A Helping Hand: The Small Independent School for Syrian Refugees
For many displaced Syrian children, the options are education or a future on the streets, especially if their final intent is to return to Syria, and even then, the road will be tough.
Dr. Houssam opened his school for Syrian refugees in Doha on the 4th of May, 2016. Since the escalation of conflict in Syria more than five years ago, he and his wife raised funds and donated food, clothes and furniture to displaced Syrians. Before Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) responded with support for starting a school, they worked with the Red Crescent organisation to aid Syrian families.
HBKU graciously opened up its Student Center as a venue for the children’s classes last year, catering to the first grade on up through high school. One of the main aims of the small school is to help the children assimilate, as they are—for a range of reasons—unable to go to normal schools and have limited interaction with everyday society in the country, especially with other children. As many of them come from rural and humble backgrounds, their parents are not always armed with the tools to educate them at home, or help with homework. This is where the school serves its greatest purpose.
Dr. Houssam’s school follows the Qatari public school curriculum, and it is not uncommon for children of different ages and grade levels to study side by side in the same classroom, although boys and girls are taught separately after the ninth or tenth grade. This is partly because local schools will not admit students if they are above a certain age for their grade.
Some of the children have their education certificates from Syria, but quite a few do not. As these are required as proof of education by the Qatari government, many wind up stuck without any institutions willing to take them in. There are currently as many as 80 children on the waiting list for the Syrian School. Dr. Houssam explained that in Qatar, many of the refugees are on tourist or visiting visas, and cannot work proper jobs as a consequence.
One of the greatest challenges for the school is the need for teaching volunteers with a consistent schedule. Most of those who volunteer to teach the children do so in addition to their respective jobs or studies, and irregularity is an issue for creating timetables. Due to the delicacy of many students’ situations, they have to teach two to three levels in the same class.
Dr. Houssam pointed out that some of the teachers had difficulty controlling their handful of students, mostly because they are unfamiliar with teaching, or the classroom culture the children are accustomed to. To remedy this, he reached out to Teach for Qatar, and they conducted workshops with the teachers to help them better manage the children and learn how to interact with them. He has also reached out to Education Above All in a bid to cement an official programme for the children.
Dr. Houssam hopes to eventually expand the small school into something larger to benefit more of the refugees on the waiting list for local schools. He has a proposal in mind for the following year, and the hope is that he may hire qualified teachers and provide them with a steady salary so that the children can learn without interruption. Funds are needed for this project to happen, much less be a success, and reaching out to larger organisations has been part of his strategy in keeping the school alive.
According to Dr. Houssam, appreciation is a welcome thing, but practical action must be taken if these children are to be educated and hold a secure place in society. The contribution of time is as valuable as money in this case, and volunteers are always welcome.
You can contact Dr. Houssam at [email protected].
PC: Mariam Mahsud
