Meet Marwa
Marwa is an 11-year-old girl from Deraa in southern Syria and has been in Jordan since 2012. For over two years, she didn’t go to school. “In Syria, I went to school every day, but here I couldn’t.” Now, Marwa attends class five days a week and is studying math, science, Arabic, and English. Arabic is her favorite subject – she loves reading and writing and learning new poems and stories.
Marwa is just one little girl of the nearly 100 children who have benefited from catch-up classes through the South Azraq Women’s Association (SAWA).
Today, we spent the day with these amazing children and saw the light in their eyes as they showed us their homework assignments, told us about their upcoming tests, and introduced us to their friends.
The children come from different cities, arrived in Jordan at different times, and each have unique, heart-breaking stories and experiences – but they have one important thing in common: they love going to school.
There is nothing more important than giving these children the chance to learn and to be kids again.
Nofa, the director of SAWA told us, “When we opened the first classroom, the children came running to us, notebooks and pencils clutched to their chests, shouting ‘We want to go to school! We want to go to school!’” The library we are building for SAWA will significantly expand their capabilities: it will house over 1,000 books, provide a space for students to study after class, and expand the reach of their program to help students who have missed years of school to catch up with their peers.
But our partners on the ground rely on the support of organizations like ours to help keep the classrooms open and the teachers employed. We are happy to say that in addition to helping build and furnish the new library, we’ve committed to sponsoring two teachers over the next 6 months, with the hope of extending this for another six.
We have another full day ahead of us – tomorrow we will sort and pack the items for our Winter Children’s Packages and meet with more of the bright and hopeful Syrian children that we are here to help. We’ll check in tomorrow!