Building peace through education

As humanitarian needs in Lebanon keep on increasing for all, we are now witnessing worrying tensions between Syrian refugees and Lebanese, and unprecedented pressure for them to return to Syria. Many refugees face daily discrimination, harassment, intimidation, and sometimes even violence, leaving their children especially scared and affected.

It also means increasing risks for vulnerable children, such as school drop-out, child labor, or early marriage, all used as negative coping strategies to alleviate the financial burdens of their families.

In this tense context, our church-based education centers for vulnerable children offer both psychological care and protection to children and a chance to break down barriers and build peace within their community.

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Increasing tensions

Humanitarian needs continue to rise across the country, and so are the tensions between Syrian refugees and Lebanese. Refugees are often used as scapegoats for everything going wrong in the country, and there is unprecedented social and political pressure for them to go back to Syria. But the reality is that it is still unsafe for most refugees to return. Rim, a Syrian mother of four, explains:

“People who left the country are accused of deserting their military duties and can be put in jail. Many of the young men who went back were arrested, tortured, or killed. My 71-year-old father-in-law still took the risk. Although he was approved to reenter the country, he was arbitrarily imprisoned for 45 days. He died a few days after being released.”

Despite its challenges, Lebanon is the safer option for Syrians, but many of them are now daily discriminated against, humiliated, harassed, or intimidated.

“Many nights while we are sleeping, we suddenly hear cars storming. It is a group of young Lebanese who start cursing at us. Sometimes they even shoot near our tent, pretending to be hunting. Our only option is to remain silent and not react. We worry they could attack us.”

This is especially difficult for the children, who feel scared and unsafe, and who, without access to education, don’t have a safe place to process their emotions. Many are simply out of school because of a lack of space in the crumbling Lebanese public education system. But even those who go to public schools are neglected, mistreated, and often traumatized by their school experience:

“The teachers in public school don’t care whether the children understand or not. Worse, they insult and beat them, tell them they stink, refuse to turn on heaters in winter or to let them use the bathrooms. Our children would come home crying, and on some days my daughter had wet herself. After years, they still didn’t know how to read and write, so we were about to pull them out of school and to send our son to work.”

Increasing risks for children

Sending children and teenagers to work is unfortunately the only option for many parents who cannot provide for their children in the worsening humanitarian context. Child labor among Syrian refugees in Lebanon has seen a sharp rise over the past few years, with rates increasing from 2% in 2019 to 7.3% in 2023. Only considering refugee boys under 17 years old, 11.2% were engaged in some form of child labor in 2023.  

Another negative coping strategy for families to alleviate the financial burden on them is to marry off their daughters early. Zeinab is in her final year at our partner education center. Despite being a brilliant and articulate 16-year-old girl, her parents force her to work, and she is worried they might try to marry her off soon:

“Most days after school, I go work in the fields. I help with weeding, pruning, and harvesting. I cannot do my homework and excel anymore, because I am exhausted from the physical work. In our community, some girls are married off at only 16 years old. This is something that scares every girl. We have goals we want to pursue in life. But some parents do not give us the opportunity to follow our dreams.”

Building peace through education

In this tense context, our church-based partner education centers provide much-needed safe spaces where vulnerable children are protected, learn, receive psychological support, make friends and can simply be kids. All of this in Christian environments where they learn that they are loved and precious in God’s eyes. Zeinab shares:

“During chapel time, we have lessons about topics like anger, forgiveness, love, thankfulness. We learn about how to draw close to God, how not to make mistakes, how to love one another. There are also hymns and worship songs which we love and bring us comfort. No matter what happens to me, I know that I will pass on these teachings to my children. I will never let them out of school, and I will encourage them to study what they want to. I want to change their life!”

The beautiful and loving relationships Lebanese church members form with the Syrian schoolchildren and their parents strongly go against the rising tide of increasing social tensions. It stands out even more than before, breaking prejudices and barriers, cultivating love and understanding, and building long lasting peace in the community. Rim happily testifies to that:

“Sending our children to the church’s education center this year has truly been life transforming. On top of that, the church has helped us so much, with vouchers for food or heating and hygiene kits. They treat us with nothing but love and respect. In these uncertain times, the wonderful people at the church are proof that not all Lebanese are bad. Thank God!”

As we prepare for the 2024-25 academic year, we need your help to sustain this much-needed ministry, continue to help hundreds of children, and build lasting peace in our region.