The past few months have been filled with debate over the reopening of schools and universities. Many schools are adopting a hybrid approach of part-time classes and remote learning and some are entirely remote due to COVID-19. Due to these circumstances, education is not available to all children. Not all families can afford to have a computer, internet access, or a stable home environment to ensure their children are all able to do their schoolwork. These challenges are especially common for refugee families in the Middle East, particularly those in Iraq, Jordan, or Syria.
Recent studies have shown that close to half a billion children around the world lack access to education because they lack the proper equipment to study from home. Of that total, an estimated 37 million children in the Middle East and North Africa do not have access to equipment for remote learning. In these places, education has often already been interrupted due to war or displacement. In Syria, for example, the civil war and the refugee crisis have meant that millions of children are out of school. In addition, more than a third of the schools in the country were badly damaged during the war or are being used as shelters. And most refugee parents want their children to have an education but can not afford to have them not work just so the family can survive.
Refugees, like all people around the world, deserve an opportunity to be educated. Having access to education gives refugee children routine and security despite the chaos around them. More importantly, it is the surest road to success after being displaced. An education gives refugees the chance to move on, rise above their circumstances, and rebuild their lives.
The American Foundation for Relief and Reconciliation in the Middle East gives refugees this life-changing gift. In 2015, the foundation initiated an afternoon school for Christian refugees in the suburbs of Amman, Jordan, which has gone on to be recognized as a model school in the region. Since then, we have underwritten tuition for refugees attending private schools, provided books and other materials to schools in settlement camps, funded the construction and provisioning of an all-girls school in a settlement camp in Kurdistan, funded Kindergarten and university expenses for refugee youth in Kurdistan, and taught English classes to both children and adults in Jordan, Kurdistan, and Iraq. Your generous donation will help us continue this work.
American FRRME is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that promotes reconciliation, provides relief efforts, advances human rights, and seeks an end to sectarian violence in the Middle East.
