End of our first school-year

Graduation ceremony at R&R’s informal camp school

Children in paper hats and their families gather under balloons for the graduation ceremony in the camp

Anticipation and great expectations at the refugee camp in North Lebanon: the first school-year of the small camp school R&R has been running here since October 2013 is over. Time for the graduation ceremony.

Two volunteers and a woman blow up balloons for the graduation ceremony

Our international volunteers and local teachers have been working for hours for making the ceremony a special day, with balloons and decorations. The budget is small, but the hearts are wide. The children should have a good time.

Children gather in front of a decorated tent as the guests take their seats

The last preparations are done and the 70 children enrolled in our informal camp school can’t wait to receive the reward for their studies. Most of them stranded in Lebanon one year ago, in June 2013. They came from Qusayr: the Syrian city that had been ethnically cleansed of all its 60,000 Sunni inhabitants. They had to flee for 8 days on foot through the mountains. Many of them lost half of their family members on the flight.

A man opens the graduation ceremony at the microphone, with guests seated behind him

Ustaz Mohammed starts the ceremony, accompanied by Sheikh Abdou who came from Qusayr himself and who had taken in dozens of arriving families in his apartment. When ever more were flooding into the North of Lebanon, he managed to rent the land for building this small informal camp, giving shelter to some 120 refugees.

R&R chairman Friedrich Bokern gives a short welcome speech at the microphone

A short welcome word by R&R Syria’s chairman Friedrich Bokern who has been accompanying this camp throughout this year, from the day of the refugees’ arrival until now.

Two students read out a text at the microphone during the ceremony

And then it is time for the students to speak. Many of them prepared little poems or songs that they are performing in front of their proud parents. Raymonda read out a longer piece written by her alone and expressing her hope for a better future.

A volunteer plays the guitar while two others sing at the ceremony

A girl in a paper hat holds up her certificate next to a teacher

Volunteers and teachers hand out certificates and colourful paper hats

A girl wearing a paper crown sits with a woman and a small boy at the ceremony

Two boys in paper hats show their certificates from the Al-Ihsan camp school

A girl writes on a worksheet with a pencil

Children read and write sitting on mats on the floor of a classroom

A teacher points to a student's sheet in a classroom of girls in winter hats

A volunteer raises her hand while explaining something to children in a classroom

Two men stand next to a new printer in a room in the camp

Two boys sit at a desk in class, one turning around and smiling

A volunteer writes on a blackboard while students raise their hands

Boys write on sheets at a long wooden desk during a remedial class

A volunteer speaks to a group of adults in a meeting room

Women sit around white tables during a meeting

Children sit at tables in a classroom while a teacher writes on the board

Children with books and notebooks sit around a round table in a classroom

Three volunteers sit on a bench in front of the Al-Ihsan Primary School in the camp

In June 2014, we concluded the first school-year of our educational activities in the premises and surroundings of our Peace Centre in the North of Lebanon. With the help of more than 800 individual donors, we could provide regular education to more than 400 Syrian and Lebanese students in need. Most of them had been out of school for more than 2 years. Some have never been to school.

We were able to unite moral authorities from all major communities present in Akkar around this common cause: the future of the youth. Please find here some pictures of the graduation ceremony at our informal camp school as well as from the remedial classes we have been running in four other locations. We are starting now our special summer programme to make more Syrian students fit for school.

Many thanks for your support! For all our educational activities, we are exclusively relying on the financial help of our private donors and on the moral support of our international volunteers and Syrian or Lebanese teachers. Together, we can offer a better future to the youth of Syria. We can help to let them overcome violence, hatred and extremism. Every child counts!

Graduation ceremony at R&R’s informal camp school

Your solidarity keeps the classrooms open.