Dubai Care helps refugee siblings shine in class

Charity’s initiative enrolls 4,300 Syrian children in Lebanon public schools

One of the biggest casualties of conflict zones across the world are the children missing out on school due to the violence.

Dubai Cares has stepped in to address this issue in the region, helping 4,300 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon get back to classrooms.

Across Bekaa and Akkar in Lebanon, the Dubai-based charity has teamed up with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) to help Syrian refugee children learn better.

Among these refugee kids are siblings Maha and Abdul Aziz, struggling in the Lebanese public school system with math, Arabic and a second language: either French or English.

Maha never had the chance to go to school in Raqqa, Syria, where Daesh militants overtook the city and stopped all classes, just as the nine-yearold was preparing to start first grade. She and her 10-year-old brother Abdul Aziz remained out of school for two years because of the war.

Their mother Fida refused to send her children to school under Daesh rule, as students were exposed to a brutal curriculum which incorporated descriptions of shootings and beheadings.

As life under Daesh became unbearable, Fida managed to escape from Raqqa to Damascus and then all the way to Lebanon, walking almost half of the journey.

“I can’t tell you how we survived and I’m thankful every single day,” Fida says.

The children have been enrolled in the second-shift of the Lebanese public school system.

This shift is available to thousands of Syrian children.

But, haunted by the memories of war back home, Maha and Abdul Aziz initially struggled to cope up. However, as the IRC intervened through the Dubai Cares funded remedial support programme, the children have made a remarkable transformation, graduating as the top two students of their class.