Filling the education gap for Syrian refugee children
With most Syrian refugees living below the poverty line many children face the prospect of work rather than school. Yet some organisations are offering hope in the form of education. Tom Orde reports from Lebanon.
The grey concrete building looked pseudo-soviet.
Crumbling and scarred from the Israeli invasion of Lebanon three decades prior it was an agricultural building riddled with bullet holes that looked ready to collapse at any moment.
Packed living beneath it, Syrian refugees fleeing their own recent conflict.
We had arrived at an informal refugee camp outside Zahlé. The town is in the south of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley, a region of the country renowned for producing wine and its fertile land which lies between two mountain ranges.
To the west is Beirut and the Mediterranean and just beyond the mountains to the east, Syria.
At present Lebanon has no formal refugee camps and 35.6% (338,915) of refugees can be found scattered throughout the Bekaa valley in informal camps and settlements.
Reports published by the UNHCR in October 2018 put the total number of registered Syrian refugees at 5,646,298. Roughly the entire population of Denmark.
Their reports suggest 951,629 of these are in Lebanon but in reality, the figure is thought to be well over 1 million.
The camp is run by Triumphant Mercy (TM) a non-governmental organisation founded by Nuna Matar in 2006 to support Lebanese civilians affected by the Israel–Hezbollah war and which in 2013 started helping Syrian refugees.
Getting out of the minibus I notice the sticker on the back of the car next to us displays a ‘no guns’ sticker instead of the usual ‘baby on board’.
We make our way down the dirt-track that intersects the camp lined with tents as trucks selling fruit and vegetables jolt past.
Along the way, we’re greeted by a group of children. As the Syrian Civil War approaches its eighth year many of them have been born in Lebanon and are essentially stateless.
Some of them are shoe-less but all are grinning and happy with rucksacks on their backs.
They’re on their way to school.
Alarmingly, more than half of the Syrian refugees in Lebanon are children and young people meaning there is a huge need for education within the camps.
Lebanese schools are stretched to their capacity so informal camp or tent schools now play a vital role.
However, with so many Syrians living in extreme poverty families are often forced to send their children to work the surrounding fields.
In total TM have four tent schools, as well as a community centre in Beirut, which provide education for around 500 children aged 6 -12 unable to access government or UN schools.
In the camps, each tent school has five classrooms and a curriculum offering classes in Arabic, maths, science, history, geography and English.
I sit in on an English class where some of the students enthusiastically present their homework.
Names, favourite colours and favourite foods are asked. When I ask birthdays I’m met with blank stares as I learn they’re not celebrated in Syrian culture.
Despite the basic resources, the kids are happy, animated and enjoy classes.
The schools are safe and secure places and even offer employment opportunities as the teachers are recruited from within the Syrian refugee community.
On leaving the school we pay a visit to the camp workshop where older and mature students are taught vocational skills.
The boys proudly show off furniture pieces they’ve made as part of a woodwork and construction course and in the room, next door the girls and women huddle around a sewing machine making clothes.
By gaining transferable skills it is hoped the students can go on to generate an income for themselves in the future.
With so many Syrian women now widows these skills are ultimately empowering as they can learn to be independent. Nuna emphasises they have a voice now and no longer have to stay at home.
Returning to our vehicle we meet Ghousan, a camp resident, who invites us in for coffee. Middle-Eastern style, its thick with the grains left in and infused with cardamon.
Ghousan tells us her husband is missing and she has not been able to work this season.
She had to pay money and give her wedding ring away to cross the border with her children into Lebanon over the mountains.
Regardless, she is happy as her children are now in school.
After leaving the camp we take a short drive to the edge of Zahlé where we approach a huge concrete structure. It’s solid and almost imposes over the smaller buildings in the surrounding area.
It’s a building site for a new school. At any one time, it will be able to hold classes for around 350 children and comes as a much welcome upgrade for the organisation’s existing students.
Much like the Triumphant Mercy community centre in Beirut, it is hoped the school will become a hub and source of support for the refugee community in and around Zahlé.
But most importantly with better education facilities, it is hoped students can have some sort of semblance of a normal childhood and start thinking of the future.
