Using art to create a brighter future for Syrian children - Unicef UK Blog. Amal* painting at her Unicef-supported art classes. Amal* still has nightmares about the bombs in Syria every night. In her nightmares she often dreams that armed men are chasing her family and she wakes up crying most mornings. But when Amal, 11, paints in her Unicef art class in Za’atari refugee camp she says it helps her forget about the bad things that happened in Syria. Amal and her friends work on a painting at Unicef-supported art classes in Za’atari refugee camp. “When I come to the centre I forget about the nightmares,” she said. Many Syrian children like Amal have witnessed or experienced horrific violence that can leave deep emotional wounds. Carving Arabic letters into wood during a Unicef-supported art therapy class. Unicef is providing children with psychosocial support to help them come to terms with their experiences and look toward the future. A Syrian refugee woman walks past artwork decorating walls in the refugee camp.
Find out more about SyriART. Life Through the Lens of Syria’s Uprooted Teens. “To Whom It May Concern”: These words I read every day on my UNHCR asylum seeker certificate. I’m a Syrian child. The only thing I hope in the world is to wake up from this terrible nightmare and to return to my friends, to return to my life, to my home before this war. And if the time goes back, I just want to play with the people who lost their lives, and I will ask them to leave Syria. I never thought that I would live in a tent, but that’s alright. I never thought I would not listen to my English teacher, who I love so much in Syria, but that’s alright.
I never thought I would not breath the smells of Syrian fields in the summer night, but that’s alright. But, to whom it may concern, please … stop war, and let me go back to my past life. These are the words of Anwar Al Sayed, a 15-year-old Syrian refugee who has been living in Jordan for the past three years. In Jordan, our classroom consisted of 20 students, all Syrian refugees, ranging in age from 13 to 15. On the go? Violence and child marriage: The many risks refugee girls face. Girls in many places in the world face challenges from the day they are born. They struggle to get access to education and financial opportunities, and are often vulnerable to abuse. Refugee girls — or girls who’ve been displaced in their own country — face particular challenges. Domestic violence, rape and early marriage are all very real risks for refugee girls. Addressing the unique needs of girls is a part of Mercy Corps' response to humanitarian crises.
When adolescent girls gain confidence, have access to school, and receive emotional support, they can break the cycle of poverty, early marriage and social isolation. But reaching refugee girls can be difficult. We spoke with Amy Spindler, Mercy Corps’ adolescent girl and youth advisor, about the unique challenges refugee girls are facing — and how our work helps them survive, cope and achieve their goals. Q: What are the biggest challenges young girls are facing around the world? Photo: Corinna Robbins/Mercy Corps Absolutely. Yes. Zaatari camp image. School girls image. Electricity. Champs elysees. Education in the Second Largest Refugee Camp in the World.
UNICEF report highlights Syrian children’s struggles to continue their education “I have told other girls my age that they should go to school in the camp, otherwise they will lose a year. Some have registered at the school, but they are not going to class anymore. They tell me that they will go back to school when they return to Syria. But I say: What if we stay here for a long time? You would be wasting your life. They can’t answer me. Last week, UNICEF Jordan published a new report entitled Shattered Lives: Challenges and Priorities for Syrian Refugee Children and Women in Jordan, highlighting the challenges that Syrian children and women face in in Jordan and providing recommendations on how to overcome these.
Education in Za’atari Camp In principle, all girls and boys in Za’atari camp have access to school. Factors that negatively affect the learning environment Situation of teachers Education in emergencies Integrating conflict risk reduction in education planning Sources: The Benefits of Education. The Secret Gardens of Syria's Refugee Camps | World Food Program USA. The Malala Fund. Shattered Lives June10. Omran's story: Soccer is a comfort from home. Omran, his father Hasan and little sister Naba sit on the "garden patio" they made between their caravans to recreate a little bit of home. The 10-year-old likes to help his father with the odd construction jobs he finds. Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Omran (right) loves playing soccer with his friends because it reminds him of home.
Mercy Corps' sports program helps kids find focus and relief after trauma. We will soon start a league in the Zaatari camp. Photo: Sumaya/Agha Omran had a hard time at the camp's school, but has made friends at Mercy Corps activity tent building sandcastles. The fiery boy has been dealing with a lot of anger after being forced to leave his home. Within Syrian culture the garden or veranda are central to socializing and spending time with family. But last Wednesday, I found myself enjoying a morning drinking Turkish coffee and chatting with 10-year-old Omran and his extended family in their “garden patio” in Jordan’s Zaatari refugee camp. Sandcastles bring happiness to Syrian kids. Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Last spring, one of the children’s facilities we've built at Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp was set to be covered with concrete when Mercy Corps Project Manager Hazem Salman had the idea to put the desert sand to creative use in the hands of the children.
