Greetings to all from Prague in the Czeck Republic! As an update from November past, following a brief volunteer stint in Romania and Poland, I traveled to the Béqaa Valley in southern Lebanon, about six miles from the Syrian border. I spent the month of January in Bar-Elias, living with a Lebanese family and volunteering to assist in the Syrian refugee community. This May I will share a snapshot of my time in Béqaa Valley at District Conference in Sault Ste Marie, Canada.
As a backdrop to the refugee crisis in this region, Syrians number three to every one Lebanese with a large percentage of the refugee population living in makeshift plastic tents randomly set up throughout the area. This is just one example on the outskirts of Bar Elias, taken during the floods in January.
In order to discourage Syrians from settling permanently in Lebanon, since early 2015 all Syrians have been stripped of their legal status, including those living in the region before the crisis began in 2011. Thousands of Syrian children in the Béqaa region are thus unable to attend Lebanese schools, with children under 12 never having had any access to formal education. Social Support Societies have been set up by Syrian parents to provide basic schooling and support to their children. For my part I volunteered in the education center at Al Makassed School in Bar-Elias, integrating English language learning into existing curriculum in math, science, and geography. One interesting challenge I faced was explaining our English mathematical equations that we read “left to right,” whereas in Arabic these calculations are made right to left!
I also volunteered with GERO (“Global Education and Refugee Organization”), a local NGO comprised mainly of Syrian adults who provide outreach to those living in the tent cities. We developed and delivered arts-based activities geared toward peace education and the recovery of motor and literacy skills. We also provided networking workshops to promote ways in which those learning English could provide language learning activities to encourage and support others around them. Our activities and interactions with the children were welcomed relief to as January is typically a difficult month for them, due to the flooding and also that the infrastructure in which they live is very fragile.
Back in the Czeck Republic, I am currently making arrangements to return to Lebanon for three months in mid-May to continue my advocacy and outreach. In the meantime I look forward to the upcoming annual Rotary gathering in May to share more stories of my time in Béqaa and catch up in person!
Yours in Peace
Joanne Elvy (Peace Fellow, Class 24)