'I'm not in school but I want to be...because I want to learn to write my name.'
Fatima, 35, mother-of-six fled Aleppo for Lebanon in 2012. Her husband left her shortly after the war had started. Today, more than three years later, she and her children live in a tiny makeshift tent in Jeb Jannine, the western part of Lebanon’s Bekaa Valley. While she knew life as a refugee would not be easy, Fatima never thought she’d be relying on her children to support the family.
Her eldest three children: Akl, 6; Hassan, 8, and Khayerallah, 9, have been the income providers, selling plastics for the past year since Fatima stopped working to take care of her three other children, Horhourye, 5, Assad, 4 and newborn Nouri. The boys spend their days digging through the rubbish to collect plastics to sell.
“The boys work from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. earning USD 10 per child each week. Between the three of them, they pay rent, put food on the table and buy milk for the baby,” adds Fatima. “It’s a necessity for my boys to work right now, especially because my husband left us.”
Fatima considered sending her kids to work in the agricultural sector but rejected the idea as selling plastics brings in more income.
In February 2016, World Vision opened a new “Early Childhood Education Programme” in the nearby settlement for children between the ages of 3 and 6. Funded by World Vision Hong Kong, this programme enables Syrian children to catch up to the Lebanese school system - where schooling starts at 3 years old - and enables them to eventually enter Lebanese public schools at the age of 7. When Fatima first heard about the programme, she was thrilled. Her joy was short-lived, however, as not all her children were eligible for the programme. Out of her six children, only three are 6 years old or younger.
Akl was reluctant to attend school at first, but once enrolled he hasn’t looked back. His life has been transformed. “I love school. I can write and play with Legos...” he says. “I was glad to work because I was able to help my brothers to buy milk. But I’m happier now. I used to get tired easily.”
Inevitably since Akl has stopped working, the family has less money to live off. Nevertheless, Fatima would rather have Akl getting an education than eat vegetables, something which they now can no longer afford. “For me, it doesn’t matter that Akl doesn’t work because he is getting an education. Before this new school, the future wasn’t clear, especially since they were out on the street working,” she says. “Ideally, I would like to send all my children to public school after preschool ends. But, it depends on the situation… it depends on if we have enough food on the table.”
Sitting alongside the family inside the tent is Akl’s supervisor, Randa. “Every day when Akl and his siblings come to school, they would eat four portions’ worth of food for lunch because they don’t have enough to eat at home and are always hungry,” she says.
It’s hard to imagine how Fatima and the other children who aren’t in school cope on a daily basis.
Hopefully, Akl will eventually be able to enrol in public school after this year. For his older brothers, who are still working, it is a different story. Too old for the World Vision schooling programme, they are unlikely to ever go to school.
Hassan, 8, sits quietly in a corner. He would give anything to be able to go to school. “I’m not in school but I want to be,” he says. “I want to learn to write… I can’t even write my name. I don’t like to work. I have to wake up at 6 a.m. and pick up plastics from these big rubbish bins. I’m in the sun the whole day and when I get home, I’m tired.”
Although Hassan is sad that he can’t attend school, he tries to learn from his siblings. “I wish I could learn more. I want to be a teacher but I can’t with no education,” he says.
It’s heart-breaking to hear Hassan speak as he looks at Akl with envy. Within the Jeb Jannine, 144 children were registered in the programme. Thanks to World Vision Hong Kong, the Early Childhood Education Programme has provided 836 children all over Lebanon like Akl hope for the future but it’s obvious that for every child it helps, there are many more that are being forced to start work when they should be playing or learning.