In 2014, several international organisations launched the initiative “No Lost Generation,” a call to support Syrian children, victims of a conflict started three years before. No Lost Generation, meaning that the Syrian war has such an impact on the future generations, that they are lost, and have been deprived of their fundamental right to education. To help these chlidren regain control over their lives, TSF has been working since 2013 on an mLearning project benefiting displaced children in Syria and refugees in Turkey.
To this date, UNICEF estimates that 8,4 million children, meaning more than 80% Syrian children have been affected by the conflict. TSF organises activities using digital resources to learn Maths, Programming and Arabic in two centres managed by Minber Alsham, a Syrian organisation providing support to vulnerable syrian families in Gaziantep.
Six years after the beginning of TSF’s activities, the situation remains unstable in Syria. In Gaziantep, we can still feel the consequences of the war. In this big town in the South of Turkey, close to the Syrian border, there are more than 400,000 Syrian refugees. Due to the language barrier and to an educational system not fully adapted to the particular situation of Syrian children, a lot of them cannot go school. With the tragedy of the war behind, their future remains compomised.
Nevertheless, we can feel a strong willingness to learn among the 200 children participating in TSF’s activities. Most of them are in an unstable situation, this is why we have set up the skills belts system, which allows them to learn at their own pace, and to always have a perspective of progression, whatever their age or level. This way of working allows them to develop their knowledge in a flexible way, being more autonomous, and favoring mutual aid. This is essential for them to gradually regain self-confidence while building their future.
Education is a universal human right and the implementation of solutions to help vulnerable children become adults with bright perspectives for their future should be a priority. Through its projects, TSF is committed to supporting the learning of technologies and the culture of innovation of these children who were forced to drop out of school. Furthermore, a new project is being finalised to develop and improve the current mLearning activities. Its implementation will take place in the first semester of 2020 and will further the possibllities for Syrian children to learn skills they will need in their daily lives and in their future professional career.