If you know Eastern Ghouta and if you get closer to the areas besieged and get to see the details of people’s lives, you realize that the situation is extremely bleak. In addition to the siege, shelling, and destruction the region has been witnessing over the past several years, children’s desertion of schools because of poverty and low standard of living has created a new crisis. This problem has thrown a generation into the quagmire of ignorance. The children’s future is about to be lost in a present that is full of want and deprivation.

In order to change this painful reality for these children, Al-Sham Humanitarian Foundation, in partnership with the RAF Foundation, launched the Food and Light Project. Thanks to this project, children get school costumes and school bags full of stationery at the beginning of the school year.

Teachers are emigrating in increasing number because of the lack of support for the education sector, the low standard of living, the increasing number of pupils who leave school to support their families.  This has led to the launch of the project at the beginning of each year. The project aims to achieve the following objectives:

-Support the educational process in schools by supporting teachers and pupils

-Relieve the financial burden on teachers and parents of students

-Contribute to improving the level of food security

-Encourage parents to send their children to school.

The project mainly targets the following segments of communities in besieged areas:

-Students who drop out of school on condition of returning to school

-Families of pupils

-School staff

The project, thanks be to Allah, has achieved good results. The number of beneficiaries during the academic year 2016-2017 reached 2280 pupils and 900 families.

Our attention to emergency matters should not distract us from dealing with matters that’s bear fruit in the long run. Creating an educated generation, aware of the requirements of the current stage Syria is going through and capable of facing challenges is one of the basic priorities that the Syrian people need.