Activity packs help refugee children to keep learning during schools shutdown

Amal loves to spell. The student at Bourj Hammoud School says her favourite letter is B because “it’s the most beautiful”.

So Amal was delighted to receive a Virtual Summer School activity pack, which have been offered to more than 500 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon as part of a Theirworld project funded by the players of the People’s Postcode Lottery.

The programme provides inclusive learning materials so students of all abilities can study at home during the lengthy shutdown of schools due to the coronavirus pandemic. 

The children who received the Virtual Summer School activity packs are at five Lebanese schools and are completing an accelerated kindergarten year for refugee students. The materials will help them prepare for Grade 1 and encourage them to return to school this autumn.

The Theirworld project is managed by SKILD (Smart Kids with Individual Learning Difficulties), whose staff distributed the packs.

“Education should be accessible to all students. Reaching out to struggling students is our mission at the SKILD centre, regardless of what those difficulties are,” said SKILD Director Hiba Jamal.

‘All students can learn if we adapt our methods to meet their individual challenges.” ctivity packs at 

Among other students who collected their activity packs at Bourj Hammoud School were Mohammad and Sabah Ammar. 

Their father said he finds it difficult to help them with their school work because he did not have much access to education as a child. But he encourages them as best he can.  

Syrian refugee children need all the learning support they can get. After great progress between 2013 and 2017, the percentage of out-of-school Syrian refugee children in Lebanon has risen to more than 40%.

For many refugee families, the country’s economic crisis is making even essential food items unattainable, let alone school supplies. 

Last week, a coalition of global children’s charities – led by Theirworld – accused world leaders of displaying a “gross failure of political leadership” after they failed to prioritise education at a major conference on the future of Syria.