Abu Dhabi: One of the devastating impacts of the Syrian civil war is the sheer scale of displacement of young Syrian children. Many of them are traumatised by the effects of violence and the loss of their comfort zone and, many a time, their family and loved ones.
Providing these children succour and ensuring they are brought back from the brink of despair is an urgent task for the world and organisations like SmallWorld UAE are playing a big role in helping rehabilitate these children back into society.
Founded more than five years ago by its president Salam Hamzeh Gaith, the group has helped more than 5,000 Syrian refugee children based in Lebanon with its programmes, and is currently active in 59 countries assisting several local NGOs.
“We believe the biggest asset for humanity is the human being, and the only way to create a stable and peaceful world is through educated young minds,” said Gaith.
“Over the past five years, we have helped more than 5,000 Syrian refugee children, and our motto throughout the entire process has been to liberate and educate, because we firmly believe that if a child is educated and nurtured, that child will become free and independent to face the world,” she added.
One of the main programmes the group has helped fund are rehabilitation centres in Lebanon which concentrate on children who are not yet ready to be integrated into wider society because of their deep emotional and psychological scars.
“Many of the Syrian children who have come to these [rehabilitation] centres have lost their families and friends. They have seen people die in front of them; they have lost their homes and country. These children have been deeply affected so we cannot simply take them and enroll them into public schools; they need months and years of help and nurturing [to be able to get back to normality],” she said.
SmallWorld provides these children with psychotherapy to help them cope with what they have been through and “more importantly, they are taught how to integrate back into society so they can move on with their lives,” said Gaith.
SmallWorld has currently embarked on a new project which helps provide Syrian refugee children with evening schools as many schools in Lebabnon are unable to accommodate the large numbers of refugee students in their regular day classes.
“We are helping a charity group that provides education to these children but [due to the large numbers] cannot handle it on its own. So we are assisting it. We have created a new programme, an evening programme, so after the day batch finishes school, other children can come in at a later time to avail of classes,” Gaith explained.
Around 400 children are currently enrolled in the evening programme according to Gaith, with the programme reaping several benefits.
“They get education in Arabic, English, science, and maths. The classes last around four to five hours. They are getting the foundational education they need, something nobody will be able to take away from them,” she said.
The students have also been encouraged to showcase their talents through art, with their works going on sale at art exhibitions.
“Many of these young children have immense potential. We hold exhibitions that display their artwork and they are being received with a lot of support with many people often buying their art,” Gaith said.
Raising awareness about the plight of Syrian refugee children among the youth in the UAE is also high on the agenda for SmallWorld.
“We see our contributions as coming from our children to the children of the world, so we want our young people in the UAE to feel and understand what other children with much less are going through,” she said.
“These children need not only financial help, but social and emotional help as well. We want to create a legacy with what we are doing, so that one day we can reconnect with the children we have helped, and they can go on to become ambassadors helping other children who find themselves in the same situation,” she added.
Helping hand
Individuals who wish to contribute or volunteer with SmallWorld UAE, can do so by visiting their main website: http://smallworlduae.net
