Daily Star - Open field a schoolroom for Syrian refugees, April 17, 2012

MASHARIH AL-QAA, Lebanon: In a field in the northern Bekaa, 9-year-old instructor Moussa al-Ait sits on metal barrel holding a pen and a notebook and explains the meaning of the words before him. Ait’s students are all Syrian refugees who have fled the uprising against President Bashar Assad’s regime and are now living in Lebanon. As refugees, few of the children have access to education and most have been out of school for months now.

Ait asks the students to draw anything that expresses their current situation. He raises his voice: “The good student gets a prize.”

As the Syrian refugees’ stay in Lebanon is prolonged, the World Assembly of Muslim Youth is now working to help educate the thousands of displaced children in the country. The organization particularly focuses on the Bekaa region where it supervises the care of more than 1,400 refugee families, mostly children and women, in the areas of Arsal, al-Fakiha and al-Qaa.

WAMY has long been providing families in the Bekaa, which are out of reach of official aid channels, with humanitarian support in the form of food, shelter and medical care.

The latest education aid efforts are an acknowledgement of the extended stay refugees are having in the country. Some families have been living in Lebanon for more than a year now. WAMY is providing classes to reach thousands of children who aren’t receiving educational assistance from the United Nations or NGOs such as Save the Children.

The refugees included are largely from areas heavily hit by fighting, such as cities near the border like Homs. Their conditions are harsh and crowded. Refugees often live several families to a home and many of the buildings they occupy, such as agricultural tents, are not intended to be inhabited. Most refuse to talk or have their pictures taken out of fear of retribution in Syria.

While the families wait for conditions in Syria to improve, volunteers are handing out school books and writing paper to refugee children to compensate for their forced absence from school.

Ait, the 9-year-old Lebanese teacher, came with his father from the village of Fakiha and crossed around 20 km to reach the refugee areas.

“I’m in fifth grade and I was always top in my class, I come here and I gather kids from my age or younger and I teach them what I’ve learned from reading and multiplication tables as well as drawing, and I give them presents and toys which are provided by WAMY,” Ait said.

“They are good but apparently they don’t like the teacher,” he joked.

A number of parents gather close to watch their children and encourage them while the mooing of cows occasionally breaks the silence.

Ayman Abdel Wahed from Fakiha is a coordinator of relief assistance in WAMY in the northern Bekaa.

Abdel Wahed suggested WAMY give classes to refugee children during the spring and summer with the help of university students and other volunteers who give lessons to make up for the schooling the children have missed.

“It’s not difficult to get the Syrian curriculum school books,” he said.

Currently the nation’s Higher Relief Committee does not offer services in the Bekaa and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has only begun to expand operations in the area.

According to the latest report from the UNHCR there are 20,000 refugees in the country. Local charities and activists estimate that the actual number is considerably larger.

“We provide them with care and services as much as possible. But naturally we cannot substitute the HRC,” said Abdel Wahed. “We do tremendous work since all relief operations [in the area] are limited to local organizations and us,” he added.

By Mohammad Zaatari

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