Refugee Rights Lebanon Project #49945

Kindergarten for 100 Syrian children in Lebanon

by Refugee Empowerment International

Project Report | Dec 5, 2023
Continuing to support the community

By Jane Best | Project leader

The new school year began in September.

110 children aged between 3 and 6 years old enrolled for this year. The intake includes Syrian refugee children as well as children from poor Lebanese families. This promotes understanding between the refugee community and the host population. The curriculum will continue the early childhood care and development program with a focus on social-emotional learning activities. The recent changes in curriculum that include art-based therapeutic activities are going well and the children are showing improved academic performance as a result.

At the start of the school year all staff received refresher training on key topics like the Child Protection policy and the importance of education.
The training reminded the team that we know a kindergarten is essential to provide early childhood education, and it is particularly important for the full development of refugee children and to allow their cohesion with the community where many families have experienced trauma, disruption, uncertainty.

With the latest upsurge in fighting south of the border, communities in Lebanon are more than usually concerned about their safety. People are fleeing into Lebanon putting more pressure on the displaced communities. Wadi Zayne kindergarten continues as usual with classes, and teachers are alert for additional psycho-social concerns and to ensure all family members are involved.

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Aug 14, 2023
Another school year ended

By Jane Best | Project leader

Performing at graduation

Another school year has ended and the 25 students in KG3 graduated from the kindergarten in Wadi Zayne. These students will go on to study in Lebanese elementary schools. The other 75 students will re-join classes in September along with a new intake of young ones.

All the students have shown good progress through the year thanks to a well-constructed curriculum.

The psychosocial support activities for the children have been invaluable. Since the children in this area reside in ‘gatherings’ rather than refugee camps, they bear the social pressure of the country’s multiple crises directly and indirectly. The kindergarten staff provide learning support activities that focus on helping the children with their lessons and assignments after school.

The anti-bullying activities focused on nationality-based bullying where children are encouraged not to discriminate based on nationality. The school includes less privileged children from the Lebanese community which helps integration and understanding. These activities promote friendship in order to make sure that children’s relations with one another are improved.

Art-based psycho-social activities were held weekly and included drawing, playdough shaping, and expressive acting (for older children in KG3). Through this the children have been able to develop emotional and cognitive skills to deal with a complicated world. It helps them to cope with emotions and stress while using life skills through drama and painting techniques.

One teacher said: “Looking back on this journey, we are grateful for the opportunity to nurture their curiosity and support their educational voyage. We remain committed to empowering these young minds as they continue to explore and embrace the world of learning.”

Thank you for supporting their journey.

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Apr 26, 2023
Promoting friendship and understanding

By Jane Best | Project leader

In class

The economic challenges in Lebanonare making a great impact on refugee communities and increased the need to support vulnerable children. This places greater emphasis on the pyscho-social support provided to the children, and to their families.

In the last school year109 children registered with the kindergarten. Thechildren were distributed as follows: 25 in KG1, 59 children in KG2, 25 childrenin KG3.

The kindergarten introduced a new attendance sheet which can be used digitally to ensure that the students attend regularly and enables them to track those who miss school regularly to check on the reason.

Homework is given once a week, but this is not marked strictly. It serves to emphasize that exercises and discipline should be repeated at home.

To create an environment that secures their emotional and social well-beingthe children are exposed to art-based psycho-social activities. These sessions are held on a weekly basis for every class with the psycho-social assistant and the trained teachers. The children were given activities like drawing, play-dough shaping, and expressive acting (for older children in KG3). The psycho-social assistant also trained and instructed the teachers on the type of other psycho-social activities they can provide for the children in class. The activities focus on emphasizing friendship between the children and promoting an anti-bullying environment.

Parents are asked to meet with the teachers, coordinators, and the psycho-social assistant to discuss matters that were related to the children and to follow up on their children’s improvement. These meetings also provide a space to discuss the children’s environment outside the school context and in the community as a whole. These meetings give the parents a chance to get an insight into their children as well as to discuss other matters that were affecting them. Most importantly, the meetings allow the parents to bond regardless of their nationalities as the similarities in the issues of their children brought them together.

In the same manner, anti-bullying activities are held for the children on a weekly basis and the children are also encouraged not to discriminate based on nationality. These activities promote friendship to improve the children’s relations with each other.

Thank you for supporting friendship and integration.

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