By Save the Children | Save the Children
Thank you for supporting Save the Children's Child Refugee Crisis fund! Here is the story of Ghinwa*, a Syrian refugee who has received support from our programs in Lebanon:
Ghinwa, 13, and her family fled the war in Syria when she was just five years old and settled in a camp in Beirut, Lebanon. Since then, life has been extremely hard for all of them. With her father unable to work due to a stroke, and her older brother needing regular medical treatment, Ghinwa must try to help bring in money - so she sells water and tissues to drivers at a busy crossroads outside the camp. Aware of the negative impact on her wellbeing, she says: "Working makes me feel that I am very poor and always in need...like I am so different to other people (kids) who don’t work.”
She wasn't able to start school until aged 10, and so naturally struggled to keep up with her peers - and when the economic crisis hit Lebanon bringing electricity cuts and teachers’ strikes, she stopped attending school altogether.
Ghinwa felt her life had no possibilities: "I couldn't read or write, I had no hope for my future, I had no dreams," she says.
Ghinwa attends a Save the Children-supported education center near her home. There, she has learned to read and write, grown in confidence, made friends, and become informed about her rights. Now, not only is she literate, she also believes in herself: "If I study and focus hard, I can achieve anything I want." She participates in the Child's Rights Governance program at the center and is eager to speak up on behalf of all child refugees.
Life is still challenging for this young activist but the difference is she now has education, and therefore a dream: to be a lawyer, defending children's rights. The impact of the education center on Ghinwa cannot be underestimated - "It has changed my whole life," she says.
Save the Children places a great importance on encouraging children and young people to speak up about their rights, delivering a message to those who have the power to make change.
Through the Child’s Rights Governance program, Save the Children aims to amplify children’s voices and make them heard on the national, regional and global level. The program helps build the capacity of children to become child rights advocates and agents of change.
All names have been changed to protect identities and personal information.
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