Although more than 3,500 schools closed in our country due to the conflict in 2015, with more than 500 being partially or completely destroyed, international aid agencies were only able to assist the rehabilitation of 40 schools due to lack of funding. The UN received less than 50% of the total aid budget it requested for our country in 2015, thus major international aid agencies were forced to prioritize life-saving projects like food, water, and medical assistance as nine months of war resulted in the loss of almost 6,000 lives and left 21 million people facing shortages of food and other vital supplies.
As a part of the Community of the Arabian Peninsula (CAP), our country’s growing, Christ-centered faith community, we have suffered from the ongoing hostilities alongside our friends and neighbors, and many of our members grew very concerned about the lack of opportunity to educate our children when schools in our communities closed indefinitely. We told our leaders and partners that if we didn’t have a means to educate our children in the country, that we would consider leaving the country to find better opportunities for them. In response, the CAP launched four education projects in 2015 that are now filling critical gaps for both our faith community and the wider community around us.
Three projects were launched in rural areas where schools are either closed or being used as military bases, with more than 40 teachers offering classes to more than 550 students. Additionally, the CAP also assisted more than 130 disadvantaged students to enroll in classes in areas where schools are open, including more than 80 students from internally displaced families (IDPs).
These education initiatives have put several CAP leaders at the forefront of providing solutions to some of the main issues facing not only our faith community, but also the society around us. Meanwhile, the rural education projects are also giving our leaders a powerful opportunity to influence the next generation of leaders in our communities.
“Most of the people in the area know I’m a Christian,” says one project manager. “This project has made them start to talk about how I’m a Christian and serving my community. Three or four of the high school students have been discussing religion with me and I talk to them about it away from the area where we have the classes. They are searching for the truth. The project has allowed me to get to know all the students well and I feel this will bring a lot of fruit.”
The closure of many government schools created a unique window of opportunity for us to establish these education projects where we can control the curriculum. Many of us have longed for the day that our children would not be forced to study the Islamics curriculum of public schools and starting these education projects while government schools are closed will give us the option of continuing them in the future with the support of local communities.
“When my children are in public schools, if I don’t tutor them when they get home, they don’t benefit anything from their studies,” said a father with three children participating in one of the projects. “During this project, they’ve been coming home motivated to work hard and study on their own and they’ve benefitted a lot more than they benefit from the public schools.”
Even before the conflict, our education system was struggling and the number of students in a class could often reach 100. In the education projects, the average class size is about 11 and students and parents alike have noted that the quality of education offered by the projects is much higher than in government schools.
“I’m receiving a better education now than I received in the school I used to attend,” said a 5th grade student participating in one of the projects. “Because of the project, I don’t think about the war and the conflict that’s happening. I think about my education instead. I’m very happy and thankful to everyone who contributed to the project.”
These education projects are playing a key role in the future sustainability of our faith community by helping the next generation to obtain a meaningful education as well as giving us a meaningful way to reach out to the people around us.
Journey with us on the way:
Ask God to provide the resources for these projects to continue and expand into new communities in 2016.
Pray that the projects will continue to be a source of hope and refuge to children and communities that have been traumatized by war.
Pray that God will raise up current and future leaders across our nation with a vision for bringing peace and reconciliation among its many factions.
إذا كان لديكم مشاركة (شعرية، أدبية، تشجيعية، صلاة، الخ) وتودون مشاركتها معنا فبإمكانكم ارسالها إلى البريد التالي