Lebanon’s Alsama Project has won this year’s $500,000 Global Schools Prize for giving an education to teenage Syrian and Palestinian refugees.
The project was founded in 2020 in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp. It began by supporting 40 teenagers but has since grown to serve more than 1,100 young refugees across Lebanon and Syria. The organisation is focused on adolescents, a group often overlooked in refugee education programmes.
Alsama operates four education centres in Beirut’s Shatila and Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camps and in Homs, Syria. About 90 percent of the project’s students arrive unable to read, write, or do basic mathematics but through an accelerated learning model designed for war affected young refugees most learn basic literacy and numeracy skills within six months.
The Varkey Foundation run by Indian businessman Sunny Varkey set up the Global Schools Prize for innovative schools or educational initiatives anywhere in the world. British filmmaker, campaigner and fund raiser Richard Curtis announced the winner at the Education World Forum in London. In his presentation speech Curtis told the audience “Whatever the question, education is the answer.”
The Alsama Project tries to link learning to students’ daily experiences. Lessons include reading road signs, working out grocery budgets and other practical life skills, alongside learning Arabic, English, mathematics, science, and information technology. Full-time psychologists and awareness sessions address issues like child protection, gender equality, healthy relationships, and early marriage. The organisation says it has helped prevent early marriage among hundreds of girls and reduced the chances of boys being forced into child labour in refugee communities.
