First Peace Centre up and running

Most refugee kids have not been to school for two years. Much learning is needed for catching up with the Lebanese curricula that are partly taught in French or English.

Children and women gather in a courtyard

Over this summer, our international Ramadan Volunteers started giving intensive foreign language classes. The demand was overwhelming.

A boy draws on a whiteboard next to a French poster about feelings

Those volunteers with experience in teaching said they had never seen kids so eager to learn.

Children and young volunteers work at tables in a classroom

We applied interactive and needs-oriented pedagogical methods, including drawing sessions and games.

Volunteers sit with children between tents in a refugee camp

And of course we regularly visited the refugee camps in the surroundings for involving the parents and reaching out to new beneficiaries.

A man hands out certificates to children in a refugee camp

After four weeks of daily foreign language classes in English and French, it is time to hand out the certificates.

A man shakes hands with a young woman holding a certificate

A boy reads his certificate, with women and children behind him

A girl holds her R&R certificate of participation in a camp

A girl holds up her R&R certificate of participation

A girl in a headscarf holds her certificate between tents

A young child pulls a funny face, sticking out the tongue

With the help of more than 1,000 individual donors, we have achieved our initial fundraising objective for the establishment of a first Peace Centre at the Lebanese border to Syria. Thank you all for your trust and generosity! Your support also allowed us to realise our summer volunteer programme and to fill our Peace Centre with life. Profiting from the experience of the intensive foreign classes given over summer by our international volunteers, we have decided to extend our educational activities beyond our own Peace Centre and we are asking for your help for doing so. As from now, you can decide yourself where your money goes. Besides our Educational Programme Line, you can also fund our humanitarian aid activities.

The needs in the North of Lebanon are overwhelming. We got report of new crimes of “ethnic cleansing” in the surroundings of Qusayr (Syria) that are leading to new waves of refugees arriving in the Akkar district. We are pursuing the distribution of first aid kits to new arrivals and we have equipped a medical dispensary with much needed supplies. We are also conducting special fundraising campaigns for medical emergency operations of children whose families cannot afford them. Please like and follow our Facebook page for learning more about them and please have a look on the details of our campaign budgets published on the bottom of the “Donate Now!” section. Many thanks for your support.

Your solidarity keeps the classrooms open.