HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Founder and Chairperson of the Education Above All (EAA) foundation, yesterday announced its support to provide primary education to more than 1mn Syrian refugee children.
“We have already enrolled half a million children in Syria, Jordan and Lebanon into quality primary education” Sheikha Moza said in London. “By 2017, we hope to have more than doubled that number to 1.1mn.”
Educate A Child (EAC), a programme of the EAA foundation, is supporting the refugee children alongside its partners on the ground - the UNHCR, Unicef and UNRWA.
EAC works globally to offer alternative modalities and approaches to conventional education, overcoming barriers that prevent children from learning, such as poverty, conflict and natural disasters.
Speaking yesterday morning at the ‘No Lost Generation’ event on the sidelines of the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’ conference, HH Sheikha Moza said: “Refugee children across the region have diverse needs and conditions that cannot always be met with a one size fits all solution in the formal education setting.
“When formal education systems cannot absorb students, EAC steps in to offer alternative education programmes in flexible learning sites. We also support remedial, bridging, and accelerated programmes to compensate for lost time.”
The ‘No Lost Generation’ education event brought together governments, donors, NGOs and other partners determined to ensure that all Syrian refugee children will have access to quality education by the end of the 2016/17 academic year.
It is currently estimated that at least 3mn Syrian children have had their schooling cut short by the ongoing crisis.
Sheikha Moza was recently appointed by the United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as a Member of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocacy Group.
The education event was co-chaired by Norway’s Foreign Minister Borge Brende, and Justine Greening, Secretary of State for International Development, UK.
Fellow panellists alongside Sheikha Moza included Elias Bou Saab, Lebanese Minister of Education; Imad Fakhoury, Jordan Minister of Planning & International Co-operation; Malala Yousufzai of The Malala Fund; Tony Lake, Executive Director, Unicef; and Sarah Brown, Executive Chair, Global Business Coalition for Education, as well as a number of NGO, civil society and business representatives.
The event was held on the sidelines of the ‘Supporting Syria and the Region’ conference, organised by the governments of the UK, Germany, Norway and Kuwait, as well as the UN.
The conference saw donor nations promising $6bn this year and another $5bn by 2020 to help besieged and displaced Syrians.
“Today has been and is a day of hope, a day about saving lives, a day about building futures, a day about giving people the chance of a future, the chance of a life,” British Prime Minister David Cameron said following a conference to support Syria, which he co-hosted with the UN, Germany, Norway and Kuwait.
“We have secured approaching $6bn for 2016 alone, and a further 5bn over the longer term to 2020,” Cameron said.
“It means millions of people will now receive life-saving food, medical care and shelter in Syria and beyond,” he said.