9,000 children from Nahr El Bared Camp return to school because 'Dubai Cares'

UNRWA's Commissioner-General Mrs. Karen Abu-Zayd warmly welcomed the $1.277m donation from Dubai Cares, "an organization which has risen from the society of Dubai, whose leader has inspired his people to donate enthusiastically to a good cause: the education of poor children", she said.

Dubai Cares was launched with spectacular success earlier this year by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, with an original aim of raising money to help educate 1 million children in poor countries. The campaign to raise funds having already exceeded expectations by raising $465m, this amount was doubled by a generous contribution from Shaikh Mohammed himself, making Dubai Cares one of the best endowed humanitarian establishments in the region.

With Dubai Cares' contribution, UNRWA has rented, furnished and equipped schools in the Beddawi camp area and the area adjacent to Nahr El Bared, to allow displaced children to continue their education as normally as possible, pending reconstruction of the camp and the schools it contained. Traumatised children will be receiving psychological support, and recreational activities will be organised for them.

The Commissioner-General said that one cannot imagine the distress of all these displaced children who have had to live in miserable conditions because of the conflict in North Lebanon. Schooling will bring them stability and extra-curricular activities will create a favourable environment for their psychological development.

UNRWA provides basic education to 500,000 Palestine refugee children in Gaza, West Bank, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. In addition, the Agency has developed programmes for children, according to their needs, such as remedial education, support for those with learning disabilities and other special needs.