sa国际传媒

Mayas gets a lesson from her brother Ahmad

Mayas is 12 and hasn鈥檛 been to school for four years. She didn鈥檛 know how to read or write until her older brother Ahmad started teaching her a few months ago.

Her family are Syrian refugees who fled to Lebanon. But Mayas Saleem Ftayni 鈥� lively, polite and with striking green eyes 鈥� was taken out of school when she was just eight because her parents feared for her safety during the conflict.

鈥淚f I could go to school, I could get a good job and then I could help my family,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hen I grow up I want to become a teacher so that other children can learn.鈥�

The Lebanese government wants to help refugee children like Mayas. It in formal education through an innovative double-shift system for Syrian girls and boys first proposed by A World at School in 2013.

But more than 60,000 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon may be unable to go to school when the new term starts this month due to lack of funding. Through contributions from donor countries such as Norway, Germany, the United States and the United Kingdom, Lebanon has secured funding for 140,000 pupils. But there is a shortfall of $35 million to fill all 200,000 places.

Mayas says 鈥業 still can鈥檛 really read but I鈥檝e started鈥�

With less than a month to go before the new school term begins, youth campaigners 鈥� including A World at School鈥檚 network of 鈥� are rallying and demanding donor governments urgently close the funding gap to guarantee that the remaining 60,000 children can go to school.

This week, the governments of Sweden, the Netherlands and France are being sent letters from children who are returning to school in their own country and are calling for the girls and boys displaced by the four-year Syrian crisis to have the same opportunity.

The governments will also be presented with the , which has more than nine million signatories calling for children to be given the opportunity to go to school around the world. The petition will be delivered by our Global Youth Ambassadors to the embassies of donor countries in the Lebanese capital Beirut.

GYA Victoria Kallberg from Sweden said: 鈥淚 can remember my own first day back at school. I was so excited to see my friends and worried that I hadn鈥檛 done my homework properly, particularly the maths. Imagine if that was all that the children in Lebanon had to worry about.

Ahmad works for up to 12 hours each day in a store

鈥淚 am so concerned about the children who have lost years of education as a result of the conflict in Syria. If I had missed out on three or four years of education I might never have gone back to school and I worry about what will happen to this generation of Syrian children. My government can make a real difference to their future. Young people want to support them in doing that.鈥�

Mayas and Ahmad are just two of the 500,000 refugee children now living in Lebanon after being displaced by the Syrian conflict.

Ahmad, 14, left school when his family 鈥� there are two more brothers and another sister 鈥� arrived in Lebanon a year ago after fleeing Al-Joubar near Damascus. They live in two rooms in the Saida region.

A bright and confident boy, he loves maths and wants to be an engineer 鈥� partly so he can help to rebuild Syria. He said: 鈥淚 miss everything about Syria, it鈥檚 my country. I went to school in Syria and here I don鈥檛 go any more. I can鈥檛 go because I have to work because my family doesn鈥檛 have enough money.鈥�

Abed Alshami works seven days a week in a bag factory

Ahmad began teaching his sister the alphabet recently. Mayas said: 鈥淪ometimes I play a game with my brother where we choose a letter and then we have to write down an animal, a person and a place beginning with it. It鈥檚 fun and it鈥檚 good for practising letters and writing.

鈥淚 was very sad when I left school, and I鈥檓 still sad because I鈥檓 only just learning a bit of reading and writing now.鈥�

Abed Alshami, 10, has lost track of how long he鈥檚 been in Lebanon but his father says it is three years.聽His family moved there from Shaghour, near Damascus.

He said:聽鈥淚 miss studying and playing with the teacher. I used to like drawing best. I went to a school for a while in Lebanon but it was in French and I didn鈥檛 understand anything so I left. It was hard. Even in Arabic I don鈥檛 read and write very well.鈥�

After his father broke his shoulder falling down stairs, Abed had to get a job in a bag-making factory to support the family. He added: 鈥淚 don鈥檛 play because I go to work and I come home late and I never get vacations. I used to like riding a bike but I don鈥檛 have one here so I don鈥檛 do it anymore.鈥�

Nour wants to be a doctor so she can help injured people聽

Nour Mohammed Saleem Takla lives with nine of her family spanning four generations from Al-Joubar, near Damascus. The 15-year-old lives in a house dark with pain and mourning 鈥� she has lost a brother, an uncle and other relatives in the fighting and bombing in Syria.聽Her parents are divorced and her father is still in Syria. She doesn鈥檛 know if he is alive.

Nour said:聽鈥淢y brother was on the school bus and a gunfight broke out. He got caught in the middle and was killed by a sniper. He was 15.

鈥淚 stopped going to school in the middle of fifth grade when I was 12, when we came to Lebanon. I was very smart at school but because I haven鈥檛 been for such a long time I鈥檓 forgetting what I used to know.

鈥淚 want to go back to school. I鈥檇 be so thankful if I could go back.鈥�

Sarah Brown, co-founder of A World at School and President of children鈥檚 charity , said: 鈥淭he Lebanese government has said it will open its doors to 200,000 children this year and this promise must not fail due to a lack of donor funding. 聽

鈥淎s children around the world go back to school, there are Syrian children who have fled their homes and schools who are now unable to get an education in a new country. This is a unique opportunity to make a difference to those children鈥檚 future but time is running out.鈥