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28 March 2024

Palestinian kids trot happily to school… but future uncertain

Palestinian refugee kids go to school in Lebanon. (NADIM KAWACH)

Published
By Nadim Kawach

Hussein Kinaan lifted his heavy school bag, tried it around his back and walked happily in the morning to the nearby school in his Palestinian refugee camp in Lebanon.

It was less than a minute before Hussein met his school mates and started to play with them in the narrow dusty alley near the school building before going into class.

When he returned home in the afternoon, Hussein looked little tired and hungry but he appeared to have enjoyed another day at school without thinking about the bleak future awaiting him and thousands other Palestinian children living in Diaspora.

While his father Khalil sweats in summer and freezes in winter at a nearby field owned by a Lebanese landlord to support his family of eight, Hussein seems too young to be aware of his ordeal being a refugee with little hope to return to Palestine and less chances of getting a job in Lebanon, which is reeling under heavy unemployment.“I like school and I want to be an engineer,” the 11-year-old boy beamed innocently, without realizing that his father could hardly provide living to them, let alone university fees. “If I can’t go to university, then I will work as a builder.”

Hussein’s elder brother Ali appeared to be aware of what is awaiting the kids when they grow up as he has just opted out of school and joined a construction job to help his father. Ali is around 15 years old and he has no remorse for quitting school.

“Even if I finish school, who is going to pay for my university…and even if I join university and graduate, how can I find a job in this country,” he said.

“Look at all those children,” he added, pointing towards little boys playing in the nearby alley in the hilltop Mieh-Mieh camp. “They look happy because they are not aware of our problems…..we all are refugees without future in this country…they will soon realize this tragic reality and will start feeling the gap in their life….”

More than 7,000 people are crammed in the tiny camp of nearly two square km and around 90 per cent of them are jobless, living on aid from the Palestinian Authority, the United Nations and relatives in the oil-rich Gulf and other countries.

The same applies to the other 11 Palestinian camps in Lebanon, where nearly 450,000 refugees are registered. Official data showed more than a fifth of the Palestinians in that country are aged between one and 15 years.

Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza Strip and those in Diaspora have one of the highest fertility rates in the region, with an average family of six. Experts say this is because Palestinians are encouraged to get more children to outnumber the Israelis despite their poverty and deprivation of many essential services.

For this reason many financially able parents encourage their children to have education while others just want to be helped by their kids in supporting the family.“My nine-year-old son likes school and he is always on top of his class mates…he says he wants to be a doctor when he grows up but I just can’t tell him this is impossible,” said Ahmed Azzam, a Palestinian refugee.

“The lowest fees for a doctorate degree in a private university are around $10,000 a year while I earn an average $5,000 a year from my shoe repair shop…most Palestinians here cannot join public universities and this is a real tragedy.”

Mieh-Mieh is served by just one school, where more than 500 children are crammed in a 3,600-square metre two-storey building.

They have just been moved to the new school building after the old building, a 105-year-old palace built by American missionaries, has been badly damaged by wars.
Education till the secondary level is provided free for all Palestinians by the UN Relief Work Agency (UNRWA), which is managing the refugees’ affairs in Lebanon.

After they finish their classes, children in Mieh-Mieh are seen almost daily trotting happily back home for lunch before they hasten out to play in the alleys of their camp, unaware of their future, which is as dark and shabby as their camp’s uneven alleys.
“This is yet another generation that is growing away from their Palestinian homeland,” said Mohammed Issa, a former teacher at the Mieh-Mieh school.

“It is sad to see that these innocent lives which jump happily in front of you every day are without a future…I feel glad when I see them happy but this will not last as they will soon grow up and become aware of their plight.”

 

All images courtesy Nadim Kawach