Feeding the future
Despite violence across the country, dedicated Syrian teachers are helping children to continue their education.
In November 2016, nearly 6-years of conflict has had a devastating impact on education for Syrian children. Some 1.7 million children are out of school and attending class can be a matter of life or death when schools or nearby areas are hit. But children are determined to keep learning and many of the displaced are going to makeshift schools in basements, caves and old barns.
An old animal feeding barn provides space for displaced children to attend class in rural Dar’a. “We had to clean this center and turn it to a school where almost 80 children come every day to learn how to read and write,” says [NAME CHANGED] Muhammad, one of the three teachers.
Children do what they can to focus at the makeshift school even when sitting on the hard floor. “Children have to rotate using the only six desks available,” says [NAME CHANGED] Mona, a 25-year old teacher.
“It’s important to have this school so we can have an educated and mindful generation,” says Mona. “Nothing is their fault and they have the right to learn,” she adds. Going to school also provides some normality in life that Syrian children desperately need.
Seven year old Hayat attends classes regularly in the barn. “I have to come every day to school to learn, because I want to become a teacher when I grow up,” she says. Children across the country are not giving up on their dreams and aspirations.
Going to school, wherever it is, provides some relative normalcy for children who have lived through nearly six years of conflict.
“This is the first time I go to school and I love to come here because I play with my friends, I have a lot of them,” says five year old Seif-ed-Dien.
When not enough desks are available for everyone at school, children in the old barn resort to lying on the dirty and hard ground to write after instructions from their teacher.
A child packs up his notebook after another day at the makeshift barn school. UNICEF has provided 3.2 million children across the country with learning materials this year, such as school bags, stationary and text books.
Six year old, Nazeer, stands in front of the makeshift school during a break. “The important thing is to come here every day to learn, even though this school is not as pretty as our old school where it was big, we had a big yard and classes were separated, unlike here,” he says.
“I love my old school more, it had a big yard and I used to play with my friends,” 9-year-old Huda says. But she believes that it is important for her to learn, play and live as normal a life as she can despite the horror and violence around her.
