Education for Women

About three-quarters of Syrian refugee families in Lebanon live below the poverty line. Refugee women are often very poorly educated; many of them cannot read or write. From our project experience in the unofficial refugee camp in the Bekaa Valley we know that 90% of the women there can neither read nor write.

This makes the prospect of a job for these women more difficult here in Lebanon but also after returning to Syria.

Therefore we have set ourselves the objective of giving Syrian refugee women and girls in the unofficial refugee camps in West Bekaa a chance for literacy and vocational training:

• Increasing job opportunities in Lebanon and Syria
• Promotion of the independence of Syrian refugee women and girls
• Strengthening of families in which women are responsible for the family income

Through literacy courses for girls and women and vocational training as seamstresses in the informal refugee camp in West Bekaa, these problems are tackled at their roots. We strengthen disadvantaged Syrian refugee women and girls in Lebanon through education. Women and girls gain more independence through a sound education. Their job opportunities on the Lebanese labor market are strengthened through the qualification measures. In addition, after their return to Syria, they can also use the skills they have acquired in the local labor market and for reconstruction.

• Sewing courses: Together with our partners LFPADE, who are well connected in the refugee camp, we select particularly disadvantaged women: Women wo provide for the family income or live in households where no other member contributes to the family income and who are older than 17 years.

A professional trainer conducts the courses and leads two 6-month sewing courses which are held 4 days a week.

• Literacy courses: On the basis of vulnerability criteria we select particularly disadvantaged women: Women and girls from the camps in Werst Bekaa older than 15 years who cannot read and write and do not have a completed school education

A professional trainer conducts and leads the literacy courses. A 3-month literacy course with 25 participants will take place during the project. At the end of the course, the participants will receive a certificate for successful participation.

100 Syrian refugee women and girls in Bekaa