Five months later, hundreds of kids continue to build castles, tunnels and fortresses with focus and determination. The children love the activity so much that the our team hopes to hold a sandcastle-building contest for the avid young architects in the near future. In these photos, you can see how the simple opportunity to play and use their imaginations brings comfort to the youngest refugees.
Camp for Syrian refugees starts to look more like home. At the new Safeway store in the Zaatari refugee camp in northern Jordan, the Syrian cashiers wear bright blue tabards that read "here to help you". Buying groceries at this supermarket is giving refugees here a taste of normal life. Families push shiny new shopping trolleys as they walk up and down aisles stacked high with food.
"We opened in January and offer a special service for the refugees," says Nahed al-Abed, Safeway's operations manager in Jordan. "Customers are happy with the prices and variety. There is no need for cash. "Syrians are among the gourmets of the region and like a diverse, sophisticated diet that we can't provide through regular food distribution," says the WFP's Jonathan Campbell.
"Giving them the vouchers gives a sense of normality and allows them to make choices. Um Adham has just returned from the supermarket to her cabin, off the main road through the refugee camp, jokingly referred to as "the Champs Elysees". "At first it was a life of hell. Longer-term planning. UNICEF Access to Education in Zaatari. The Challenge of Education. Education Youth UNHCR June 2015. Factsheet Zaatari UNHCR August 2015. He Named Me Malala Official Trailer 1 (2015) - Documentary HD. Humanitarian Response | Jordan | Save the Children. Child Protection Since the beginning of the response Save the Children has prioritized support to child protection- through the establishment of Child Friendly Spaces (CFS) in the camps and in urban areas.
We have set-up numerous safe areas for Syrian children to meet, play, and talk through their experiences as well as Youth Friendly Spaces (YFS) in Zaatari camp. Save the Children is supporting distressed children who need special care after experiencing extreme levels of violence in Syria. We provide access to quality child protection services that protect children from physical and psychosocial harm and promote their cognitive, social and emotional wellbeing. We are training teachers, social workers, local community volunteers and parents to identify and help affected Syrian children and youth in the aftermath of the violence they have witnessed.
Education Basic Education (6-14 years old): enhance a physical learning environment as well as education infrastructure. Q+A: How we're protecting Syrian refugee kids | Mercy Corps. At the child-friendly spaces we've built in Jordan's Zaatari refugee camp, Syrian kids enjoy guided activities like storytelling, crafts and games. Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Playgrounds and shared spaces in the camps help create a support system for both kids and parents. Photo: Sumaya Agha/Mercy Corps Boys write and draw in their Comfort for Kids workbooks. The program in Lebanon gives kids, many of whom are no longer in school, the opportunity to express themselves and process trauma. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps The Moving Forward activities we're leading with children in Lebanon help build team work and self-esteem. Photo: Cassandra Nelson/Mercy Corps Children who have escaped Syria still carry the emotional scars of war, and now face new struggles as refugees.
Here, she tells us what their life is like and what Mercy Corps is doing to keep them safe, now and in the future. Q: What did children experience in Syria? Q: How does this kind of trauma affect them? Rights overview. Meet the Malala of Syria. Muzoon Almellehan is trying to convince parents to let their girls stay in school rather than marrying them off as child brides. Fifty miles from the border with Syria, 16-year-old Muzoon Almellehan treads the dusty paths to her school, a sprawl of mural-covered buildings surrounded by chain link fence in the desert expanse of Jordan’s Azraq refugee camp. The 11th-grader is currently furious because two young classmates in her science program have dropped out to get married. Now only five girls are left. “I try to tell them, but they didn’t listen,” she says. “They don’t see the negative effects, but there is no reason for early marriage here.” In her community of war survivors, Muzoon has been dubbed the Malala of Syria.
Muzoon arrived to Jordan among a huge influx of fleeing Syrians in 2013, not long after fighting in their hometown of Daraa shut down the schools. “A lot of them thought education for a girl was unimportant,” Muzoon says. But the girls were more malleable. Thank You! Refugee-Education-and-Peacebuilding. Jordan - Students promote learning in Za'atari Camp, Jordan. By Toby Fricker The school year is starting, in Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan. Fourteen-year-old Mozoun is among 30 children on a mission to get their peers back to school. ZA’ATARI CAMP, Jordan, 12 September 2013 – A group of young girls are striding out of the school gates with a purpose. The new school year is starting, and they’re on a mission to get their peers back to school. Mozoun, 14, is one of thirty 12- to 15-year-olds who are crossing the refugee camp, home to some 120,000 Syrians, to promote education to children and their parents.
She comes across a mother and her children hanging up washing outside their caravan. “I love education, and I’m aware of the importance of it. Mozoun describes herself as an ambassador of education in the camp. Support from prominent figures With about 30,000 children of school-going age in Za’atari, there’s a lot of ground to cover. At a tented mosque, Abu Omar, one of the camp’s imams, spreads the word about the value of education.
