allow us to prove to you and the whole world that the people of this country are rebuilding it.