Qatar works on empowering Syrian children, donates books to half a million displaced students

  • Menatalla Ibrahim

    • [Qatar Charity]

    The first-of-its-kind project aims to improve the infrastructure of the education sector in northern Syria.

    In a new effort to support displaced children in northern Syria, Qatar Charity [QC] has launched a first of its kind project to print and distribute textbooks for primary, middle, and high school students.

    QC’s latest project comes at a time when the education sector in Syria is facing significant challenges. Already many schools have been destroyed in the war-torn country, and millions of children have been forced to flee their homes, leaving behind their schools, friends and childhoods.

    Now, even after they’ve resettled in camps near the border with Turkey, Syria’s schoolchildren face several challenges including the lack of textbooks in classrooms across northwestern Syria. Such difficulties have naturally affected the students’ motivation to learn and prevented teachers from adhering to a specific curriculum. 

    As a response to the increasing demand, Qatar Charity, with the support of the Qatar Fund for Development, has printed and distributed 4,123,308 textbooks for the 2020-2021 academic year alone. 

    The project covered 100% of the general need for textbooks in the Idlib Governorate and the western countryside of Aleppo in northwestern Syria, the charity said in a tweet.

    Read also: Qatar helps Rohingya refugee students through digital learning scheme.

    This comes as part of a previous project that saw more than nine million textbooks being distributed to roughly one million displaced students, for the  2019-2020 academic year. Its success pushed the organisation to initiate another phase to satisfy the demand.

    All books were distributed free of charge and estimated to have helped more than half a million students. 

    The textbooks include basic subjects in the Syrian curriculum, including Arabic, English, Maths, Science, Physics, and Chemistry. 

    According to aid workers, the presence of textbooks and a set curriculum has increased student attendance in all schools and enhanced teachers’ performance in regard to their educational role. 

    The project is part of the “Improving the Level of Education for More than One Million Children” project launched by Qatar Charity back in 2017. 

    It aims to improve the infrastructure of the education sector in northern Syria and create an appropriate environment to increase student attendance in schools. 

    The project comes within the framework of the ‘Quest 2’ initiative which aims to implement an action plan that supports educational projects inside Syria and Turkey.

    This is through a $ 3,890,752 grant provided by Qatar Fund for Development to Qatar Charity that includes the implementation of several educational projects, including textbook distribution, specialized child protection services, and school rehabilitation. 

    Since its inception in 1992, Qatar Charity has managed to reach 29 million people through large scale projects at a total cost of 1.2 billion US dollars. 

    The organisation carries out a range of projects across developmental and humanitarian fields in more than 50 countries, including Syria, Turkey, Lebanon, Palestine, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sudan, Kyrgyzstan, Mali, Chad, and Kenya.

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