Finland supports Syrian children's access to education in Lebanon

Finland supports the access to education and child protection of children who have escaped the Syrian crisis to Lebanon. Through the UN Children’s Fund UNICEF, Finland will allocate EUR 3.7 million to supporting the most vulnerable children’s access to education.

The new project will be launched on 23 January in the Embassy of Finland in Beirut, Lebanon. Finland will help 7,000–8,000 girls and boys in a vulnerable position to access education and child protection provision. The two-year project will offer comprehensive school education, child protection services and vocational education and training to children and young people who do not attend school and are at risk of violence against children.

As the children receiving assistance are from the poorest families, comprehensive thinking will be required to get them to school.

“If a family lives from hand to mouth, children too must work. On the streets, markets or construction sites. The best way to get children from refugee families to school is to support their families. By supporting young people’s vocaational education and training, we are offering them a chance for a better future,” said Tarja Fernández, Finland’s Ambassador to Lebanon.

The project follows on from Finland’s earlier aid given in 2014 and 2015 to support the resilience of Lebanon’s education system. Of Syria’s neighbouring countries, Lebanon carries the heaviest burden of refugees, considering the size of the country. Lebanon, which has a population equalling that of Finland, already hosts over a million Syrian refugees, children and young people making up almost half of them.

Finland has also supported Unicef’s work to help Syrian children into education in Syria, Jordan and Turkey.  For example, in Syria and Jordan Finland’s aid helped to repair 136 school buildings, enabling more than 70,000 children to get back to school, and delivered vocational education and training to 47,000 young people.

Watch a video about how aid from Finland has helped Syrian children to go to school in Jordan: https://youtu.be/HMkxW62v3q4

Inquiries: Tarja Fernández, Finland’s Ambassador to Beirut, tel. +961 76 008 550 and Matti Karvanen, Official responsible for stabilisation assistance to Syria, tel. +358 295 351 806.

The Foreign Ministry's email addresses are of the format [email protected].