Relief & Reconciliation for Syria
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Welcome to R&R

You are on the homepage of Relief & Reconciliation International AISBL, a non-profit organisation under Belgian law, combining peacebuilding with humanitarian aid in response to oppression and war in Syria. Our mission is to bring different communities together around a shared purpose: a brighter future for the youth. In 2013, we opened our first Peace Centre in northern Lebanon, just 12 km from the Syrian border. Explore our pages to learn more about who we are and what we do.

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Education Cannot Wait

1/6/2023

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We need your support for finishing the school year

This is the story of Hiyam. She was the very first of all the children we have served to meet with Friedrich and the volunteers at the R&R Peace Centre. Back then, in May 2013, she was about to lose her arm because of a shrapnel from one of the bombs of the Syrian regime against the people of Qusayr, a small Syrian town that had dared to defy the reign of terror by Assad and his allies.

Today, Hiyam has achieved her high school graduation and is studying at Lebanese University, the only public university of the country. She wants to become a medical doctor to save the life of refugees and of any other person in need. She also works as an outreach volunteer with R&R for raising health awareness in the refugee camps and other rural areas of the Akkar region, in the utmost north of Lebanon.

Today, we are asking for your help again, because education cannot wait. We have more than 700 other students who depend on your generosity to pass their school year, midst in disaster and despair that surrounds us. Please click on the "Read More" link to learn about how you can make a difference in their lives!
The fight for the future of the forgotten youth on the Syrian border is not over. The earthquake was only the last disaster in a long list of catastrophes. Most students we serve have been expelled multiple times from their homes. In Syria, many schools have been destroyed. And in Lebanon, most public schools have been dysfunctional for several years. In this school year alone, public school teachers were on strike for more than half of the year, as their salaries had been devalued by hyper-inflation. A teacher who earned €1,500/month three years ago is only earning €30/month today. And that with living costs equivalent or even higher than in Europe.

Our learning  centres are the only opportunity for most of the 700 students we serve to receive any form of education. Those who could enroll in school are now facing the final exams of the year. 83 of our students are preparing for their high school graduation (Baccalauréat). Contrary to private schools, where most Lebanese children are enrolled, they have hardly received any school lessons over the last years. But they have to master the same centralised exams. In our learning centres, we have increased the tutoring hours with local qualified teachers to help them succeed. Only with official graduation, they can hope for higher studies.

We are still about €15,000 short for covering all the costs for our teaching activities in this school year, as detailed in the back-to-school campaign published in September 2022 (cf. below). Most of this money will go to our local teachers who are getting paid $7/hour, which is a good but still modest rate in comparison with public schools and other local employments. Our administrative and communication costs have been lower than 5% of all our funding, and we spent it mainly for local staff members. In total, the €15,000 will fund more than 1,800 teaching hours.

Please show your generosity and spread the word! We are relying on private small donations alone for providing our educational services, which have been running at our Peace Centre and the affiliated learning centres in Akkar for more than 10 years, without interruption. We are also re-launching classes in Idlib Province of Syria, which was hit hard by the earthquake of 6 February. Thanks to your help, we could provide emergency aid to more than 7,000 survivors in form of daily food distributions. Now, we are about to re-launch classes in a new informal camp school, midst in the Salqin refugee camps. Our classes are a beacon of hope for the children affected by war and destruction, children, like Hiyam, who cannot wait to build their own future.

Many persons and organisations have supported Hiyam to become what she is today: a strong and independent woman who is spreading hope all around her. It would not have been possible without her strong will and without your support.

PLEASE CLICK ON THE "DONATE" BUTTON FOR MORE INFORMATION ABOUT HOW TO CONTRIBUTE FROM ANY PART OF THE WORLD!
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