Rebuilding Family Wellbeing through Education
Oct. 22, 2020
Parents and caregivers living with the effects of displacement and armed conflict bear a heavy burden of stress - one sometimes shared with the children in their care. This burden has become even heavier in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
War Child - together with our partners in the Back to the Future programme - is moving to provide increased support to both children and caregivers amid the ongoing pandemic. Activities have been adapted to make education available to Syrian refugee children in Lebanon and Jordan who can’t access formal education due to lockdown restrictions.
Learning from ‘home’ in refugee settings with limited services also sees caregivers become more involved in their children’s education - caregivers like Nader. Life hasn’t been the same for Nader since his wife passed away several years ago. Nader now lives with his two sons in the Beddawi refugee camp north of Tripoli in Lebanon.
Nader admits that coping with his newfound reality has been the toughest challenge he has ever faced. “It’s hard - that I can tell you,” he says.
Learning together at home
All education centres at the Beddawi camp are now closed - forcing children to spend more time at the places they call ‘home’. Nader’s two children, Abdalraheem and Abdulrahman, take part in the ‘I Learn from Home’ programme module, provided by the @Seenary0 Organization. The module allows caregivers of children aged from three to six to implement play-based learning at home.
Nader - who works as an on-demand construction worker - has never really been involved in his sons’ learning before. Nader never completed his own education but he has now begun to tutor his children and support them to complete their lessons. Something which he never thought he would do - but which he enjoys immensely.
“We had so much fun together I thought to myself - I want more!”
Nader supporting his sons with their education at home during the corona pandemie
Photo: War Child
A rewarding journey
Nader came to realise that the activities were actually helping him to improve his communication with his children. All three were enjoying some much needed quality time together - so Nader decided to plan for some extra lessons. He reached out to the education centre coordinator and managed to plan two or three extra lessons a week.
Nader now dedicates almost his entire day to educating his children. He encourages all fathers to follow in his footsteps and do the same. “It has been a very difficult journey but an extremely rewarding one,” he says.
Back to the Future is funded by the European Union through the EU Madad Fund. The programme is implemented by a coalition made up of AVSI Middle East, War Child Holland and Terre des Hommes Italy.
