As a Palestinian refugee in Syria, and later a Palestinian/Syrian refugee in Lebanon, I have had my fair share of forced migration and obstacles growing up. Before leaving Syria, I had just finished high school and had been accepted to the school of aviation engineering in Aleppo.

However, due to the unrest in the city, I was unable to attend and decided to leave to Lebanon. There, I struggled for the first six months and had to work to support myself and pay rent. It wasn’t until I began working with Jusoor that my life took a turn in a positive direction.

Finding support to continue my education

Jusoor is a non-profit organization that focuses on helping Syrian youth discover their potential through education programs. Through my hard work and dedication, I was able to receive a scholarship and begin studying at one of the most prestigious universities in Lebanon, after I thought I would never be able to continue my education.

In addition to studying, I continued working with Jusoor. This work and my own experiences have provided me with a very personal point of view on topics relating to refugee education.

Is education really a right? Often, I think to myself and wonder - where I would be now if I was not able to continue my education?

Where would I be if, like countless other Syrian refugees before me, I could not get a scholarship, could not work, or worst of all, could not leave Syria in the depths of the ongoing war?

In a parallel universe, I may not be here today to write this post, or may not speak anything other than my native Arabic. However, as one of the lucky ones, I think it is important for me to talk about these things that many of us take for granted.

According to Human Rights Watch, more than half of school-aged Syrian children registered in Lebanon are not enrolled in formal education. Syria, a country that once had the highest school enrollment rate in the Arab world, now has a rate of lower than 50%. About four million Syrian children and youth aged 5-17 years are in need of education assistance, including 2.1 million out-of-school children inside Syria and 700,000 Syrian children in neighboring countries.

Educating refugee children so that they can help rebuild their countries

Before beginning the discussion on the power of educators and volunteers in a non-formal education context, it is worth taking a look at the importance of education for refugee children. Unfortunately, in today’s society, education is a privilege rather than a right.

However, the benefits of education are bountiful. Most children fleeing from war are at a vulnerable and critical age of development. It is crucial to supply them with information that will allow them to explore the world and use the full capacity of their brains. While an educational setting can foster a future doctor, engineer, or astronaut, without this setting, these children can develop extremist ideas that will severely impact their personalities and lives in the future.

Schools also provide many of these children with a safe haven. I have seen this first hand in the schools I work with in Lebanon, where many of the students do not want to return home after school because there isn’t anything positive to look forward to. Their lives are so full of darkness and loss that coming to school is something they look forward to.

These children are the future of Syria. They will play a critical role in the rebuilding and re-development phase of Syria after the war is over.

While no one knows when that may be, we must be prepared for whenever it does happen with educated individuals who are willing and able to return to Syria to rebuild their country.

Volunteers help greatly with non-formal education

Through my work with Jusoor, I have met over 300 volunteers and 70 educators that have shown me the importance of their role in non-formal education. Every year, Jusoor organizes a summer volunteer program, in which volunteers from all over the world, spend a month working at one of our schools.

Volunteers allow the children to feel the support of others. As one of our volunteers says in his blog post “the kids are ready to be loved, and yet more importantly, love,” and education plays a key role in this. Another one of our volunteers discusses the importance of human connection in working with refugee children where she says, “I understand the importance of education, but what I find just as important is human connection.”

Most of these children have probably never left Syria until now, and do not have any cross-cultural experiences. These volunteers bring a different perspective and experience for these kids, where they are curious and eager to see where in the world our volunteers came from, therefore exposing them to different cultures.

Teachers are, without a doubt, the heart and soul of any educational institution.

The most important thing that I have realized through my work in non-formal education is the importance of having teachers from the same community as the refugees themselves. Having educators with the same background gives them a personal connection to their students where these teachers have felt the same struggles and hardships. It is important to children anywhere to have teachers or educators that they can relate to not only in an educational setting, but also with their personal lives and experiences.

Non-formal education is a temporary fix until the public system can resume

The questions still remain: how can we as a society deny these children from their safe havens? Who are we to decide whether or not a person has a future strictly based on where they were born? Through the work of many different organizations, we are taking a step in the right direction in providing non-formal education to those who need it.

However, it is important to note that non-formal education is not a replacement for formal education. Through the work of volunteers and educators, we are able to create an educational platform that would not be possible otherwise.

There is still a long way to go. While politicians and governments argue about the fate of these refugees, the children are the ones suffering the most.

We need calls for action. Our governments need to work together to provide money to finance education. In a parallel universe, who knows what one of these kids could become.

Mahmoud is one of GPE’s youth advocates