Education opportunities for 200 Palestinian Refuge

Background during and after the implementation of the project; Seven years into the Syrian conflict, Lebanon remains at the forefront of one of the worst humanitarian crises of our time and has shown exceptional commitment and solidarity to people displaced by the war in Syria. As of October 2017, the Government of Lebanon (GoL) estimates that the country hosts 1.5 million Syrians who have fled the conflict in Syria (including 997,905 million registered as refugees with UNHCR), along with 34,000 Palestine Refugees from Syria (PRS), 35,000 Lebanese returnees, and a pre-existing population of more than 277,985 Palestine Refugees in Lebanon. The vulnerabilities of each of these groups have different root causes, requiring the overall response strategy to include a multifaceted range of interventions from emergency aid to development assistance.

Finally, As the Syrian crisis continues into its sixth year with no end in sight, the future of Syria and it’s people remains unknown. More than four million Syrians have fled the war to become refugees in the neighboring countries in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. The majority of the refugees reside in neighboring countries within the region. Before the war, an estimated 20 percent of Syrian young people were enrolled in tertiary education (EU Regional Trust Fund in Response to the Syrian Crisis, 2016), but as the war continues, Syrian refugee youth face barriers accessing tertiary education in the countries in which they seek refuge.

Naba’a Achievements; During the last period, are highlighted as followings;

-          Drop out and at risk children enrol in after school program, and children with learning difficulties enrol in accelerated learning program; Nabaa’ provided inclusive education for boys and girls of school age (6-12 years) in three Palestinian camps in Lebanon, “Ein El Helwe camp”, “Rashidieh camp”, “Nahr Al Bared camp, Borj Al Shamali, El Buss camps and Qasmieh gathering” inside Nabaa’ centers, “In line with UNRWA's educational reform to support the education of refugees children from Syria, Palestinians or Syrians. Taking into consideration, the coordination between Nabaa’ and UNRWA regarding Nabaa’ remedial teachers that have been worked inside 8 of UNRWA schools to follow the same rules of UNRWA teachers.

Regarding primary level, where we worked on coordination and effort with 8 schools noted that around 6479 girls and boys have been benefited from this program. Where 632 Palestinian refugee children from Syria and Syrians who are out of school have benefited from the Accelerating Learning program and we’ve worked to facilitate their integration into UNRWA schools or in Lebanese public schools in coordination with the Education Committee, which is administered by the High Commissioner for Refugees and UNICEF. Moreover, a campaign under the title of “Back to School campaign” implemented in coordination with UNICEF have reached about 663 children from different nationalities, knowing that 58 children were referred to school.

-          Caregivers, parents, teachers and local community members participate in the training and awareness activities; Establishing Parents committee in each Naba’a center. These committees were trained and empowered on different issues related to (Child Rights, positive parenting, Importance of Education, Child Protection, how to communicate with their children in difficult circumstances, how to address their children needs particularly in education). Each committee consists of 10 persons in each center, the main role of the committee is consolidated in the following actions;

• Conducting raising awareness workshops for other parents
• Following up the improvement of the children in the schools
• Conducting regular meetings to follow up and address the challenges and problems facing their children

CASE STUDY

Introduction; A Child is 11 years old, she is engaged within Naba’a remedial Education program and recreational activities, she is the oldest among her brothers and sisters. A child is very smart and active in her class, but she is suffering from being always shy and afraid, as she has stammer during talking with the people. So that, she lost her self esteem, always crying, isolated as she feel, the others are better than her. It is worthy to note that, this effected negatively her educational achievements, she feels afraid either to read or to answer to the teachers questions and to be involved in any discussion within her colleagues. The child is not able to build friendship with her colleagues and classmates.

Intervention;

1. Implementing psychosocial activities with child to enhance her self esteem and how to appreciate her self
2. The child participate in role play games, which support her to speak well
3. Enroll the child in a Remedial Education program, where specialist teachers follow up her

Follow up;

It is noticed that the personality of the child is enhanced through her communication with the others, in addition, through her participation in the education program, she started to get high grades in her exams. The child continued her participation in the recreational and psychosocial activities, she feels that her self esteem is enhanced and she started to build friendships.

