The Syrian Initiative to Combat Statelessness 40 the beginning. One source indicated that some families of girls married to foreign fighters disposed of the children as soon as they were born. He explains: “After the women returned from Al-Baghouz25, , a number of parents got rid of the children after their birth, often without the consent of the mother. And not a day went by without hearing about a foundling child thrown in Al-Rashid Park or Al-Bayda garden or Msakin Al-moalmin area.” This indeed matches the testimony of one of the victims. In addition to the ostracization of children and their mothers and the constant bullying of them at the security checkpoints, this perception has changed recently, and people began to deal with this group as victims, who are not to be blamed of what happened. | How civil society organizations have dealt with those affected: Civil society organizations were not in a better condition than the local community at the beginning, as most organizations adopted the principle of ignoring statelessness, on the grounds that stateless persons do not have identity papers, and some refused to accept the identification papers issued by the Kurdish “Autonomous-Administration” in the areas of SDF control. However, some of these organizations later tried to integrate the affected people into their programs, and consider them as victims, by providing relief aid or psychosocial support to the mothers. | Negative impacts on those affected: The participants indicated that they started to touch the negative impact on the affected groups since the beginning of the problem. Since the local community categorized the mother as ignorant and deserving of what she had done, they also see children as an extension of their parents, carrying their “takfiri”26 ideas. This has led to their complete isolation from society. In addition to their deprivation of health services (such as vaccinations), education, and the mother’s inability to travel with her children as she does not possess any proof of their identity, they are deprived of all rights which poses a major problem for the future of this group of children. 25 Al-Baghouz: A village located in Deir ez-Zor, and it is considered the last stronghold of ISIS in Syria. 26 The term takfiri is used by some extremist groups that regard other Muslims or certain groups of Muslims as apostates. They use the term against those who may disagree with their ideology or abstain from loyalty to them.