OVERCOMING LIFE’S HARDSHIPS IN SYRIA

With funding from Education Cannot Wait, UNICEF’s Curriculum B and inclusive school rehabilitation are supporting children with disabilities in accessing quality educational opportunities.

By Education Cannot Wait

August 13^th, 2020

Story originally published on Education Cannot Wait in August 2020. For updated analysis view Education Cannot Wait's 2019 Annual Report.

Special Contribution by Sandra Awad and Tarek Jacob, UNICEF. View Original.

“I feel very lonely at times,” stutters Hamzeh, 15, who lost his three brothers as well as other family members and friends, to the conflict in Syria. “I miss the days when the whole family gathered in the yard of our old house.”

Despite losing their home, the family never left their city, remaining in the Syrian town of Douma in East Ghouta, throughout five harsh years of siege between 2013 and 2018.

Born with paralysis in his lower body and poor verbal articulation capabilities, Hamzeh’s ability to talk further deteriorated during the besiegement in East Ghouta, particularly after he witnessed the death of his siblings.

Hamzeh attends the newly renovated school. Photo © UNICEF/Syria/2020

Back in 2013, a shell hit the family’s home causing the death of his brothers and forcing Hamzeh and his parents out of the house. They took shelter in a small room on land his father owned in Douma. Because of ongoing violence, Hamzeh also had to drop out of school in the second grade.

For years, his determination to resume learning kept Hamzeh hopeful.

“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy; but being in school would give meaning to my life,” he says.

In 2018, as the violence subsided in East Ghouta, he went back to school and has been catching up on his education with the help of UNICEF’s Curriculum B programme. This accelerated learning programme combines two academic years in one and allows children who missed out on periods of learning to catch up with their peers in half the required time.

“I pushed my son to continue his studies after his father’s death, and I do the same with Hamzeh and my other students. I believe that education is a solution for the hardships we have been through,” says Inaam, Hamzeh’s teacher.

Hamzeh, 15, listens as his teacher Inaam explains something in class at Saif Al Dawleh school in Douma, East Ghouta, Syria. Photo © UNICEF/Syria/2020/Malas

“Two years ago, the school building was severely damaged. Stone and metal parts could fall at any moment. Students and staff could get hurt,” says Inaam. “Hamzeh’s mother was worried about his accessibility and movement inside the building, but eventually his insistence convinced his parent to send him to school.”

First grade students attending an Arabic class in January 2020 in a school rehabilitated by UNICEF. Photo © UNICEF/Syria/2020/Malas

“I was delighted to see the spacious bathroom and try the special pathway to class, constructed for children in wheelchairs like me,” saysx Hamzeh about UNICEF’s school rehabilitation works that were concluded in his school at the beginning of 2020. “Classes looked grim before, but now they’re colourful and much more pleasant.”

The rehabilitation works included painting classrooms, corridors and entrances, replacing and repairing damaged doors, windows and ceilings, as well as improving playgrounds and installing playground equipment, while ensuring an inclusive environment to support accessibility for children with physical disabilities. This rehabilitation also provided access to safe drinking water and inclusive sanitation and hygiene facilities by doing needed repairs and construction of the facilities.

UNICEF’s rehabilitation provided access to safe drinking water and inclusive sanitation and hygiene facilities by doing needed repairs and construction of the facilities. Photo © UNICEF/Syria/2020/Malas

In Syria, schools are being rehabilitated for the upcoming year. ©UNICEF/Syria/2020/Abdulaziz Aldroubi

In rural Damascus, with thanks to generous contributions from Japan, Educate A Child, the Syria Humanitarian Fund (SHF), Education Cannot Wait, Norway and France, since 2019, UNICEF has been able to reach 36,000 children through its school rehabilitation. Approximately 2,000 children have been reached with the Curriculum B programme thanks to support from Educate A Child.

2019 Update

In Syria, where more than 2 million children and youth are out of school and many have not attended class for more than seven years, UNICEF delivered a multi-component programme – including back-to-learning campaigns targeting children and youth, parents, and communities – to reinforce the importance of education and encourage parents to re-enroll their children in schools.

Where classrooms were unsafe or overcrowded, ECW funding supported the construction of new classrooms and refurbished existing ones.

Learn more about the impact of ECW funded programming in Syria in our 2019 Annual Report.

Education Cannot Wait’s ‘Stories from the Field’ series features the voices of our implementing partners, children, youth and the communities we support. These stories have only been lightly edited to reflect the authentic voice of these frontlines partners on the ground. The views expressed in the Stories from the Field series do not necessarily reflect those of Education Cannot Wait, our Secretariat, donors or UN Member States.

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