A safe space for Syrian children in Iraq
Dozens of young Syrian children are excitedly preparing for a morning of fun and learning in a refugee camp near Erbil. In a small courtyard framed by caravans, the children sit in a circle and watch six others try to blow up balloons until they burst. When a couple of the boys manage to do it, the children applaud and squeal with delight.
“We wanted to perform a song for you,” says Project Manager Ghufran Ahmed, “we have an organ, but the electricity doesn’t usually come on until 11 or 12.”
Inside one of the kerosene-heated classrooms, Aya, 14, is taking English, a subject she loves. The children are reciting verbs, saying them in English while the teacher repeats them in Arabic.
“I like it here,” Aya says. “I’ve made friends and we play and study together. It’s my wish to become an English teacher.”
The child-friendly space at Kawergosk Camp is supported by a generous donation from KfW and run by UNICEF implementing partner PAO. In two daily shifts each week it caters to nearly 400 children from ages four to 18.
“We have a mix of non-formal education and recreation programmes,” says Mr. Ahmed, who is displaced from Mosul. “We have handicrafts, sport and music, and we do resilience training with the children. Also, all the art work you see on the walls is done by them.”
The balloon game over, the facilitators line up cookies hanging from strings. Five children are chosen to try and eat them without using their hands. One, when he thinks he isn’t being watched, grabs the cookie and sneaks a bite.
Brightly bundled against the winter chill, the children are happy and engaged.
“They like to come here - it’s better than sitting in a tent,” Mr. Ahmed says.
Aya is glad of the extra study time that the child-friendly space provides.
“I go to school every day and I come here every day too. I can’t study in my tent at night because there’s no electricity,” she says.
Mr. Ahmed explains that he would like to make improvements to the space — getting paving for the courtyard to replace the worn Astroturf, and a canopy to protect the children from summer’s scorching heat. And they’re planning committees to more fully engage parents and older students.
Before the conflict he was an anthropology professor at the prestigious Mosul University. Yet he is philosophical about the change external events have forced on him. “I like my job here, working with children,” he says, with a smile, “in many ways it’s just the same.”
Chris Niles is a Consultant with UNICEF Iraq.
Direct donations to UNICEF in Iraq: http://support.unicef.org/campaign/donate-children-iraq
