For some years, Raqqa has been at the center of global news. Much has been written about how this urban center of over 200000 inhabitants in northern Syria fell into the hands of Islamic State in 2014, becoming its capital and, consequently, the target of the military campaign aimed at liberating it in 2017. Almost four years in which the life of the city has been turned upside down, suspended in a limbo of institutionalized violence, draconian laws, and upheaval of social balances.

At the physical edges of the city of Raqqa, as well as at the edges of these chronicles, there are local breeders and farmers, who after the invasion of the Caliphate, found themselves burdened by new taxes that the latter imposed, deprived of their lands, animals, and means of agricultural production, cut off from the supply of water resources.

At the same time, even the women of rural communities "were prevented from working and leaving their homes," says Amina, who had to abandon her studies one year before graduating.

"Women of rural communities were prevented from working, and leaving their homes."

"In this situation, I had to withdraw my children from school, feeling the pain of not having allowed them to complete their studies," also explains Mahmoud, a sixty-year-old farmer from the village of Raqqa Samra. "Agricultural production has almost disappeared, and we farmers have been forced to look for bread in the city."

Things didn't go any better for Abboud, a farmer from the village of Hathunia, with ten children to feed: the collapse of veterinary services during the conflict had caused a deterioration in the quality and availability of vaccines for animals, thus reducing the herds.

Things didn't go any better for Abboud, a farmer from the village of Hathunia, with ten children to feed: the collapse of veterinary services during the conflict had caused a deterioration in the quality and availability of vaccines for animals, thus reducing the herds.

A dynamic that had been reversed thanks to the implementation of the Ra.LA (Raqqa Livestock and Agriculture) project by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation and the Ciheam of Bari. An initiative aimed at strengthening the support capacity of the Al Hasaka and Raqqa municipal administrations to their rural communities through providing inputs for livestock and agriculture, female empowerment, and the introduction of agricultural and veterinary assistance services.

In an area where, for a decade, the war had made it impossible for technicians, veterinarians, and agronomists to update their skills and acquire new necessary know-how, among the activities envisaged by the Ra.LA project there is the Remote Technical Assistance (RTA).

A series of services through which some experts have assisted remotely, via satellite, to a series of local technicians - among which Amina herself -who transferred the new techniques - acquired by attending seminars and lessons on e-learning platforms - to local farmers and breeders.

"I was finally able to start working my land again, while my children were able to go back to school."

Thus, the existence of people like Mahmoud, Amina, and Abboud is blossoming back. "I learned to use the right pesticides and about the different parasites," continues Mahmoud, "until they provided me with fertilizers, by which I was finally able to start working my land again, hiring new workers, while my children were able to go back to school."

"They provided us with an excellent veterinary service, which taught us to recognize diseases and the right medicines for our animals," explains Abboud, among the beneficiaries of the vaccination campaign that Ciheam carried out on approximately 221000 livestock in 49 villages in the area. "In one year, I doubled the number of my cows, and if before I could buy chicken once a month, now I can do it three times a week."

In 2020, the Ra.LA project supported 10000 families in rural communities and generated a social value of over 6 million dollars, compared to an initial investment of just under 700000 to purchase the various products. This can also be seen in the 10% increase in crop productivity and the 41% increase in livestock numbers.

"There is no joy for those who cannot live and cannot feel at home," adds Amina, who today is at the forefront of local processes of female empowerment. It is a new beginning for the communities of Raqqa, who have returned to believing both in agriculture and in a future that seemed extremely dark only a few years ago.