Syrian Refugee Education

When our Syrian Refugee Education project started in 2016, over one million refugees had arrived in Lebanon since the Syrian civil war began. By then, Syrian refugees made up a staggering 1-in-5 of the Lebanese population. Services were overwhelmed. Social, political and economic tensions ran high.

The devastation of war had exposed refugee children to significant trauma, poverty and loss, and was now robbing them of the chance to access education. Because the overcrowded Lebanese school system could not cope with the numbers of newcomers. Our partners’ ‘Shack School’ in the Bekaa Valley aimed not only to provide an education to Syrian children, but also to help them process their traumatic experiences and regain confidence and wellbeing. This, in turn, enabled them to engage with learning.

What were the challenges?

Over 500,000 of the refugee population were children. Around 70% were not in school. Without access to education, their future was bleak – which in turn made the future prosperity of the Syrian nation a fading dream.

The families served by our partners were in desperate circumstances. Having experienced the traumas of war, they lived in tents with a lack of regular work and a daily struggle for food. This often led to family tensions, domestic violence and aggression – all of which had a negative impact on child wellbeing.

8-year old *Moeen was born in Syria, but the family fled to Lebanon because of the war and now live in a tent in the Bekaa valley. Moeen’s father tries to find work as a taxi driver. The Shack School is Moeen’s first opportunity for any education, and he loves learning. Moeen’s behaviour has changed since attending the school. He says: ‘I learned to speak clearly in a low voice and to listen to my teacher and respect others in my class.’ Mooen’s family say now he is always smiling and likes to laugh and make others laugh. His dream is to become an engineer, to return to Syria and his village, rebuild what the war destroyed, and make his people laugh again.

Our work providing Syrian Refugee Education

In partnership with Lebanese NGO ‘Out of the Wilderness Lebanon’, over four years we supported over 600 refugee children, aged 5-12. They attended an informal ‘Shack School’ in a roadside refugee settlement. The Shack School taught Arabic, Mathematics and either French or English, with five morning sessions and five afternoon sessions each week. The ‘shack’ was a large tent, similar in construction to many refugee homes.

Over time, our partners saw the influence of a stable school environment in the lives of the children. Behaviour was often challenging, due to the children’s experiences during the war and tensions at home. But through their time in school both teachers and parents saw tremendous improvements in behaviour, equalled by academic growth and growing ambition. Children learnt to dream about what they could become. In turn, through getting to know and working with the families of the students, the team witnessed a shift in family culture away from stress and aggression and towards hope.

Ending well

As Syria begin to gain in stability, the Lebanese government put increasing pressure on families to return to Syria. Soon it became increasingly difficult to run the project. As numbers of children reduced, we decided to focus resources on a new project supporting disadvantaged families within Syria itself. In June 2020, Global Care ended its support for this project in Lebanon.

Our partners wrote: “Thank you so much for your willingness to help and a big thank you for your generous and faithful support. For most of these children, they wouldn’t have any opportunity for education or care but through this project they were able to learn, and learn a lot.

” In addition to education, our staff were keen to reach out to the kids and their families with a message of hope and peace, and several responded positively to it. A good seed has been planted into all of them, and surely many of their lives have been touched and changed forever.”

Returning to Syria means returning to a homeland deeply damaged by years of war.  One third of children in Syria are not in education, and 83% of people live below the poverty line. These vulnerable children are also traumatised by their experiences of the war and all its repercussions. Our Hope Centre project with Syrian partners provides not only the educational environment these children desperately need, but also therapeutic interventions to help them process their experiences. You can help support Syrian children by partnering with the Hope Centre.