Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, May 2004, pages 50-51, 94

Special Report

Revitalizing Palestinian Education and Increasing Opportunity

By Brock L. Bevan

Students and volunteers sit in one of the many renovated classrooms at the Inaash Center in Mar Elias (photo Brock Bevan).

VOLUNTEERS FROM the American Community School (ACS) in Beirut engage six or seven kindergarten students in fun exercises like cutting out different objects from paper and coloring in designs. The students, all Palestinians from the Mar Elias refugee camp, or from other parts of Beirut, smile away as they watch their teacher use body language as well as English to communicate. Then, to everyone’s delight, the children answer back in English.

In the narrow alleyways of Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh refugee camps are two centers established by Inaash: Aid to the Palestinian Refugee Camps. During the day these centers, along with a third one in the Bekaa, function as kindergartens, serving children in the Palestinian community. On Friday nights, they become centers for English-language instruction.

The kindergartens, which employ teachers from the camps, divide children into groups based on age, from 3 to 5 years old. Inaash charges fees of between $66 to $100 per person, per year of instruction—although the real costs are closer to $400 per year. Even with this reduction, according to Inaash board member Souad Amin, “many people can’t afford it.” The fees, however, she emphasized, are important to make the parents feel that they are participating in their children’s education.

There are two kindergartens in Mar Elias, for a population of approximately 1,400 residents. Kariman Othman, supervisor at the Mar Elias Inaash center, described the camp as “over-saturated” with kindergartens. Right across from the Inaash center is another kindergarten run by Kanafani Foundation that is in dire need of renovation. Students have to walk on a roof in order to get from one classroom to another.

	Children from Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh Palestinian refugee camps gather at the American Community School in Beirut to celebrate the end of their English lessons with ACS volunteers at the camps’ Inaash centers (photo Brock Bevan).

In 2003 the Inaash kindergartens in Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh were able to renovate their centers. Thanks to a grant of more than $25,000 from the Jerusalem Fund for Education and Community Development in Washington, DC, the students now have modern classrooms and computers. The grant was made possible by a bequest which specified that the donation go to Palestinian children.

Board member Amin told Beirut’s English-language newspaper, The Daily Star, that before the renovations it was “as if [the children] were living in prison.” Now, she said, the classrooms are bright and friendly and the building has modern lavatories. In addition, many walls were knocked down in order to open up space. As a result of the grant from The Jerusalem Fund, Inaash plans to start a computer course for camp residents, in addition to using the new computers to train the teachers.

“The Palestinians, particularly the children, have been abandoned,” explained Dr. Hisham Sharabi, chairman and founder of The Jerusalem Fund and currently a Beirut resident. With the grant to the Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh centers, there already is evidence of a revitalization of children’s interest in education which bodes well for their prospects down the line. The Jerusalem Fund plans in the near future to provide money for the renovation of the Inaash center located in Baalbeck, as well.

Indeed, the kindergartens are providing quality education for Palestinian youngsters. Nizaha Shrur, a tailor who works from her home, and mother of two students at the Mar Elias center, said the program was “very good.” She and her two children, Rasha and Rashid Abboud, commute an hour and a half every day to take advantage of the programs the center offers. According to Shrur, Inaash provided better instruction than the UNRWA-supported schools that serve the Palestinian community.

Philip Benson, an ACS teacher volunteer, finds the entire teaching experience “quite energizing.” The program lasts for six weeks, with one and a half hours of instruction each Friday. All told, there are 15 teachers and five ACS students who volunteer in Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh. Each volunteer works with about six or seven children. Everyone—whether teaching or learning—looked quite happy. “The kids are like sponges,” Benson said.

“In the beginning, they are basically mute,” noted Jennifer MacTaggart, founder of the volunteer program at ACS. “But by the end of each set of visits, they are far more comfortable listening to and speaking in English.

“To be honest,” she added, “I think these students teach and give me as much as I could possibly give them—and that, of course, is the joy of any kind of teaching experience.”

According to Ahmed al-Aidi, one of last term’s students, the renovations to the center were greatly needed. Formerly, he said, the center was a “bad building,” but the renovations have allowed for better classrooms. Now there are no more echoes in the building, and the teachers have open classrooms that allow them to interact more with students as individuals. Al-Aidi said the teachers he had were good and that it was beneficial to “learn English by playing” games. Currently, he assists the Inaash staff with the volunteer program.

Inaash was founded in 1969 as a response to the 1967 war, and the second influx of Palestinian refugees it created. Its three main objectives, said Amin, were to preserve traditional Palestinian embroidery, create employment opportunities for Palestinian women in the camps, and provide kindergartens to Palestinian children. The organization also sponsors an “Old Age Project,” as well as a sponsorship program for individual students.

Since its inception, Inaash has expanded its programs to include micro-financing for Palestinian entrepreneurs under its “Revolving Fund.” By providing between $100 and $500 in small loans to individual borrowers, Inaash attempts to spur the growth of local enterprises. Following a three-month grace period, recipients must pay back between $25 and $50 per month. The program was created in response to the critical conditions in Lebanon after Israel’s 1982 invasion, Amin said.

Given the limited opportunities available to camp residents, the Inaash board member added, “we want our kids to interact with people outside the camp.” This is “extremely important,” she said, not only for the development of English-language skills, but also to “help our people differentiate between the American government and the American people.”

At a party recently held by the 20 ACS volunteers for their students from the Mar Elias and Bourj el-Barajneh centers the children, aged 6 to 12, seemed overjoyed. After their buses pulled up to the American Community School, the children filed into an auditorium, where they were grouped by age. They were welcomed to the school in English and Arabic, then urged to sing some fun songs in English, such as “Gouba, Gouba, Gouba” and “Funky Monkey.”

Next, the kids went to separate areas of the school to indulge in some fun activities. Many of the older students headed outside to the football field to play a match. One of the student volunteers supervised a group of girls playing football. Not only did they giggle and laugh the whole time, but they almost hit this reporter on his head with the ball!

The younger kids were similarly engaged with their volunteer teachers. For the 6-year-olds, there was story telling. Reading the tale of “The Big Hungry Caterpillar,” another volunteer captured the attention of the students by showing them vibrant pictures of the caterpillar and her adventures. In another room, 7-year-olds selected a picture and then proceeded to color it—all on a computer. When they were done, they could print out their drawings and take them home.

Considering the 200-plus students it benefits every year, the impact of Inaash programs has been vast. With the assistance of such organizations as The Jerusalem Fund, American Near East Refugee Aid (ANERA) and UNICEF, Inaash continues to provide vital assistance to the Palestinian refugee community. This type of aid is particularly needed, as the Lebanese government seems to fear that any state aid to the Palestinians in Lebanon could lead to “tawteen,” or implantation.

Although in theory the idea that Palestinians as a group should not stay in Lebanon is valid—as most refugees don’t want to stay but want to return to their homes in occupied Palestine—in practice this policy has led to levels of hardship seen only in Gaza. Nonprofit, non-governmental groups like Inaash help to guarantee that, wherever they live, Palestinians will have a future.

Brock Bevan is a free-lance journalist and an M.A. candidate in Middle Eastern studies at the American University of Beirut.

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