Refugee week: Thriving against the odds in Lebanon’s education emergency
Thanks to our partner, hard-working Noura has learnt to read and write and do arithmetic.
13-year-old Noura was born in Syria to a Palestinian mother and Syrian father. She was not registered officially when she was born. When the family moved to Lebanon five years ago, Noura was not accepted into any school because she didn’t have official ID papers.
Sadly, Noura’s story is all too common in Lebanon, where there is an estimated 1 million school-age children out of school. Although Lebanese children are also affected, this number is disproportionately made up of children from refugee families.
But life has since taken a turn for Noura. Two years ago, her mother found out about our partner, the Joint Christian Committee (JCC) and their ‘Children on the Move’ programme. This programme offers educational support and vocational training for out-of-school adolescents – all of whom live in the rundown Beirut neighbourhood of Sabra or the adjoining Palestinian refugee camp of Shatila.
Thanks to the JCC’s programme, Noura quickly learnt to read and write and do arithmetic. She also discovered a love for science.
Now, Noura has been accepted into a UNRWA school, where she is building on the foundation she formed at the JCC. She is continuing to work hard and enjoy learning – and she loves to meet up with her old classmates from the JCC whenever she can.
