Africa-Press – South-Africa. For years, 11-year-old Syrian refugee Zeinab Yousef would look longingly as other children went to school.
Zeinab, who lives in the Beqaa refugee camp in Lebanon, dreamt of being in a classroom, but there was no school at the camp.
Now, she is one of 650 Syrian, Palestinian and Lebanese children who attend the AMA School of Excellence at the refugee camp that was started in 2021. It was formed by the South African humanitarian aid organisation African Muslim Agency (AMA).
“I used to have a best friend back at home, but she died in Syria when the school got destroyed. I miss her so much… I [will] never forgot her,” said Zeinab, who would like to return to her homeland one day to rebuild her school and neighbourhood.
Zeinab is one of the 10 pupils from the AMA School of Excellence who are touring South Africa to share their experiences.
Hundreds of families live in the refugee camp and the refugees sometimes go without food, clothing and water. It is not uncommon for a family of 10 to share one tent. With no heating in sub-zero winter temperatures, children often die in the camps.
The lack of resources at the camp also means that children had no access to education until AMA came along.
The AMA School of Excellence starts from pre-school and goes up to Grade 9.
AMA representative Jihan Kaisi said the school was a way to end the cycle of children having to depend on humanitarian aid. Education, Kaisi said, means the children will be able to break out of poverty.
Kaisi said:
“We wanted to invest in the kids’ future. We don’t want an illiterate generation. We need them to accomplish their dreams, and we can give them that so that they can go back to their country and rebuild it once there is peace,” she said.
Another pupil, 16-year-old Syrian refugee Amin Hammoud, said that when he was 5 years old he arrived home from school and found that a bomb had destroyed his home. His parents were killed in the attack.
Shortly after that, he left Syria for Lebanon with his grandparents.
“At first, I suffered a lot of trauma because I saw people die. I was put on a social support programme and that helped me.
“When AMA found me, I had a chance to dream. I am now in school, and I want to be a photographer so that I can show the beauty of Syria and show people that there is joy in the camps,” Amin said.
Enrollment into the school.
According to Kaisi, the number of children in the camps who need education is massive, and they can only sponsor 650.
“We are just an organisation. When we enroll children, we consider those below the poverty line and whose parents can never afford to [send them] to school. We prioritise orphans, special needs, and those who are eager to learn,” she said.
AMA’s marketing manager Aaliyah Dangor said children are sponsored with R16 000 to attend the school. This covers the cost of tuition, transportation, uniform, school bags and food.
“The school also provides a very tailored curriculum and counselling. We did a lot of work on the psychological side of it as well, to try to ensure that bringing these kids to the school would be a long-term solution for them,” said Dangor.
She said the organisation not only wants to focus on short relief work, often at times when a disaster strikes in the country, but go beyond that.
“Wherever we work, we seek a long-term solution to make those people independent,” she said.
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