After winter break and heavy rains, back to school at Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan | UNICEF:Learning for Peace. By Toby Fricker ZA’ATARI, Jordan, 28 February – It’s back to school for thousands of Syrian children at Za’atari refugee camp in northern Jordan. “I am more than happy to return to school and study. I love my teachers, my classes – and I really love my studies and the girls in my class,” said Arwa, a Syrian refugee child at the camp, with a joyful smile, on her return to school. After a one-month winter break, class is in session again in Za’atari refugee camp, Jordan, bringing a sense of normality to Syrian refugee children. School closed for break, open for shelter The school at the Za’atari refugee camp was closed for three weeks following heavy rains that flooded some of the refugee shelter areas.
©UNICEF VideoAccording to UNICEF Jordan Representative Dominique Hyde, back-to-school day is the beginning of hope for many parents who see education as the only future for their children right now. Luckily, this disruption took place at the same time as the winter school break. Makanibrief. Education for refugees can help save Syria's lost generation. With the world’s focus firmly on the European response to the refugee crisis in recent weeks, attention has been diverted away from the humanitarian needs of the Middle East itself. Only a minority of refugees have fled to Europe, with the majority of Syrians travelling across neighbouring borders to Jordan, Turkey and Lebanon. These movements of people have placed considerable pressure on already stretched public services, and children – one of the most vulnerable groups – are being severely affected. Hundreds of thousands of them are at risk of becoming ill, malnourished, abused and exploited – and for the vast majority, they have no access to education.
A significant proportion of the 13m children reported by UNICEF as deprived of an education in the Middle East, are from Syria. With limited and interrupted education, what does the future hold for these children – and for the future of Syria? Limited access The humanitarian needs of the region are complex. Positive moves, but not enough. Childfriendlycrc. Refugees Daily. Syrian refugees find normalcy in football Publisher: Al Jazeera EnglishStory date: 29/06/2014Language: English Amman, Jordan – "Maybe you've heard about landmines, small bombs.
These are very dangerous," Saleh Shloon, a football coach, said as he stood before a few dozen girls at a school in Kitim, a village in northern Jordan. He held up a series of posters, at times struggling to unfurl them, with pictures of mines in different shapes and colours. Some girls watched Shloon. Others' eyes wandered towards the clear blue sky or the concrete walls of their school. They had just finished 10 minutes of football drills with Shloon and other coaches on a battered concrete pitch where two netless basketball hoops with backboards of cracked wood stood like dead trees. Now, they were sitting for a 20-minute session on mines. Football is indeed considered a powerful tool to catch the attention of easily distractible children and educate them on critical health or safety topics. A Day in the Life Za'atari: Episode 15 Six months on. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 14: Boiling over. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 13: A home, at last.
A Day in the Life Za'atari: Episode 12 The human touch. A Day in the Life Za'atari: Episode 11 Just another day. A Day in the Life Za'atari: Episode 10 Out of the darkness. A Day in the Life: Zaatari - Episode 9: Preparation is everythingA Day in the Life: Zaatari - Episod. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 8: Coping mechanisms. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 7: The trouble with kids. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 6: Complications. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 5: Medicine on the move. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 4: Caravan chaos. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 3: Desperate for a home. A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 2: Theft or privatization? A Day in the Life: Za'atari - Episode 1: Welcome to Za'atari. Art with Syrian Refugees: The Za’atari Project | Joel Bergner Artista. Za’atari Syrian Refugee Camp in Jordan, 2013. This piece was created in collaboration with Syrian refugee children, and explores the importance of water conservation, especially for those who suddenly find themselves stranded in a desert.
Project partners: AptART, ACTED, UNICEF. Za’atari refugee camp (photo by Max Frieder) As the Syrian War rages on, desperate civilians continue to pour across the borders into neighboring countries. Since it opened only a year ago, the Za’atari Camp in northern Jordan has quickly become the world’s second-largest refugee camp with 100,000 residents. While they have escaped the death and destruction of war, these refugees now find themselves in a colorless desert wasteland that contrasts dramatically with their lush, green native region of Daraa, Syria.
With practically no plant or animal life and endless rows of beige tents and caravans, Za’atari is a harsh land of dust storms, heat and blindingly bright sunlight. Hygiene, sanitation and art workshop. What You Need to Know: Conflict in Syria, children, and the refugee crisis. Quick facts: What you need to know about the Syria crisis | Mercy Corps. Syria's refugees: Girls use photography to document life in the Zaatari camp. WomenOne. The Women of Zaatari Refugee Camp. Melissa Fleming: How to help refugees rebuild their world. WHAT’S IN MY BAG? — Uprooted IRC. Teachers Without Borders. Malala Turns 18, And Opens A School For Syrian Refugee Girls. Malala of Syria: The inspiring tale of one girl's fight. Humans of New York. Za'atari Project - Voices of the Children. Inside The Syrian Refugee Camp The Size Of A Small City. The Zaatari Refugee Camp — LIVED.