Links:

• Naba'a Website

Background during and after the implementation of the project; Persons displaced from Syria have reached a critical situation portrayed by a progressive dwindling of resources, depletion of assets and savings, and restricted access to income generation opportunities. Households in such situations face an inability to secure basic needs such as food, adequate shelter, and basic domestic items for their households including clothes and home supplies, as well as access to healthcare and education. Given their age-specific vulnerabilities, children are especially affected by deteriorating living conditions of their households.

In addition, UNRWA still struggling to ensure adequate, education, health care and other services to PRS (Palestinian refugees from Syria), who now represent an approximate 20 per cent increase of beneficiaries in need of assistance in Lebanon.

One of the most significant challenges to the conflict has been providing children with education. Public and UNRWA schools suffer from a deficiency of training of teachers, lack of equipment and material, as well as old infrastructure. Therefore, Non-formal remedial education is provided as substitute schooling for Syrian and Palestinian Refugees to public and UNRWA education and is neither accredited nor regulated yet by Lebanese authorities (except for the Accelerated Learning Programmes). Therefore, through our education program, we are  ensuring that the vulnerable children from the refugee and host communities are able to access education is integral to an effective and equitable response and helps address underlying issues of conflict, we consider that, education can play a key role in reducing the present social tensions while providing education services to all refugees and strengthening the quality of service for host populations.

Naba’a Achievements; During the last period,  The core of the education sector for Naba’a is highlighted as the followings;

o   Youth and children in the camps develop life skills; despite the critical challenges of youth and children in conflict environments, Nabaa views youth potential to contribute to their own development. and not as potential threat., so that 2500 Youth and adolescents involved in the life skills program covering different topics such as (Communication skills, leader ship skills, how to protect themselves from abuse, reproductive health, peer to peer, human rights, child rights, women rights, etc…). Through this life skills program, Youth and children from vulnerable groups develop their social and educational skills develop their ability   to initiate ideas and activities that enhance their community situation, such activities are (advocacy campaigns about their violated rights at the local and national levels, open days, awareness sessions, etc…)

o   550 Children (including children inside and outside schools) were provided equal opportunity in education: Drop out and at risk children enrol in after school program, and children with learning difficulties enrol in accelerated learning program;. The children benefited from educational activities, learning support for children inside school and the accelerated learning program. In addition, the program focused on enhancing children self-esteem, conflict resolution, and communication and life skills.  In addition, through the technical assistance, Nabaa assists UNRWA to improve the quality of the learning environment in UNRWA schools, by using quality learning environment (QLE) tool produced by Save the children, and developing durable skills on active learning methodology amongst UNRWA teaching workforce and non-formal education providers while the coordination between local organizations providing educational support in Palestinian refugee camps and informal gatherings is improved. The main topics that the teachers and facilitators;

ü  Teaching techniques

ü  Learning through actions

ü  Indicators addressing the children who are suffering from educational difficulties.

ü  How to monitor the improvement of the children

o   Caregivers, parents, teachers and local community members developed skills and awareness in order to ensure that children go back to school or at least have access to regular and structured learning opportunities.  With their peers and play in safe, protective and stimulating environments under the supervision of trusted adults

CASE STUDY

Y.N. A girl in grade 1 “primary”, the girl was out of school, living with her father and wife, subjected to violence from her father's wife, and most of the time riding in the street between cars, and are subjected to different types of risks and abuse.  The girl was stigmatized among her peers as she needs self hygiene and wearing unclean clothes, in addition, she did not know how to read or write, nor did she could know how to hold the pen correctly. The child joined the learning support program at Naba’a center and followed up by the supporting, teachers,  after that, the girls returned back to school and now joining the remedial education program at Naba’a, the girls also joined the self hygiene awareness sessions and the psychosocial support program aiming to build her self esteem.

Links:

• http://www.nabaa-lb.org