2017 Off To A Great Start & Celebrating Women's History Month
2017 has been off to a great start at The Syria Fund!
UPDATES FROM OUR SCHOOLS:
White Hands School
120 kids now attend school at the White Hands School in rural Badia Shmaliya in Northeast Jordan. A new library and librarian are now at the school, bringing fun activities that inspire our kids to read every day! We are also excited to start music classes at the school this Spring as part of our #SongsForSyrians music program!
Azraq
At the Azraq School, students started a small rooftop garden, planting local trees in recycled tires. They were so excited and proud of this project, that we are now laying the groundwork for a proper community garden! We’ll be using the talents of a local farmer named Heyel to create a sustainable, water-efficient garden in recycled water tanks. The kids will learn about growing and harvesting vegetables and herbs like eggplants, tomatoes, mint and parsley! Big thanks to the EcoKids Kindergarten class in Amman for raising money to start this garden project!
Many of the children at the White Hands school live in tents in very remote desert areas. When we first partnered with the White Hands Association, none of these children were going to school at all. In late 2015, we created tented classrooms in their communities to address this immediate need. Today, these students are able to ride to school in a bus, attend classes in a proper classroom, and have access to a library and extracurricular activities. This amazing success story is all thanks to YOUR support!
MECI
The Syria Fund continues to work closely with our partners at the Middle East Children’s Institute (MECI) to bring life skills trainings to Syrian and Jordanian teenagers. Teenagers can be especially hard to reach in refugee communities as they often have to work to support their families. Life Skills trainings teach them self-confidence and the value of leadership and community organizing. Recent TSF-supported Life Skills trainings brought together Syrian and Jordanian boys to beautify their neighborhood with a small garden!
Your support allows us to run these programs for hundreds of Syrian children in Jordan. From supporting teachers to buying school supplies to hosting extracurricular activities like those mentioned above -- every dollar makes a difference! Help us keep these programs going!
Celebrating Women's History Month
As Women’s History Month comes to an end, we are proud to highlight our amazing partner organizations - both in Jordan and the United States - all run by incredible women who work tirelessly in their communities to address the pressing needs of refugees. These individuals do great work to support refugees and be advocates for women everywhere. Here are a few of their stories (click each picture to watch their video!):
Catherine Ashcroft, founder of Helping Refugees in Jordan (HRJ), started collecting discarded items from friends and families in Amman, Jordan and bringing them to communities with large refugee populations. Quickly, her garage became a massive sorting center, housing items for distribution. What began as a minor volunteer effort has blossomed into a charity that helps thousands of refugees with direct aid and sustainable programs across Jordan.
Zeinab Al-Zubaid runs The White Hands Association, a local charity in Badia Shmaliya, an area in rural Northeast Jordan. Many Syrians have fled the war to take refuge in this extremely rural, desert area. With the help of The Syria Fund and HRJ, Zeinab's charity established multiple education spaces for the 100s of kids with no access to schools. The White Hands Schools for Refugees now reach nearly 500 students!
Milana Vayntrub was vacationing in Greece when she saw first-hand the extent of the refugee crisis spilling into Europe. Rather than ignoring what she saw, she took action, extending her ticket to go volunteer and ultimately starting the #CantDoNothing movement. Milana has helped raise thousands of dollars for TSF's education programs and is an amazing advocate for refugees and role model for all of us!
At the Azraq school in Jordan, The Syria Fund supports full time teachers who educate over 100 Syrian refugee children in Arabic, Math and Science. Miriam was hired as a teacher three years ago after fleeing Syria and is proud to bring knowledge to her 26 students every day.
SONGS FOR SYRIANS FUNDRAISER
At the end of January, we had our first New York City fundraiser. New Yorkers came together and raised over $21,000 to fully fund our growing music program for the entire year! We are thrilled to expand the initiative to bring music education to over 300 students. We are also planning another music-intensive week in Jordan in mid-May! Thanks to everyone who came out, and if you couldn’t be there, check out our event highlight video below:
Thanks for reading! As always, everything that we do is because of YOUR generous support! THANK YOU!
Keep up your amazing work -- make a donation to The Syria Fund today and LIKE us on Facebook to stay up-to-date on what we're doing!
Warmly,
Lexi, Demetri, Nora & The Syria Fund team