![]() In Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda, we work with local communities to provide early years education and support for the youngest Congolese refugee children. To help support teachers and encourage them to take ownership of the programme in the long term, we enable them to generate a sustainable income through a small business loan scheme.
We updated you recently on the good news that the children are back to school in Lebanon and learning again after months of closures and disruption due to Covid-19. But, the current economic and political climate in Lebanon continues to be increasingly difficult. We spoke to Nuna Matar from our partner organisation this week who gave us an update on what’s happening in the country and how it’s affecting their work.
![]() Our school in Zahle, Lebanon was able to reopen on the 31st May 2021 and all 300 students returned to classes. It was a welcome relief after months of lockdown and home lessons where the children were constantly asking when they could go back to school.
Could you support our Back to School campaign and give a Monthly Donation to help us get more children back into the classroom in the wake of the pandemic? In Lebanon, we have been working with Lebanese NGO - Triumphant Mercy since 2014, providing quality education in a child friendly environment for nearly 300 Syrian refugee children. These children live in the informal refugee settlements of Bekaa Valley, who often struggle to access education and support.
The project started with four tent schools in the refugee camps in Bekaa Valley but in 2019 the children were brought together in one central building in Zahle, a nearby city. Students, together with trained refugee teachers, are driven in by bus from the camps to learn together in safe, colourful classrooms and have fun with friends in the large play space outside. As with so many schools around the world, the Zahle school has been closed for much of the past year in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. Lebanon has also faced further crisis in recent months; economic collapse, political rioting, a devastating explosion in the capital of Beirut along with continual lockdowns. But our teachers have been incredibly resilient, working tirelessly to come up with solutions to ensure the children can still have access to learning back in the camps. On World Refugee Day, we take a look at what our refugee teachers have been doing to offer home learning and support to the refugee children we support in Lebanon. Each year in Lebanon, a group of Grade 9 Syrian refugee students from the school we support in Zahle, make the risky crossing back over the border into Syria on their own to take their high school exams. Students this year all passed with flying colours!
MEET HODAHoda is one of seven children and she lives in a refugee settlement in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. She and her family fled the war in Syria, and came here to try and find safety. As the conflict has been going for over eight years now, she and her brothers and sisters have never known anything different.
Sadly Hoda’s father was killed in a car accident in 2018. This makes things very difficult for her mother, looking after seven children in a camp alone, and Hoda has to spend a lot of time looking after her brothers and sisters. MEET RISHMARishma Akter is a Rohingya refugee from Myanmar, who fled to Bangladesh in 2017 with her family. She received training from our partner organisation and now teaches at Learning Centre 22 in Kutupalong refugee camp. She is 18 years old and happily married. She loves teaching, and loves her students and describes one poignant moment in her career...
MEET GALIGali is three years old and his parents fled to Kyaka II refugee settlement in Uganda around six years ago after a life-threatening conflict erupted between the Hema and Lendu tribes in their village of Ituri in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Uganda is a world leader in the way it hosts refugees, but Gali’s mother Maurine says that since crossing the border into the country life has not been easy.
MEET BAWK KAI MAIBawk Kai Mai is five years old and lives in Kachin State, Myanmar. She attends one of the Early Childhood Development Centres we support in the remote mountain camps near the border of China.
The last set of exams in Lebanon saw some great results. Overall the children achieved a 99% pass rate for the Arabic and Maths tests which were taken by 211 students, and a 100% pass rate for English which was taken by 68 older students.
Exams are graded on a scale of 1 -10 with 10 the highest, 1 the lowest and 6 a pass. The majority of students are high-performing with 70% getting a grade 9 or above in Maths, 67% in Arabic and 59% in English. You can see from the photo above that the children have loved celebrating, but what would they like to do with their skills in the future? Our partners asked them and here are a few of the responses... |
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