Karama Bus Traveling School for Children

The UNHCR estimates that around 6.5 million people are currently displaced inside Syria. In order to accommodate the growing number of internally displaced persons throughout Syria many schools have been forced to close so they can be used to house the displaced population. As a result, children are no longer able to attend school – creating a “lost generation” of Syrian children.

The Project:
In March 2013 a moving school was created to serve displaced Syrian children in a northern Syria region. These children, who have taken refuge with their families in northern Syria, actually live in buildings that were used as schools before the war. There is no other opportunity for these children to attend school.
A Syrian activist visiting the region of Idlib, in northern Syria, realized that children in that region were not receiving an education because the schools had lost their original function and had been transformed into centers to house displaced families. After seeing this, the activist came up with the idea of a moving school to make-up for the lack of education. First on foot and after with their bus, a team of volunteers began organizing visits to four different former school buildings in Idlib, where they organized different activities for the children. The Al Karama bus team goes to a different former school daily to conduct activities with students of different age groups. The activities the children participate in will depend on the age and can differ from group to group. The children will also participate in different sports and take classes in drawing, reading, writing, math, and science, for the older students. Children also have the opportunity to watch movies and participate in theater classes. The goal of this project is to give the children a quality education as well as time to play and enjoy themselves.

Activities

• Refreshing games and exercises for the children
• Arts and Crafts workshops: drawing, photography, creating paintings and drawings made out of branches and natural elements using glue and basic essentials
• Workshops for reading, writing, and creating puppets for theater use and story telling
• Showing cartoon animations, and small influential and educational clips
• Interactive theater, projecting small videos of the streets and homes in the villages that the displaced children and their families came from to create a discussions within each other about their personal experiences and stories
  For more information on this project visit: facebook.com/alkarama.bus

Beneficiaries:
This project benefited 300 displaced children.