Rayak Learning Centres

Ahmad (pseudonym, the boy on the far right) and his family came from Homs, Syria. They left very early during the Syrian War, almost 13 years ago, without taking anything with them. They arrived in Lebanon, along with Ahmad’s grandparents.

Ahmad’s parents had to work for a living and thus the grandparents took the responsibility to take care of Ahmad and his sister at home. Ahmad got an injury while he was staying with his grandparents. The accident happened at a chicken farm and three of his fingers were cut. He was only three and a half at that time and he was heavily bleeding. However, when they rushed to the first hospital, the hospital refused to admit him, saying they could not afford the cost of the treatment he needed. Then, they looked for another hospital. Almost 3 hours later, he was finally admitted to a hospital. Unfortunately, the medical staff did the stitches the wrong way. His wound was mishandled, and he needed plastic surgery.

Ahmad was bullied a lot in public school because of his injury. At first, he went back home from school crying every day.

Although Ahmad and his family were free from civil war in Lebanon, the escalation of tensions between Lebanese and Syrians was extremely scary for them. Sometimes at night when they were sleeping, they suddenly heard cars storming. It was a group of young Lebanese cursing at them. It was in vain to report to local authorities as they knew the local authorities would not dare help them.

Ahmad’s father was glad that Rayak Baptist Church treated them with love. It gave his family food vouchers which helped them secure their nutritional needs for an entire month and not get into more debt. It also gave them some hygiene kits, as well as some vouchers for heating.

Ahmad’s father noted, ‘On top of that, sending our children to the church’s learning centre this year has truly been life-transforming. Ahmad and Sara [pseudonym, the girl on the second left] are 14 and 13 and had been in public school for years in Lebanon. But until they started the church’s learning centre, they couldn’t read or write. The teachers in public schools have no pedagogy, and they don’t care whether the children understand or not. They are just there to take their salary from UNICEF. Many times, they just sit on their phone the whole time or have coffee with other teachers while the children stay alone. Sometimes the children fight with each other, and sometimes they all take a nap. Even worse, the teachers often insult and beat the children. They often told the children that they smelled bad or forced them to open windows even during the cold winter. Children never wanted to go to school.’ He said the whole schooling environment made his children lose all self-confidence. Even he started believing his children were not smart or good at learning. ‘I was about to take my son out of school and send him somewhere to learn a skill and start earning money,’ he added.

Ahmad’s father said, ‘The teachers at the learning centre and the staff supported the children with such love and care as if they were their children. Ahmad and Sara have only been there since September last year, and they already know how to read and write!’ Ahmad and Sara looked happier and more relaxed. They woke up eager to get ready to go to school. They regained self-confidence and began to take good care of themselves, as they were keen to make the teachers proud of them.

Ahmad told his father how the learning centre taught the students discipline and respect for one another. When a student did something wrong, the administrator would take the student away and talk with the student, instead of bullying or humiliating the student in front of the other classmates.

‘We want our children to continue their education as much as possible, and they want to continue learning in the church’s learning centre. If they don’t have the chance to learn, what kind of a future will they have?’ said Ahmad’s father.