Summer School for Children to Positively Invest Their Time

This report is also available in Arabic and Spanish.

Report by Lama Halawi

Photographer Ibrahim Ibrahim Melhem

Syria Office

Given the importance of delivering child education that differs from the winter school routine, MECC organized a summer school for 250 students who were aged between 6 and 13 in Al Asieh School in Jaramana in Rural Damascus.

The summer school targeted students with poor academic attainment and those affected by Syrian crisis in addition to the children who lost one of their parents or are experiencing dysfunctional families in order to help all of them to release their stress and social and educational pressures.

The summer school included interactive educational activities including English language, Arabic language, mathematics and mental math, sports, theatre, music, handmade crafts in addition to weekly psychosocial sessions.

All participants received school kits including school bag and stationery.

MECC PSS Officer, Ms. Lamis Nayfeh, said,” The main objective of the summer school is to provide psychosocial support to children in a safe environment in order to help them relieve their stress after experiencing hard times in addition to assisting them to discover their talents and investing their time positively. The summer school supported children so they can manage their time in addition to giving them an opportunity to make new friendships and learn new useful things”.

She added,” The summer school was entitled ‘Rainbow”. It included a variety of activities every week such as sports, theatre, music, dancing, handmade crafts in addition to psychosocial sessions, English and Arabic languages classes, math and mental math classes. The adopted teaching methods were very interactive and differed completely from the winter school routine”.

She stressed that,” The atmosphere was interactive, fun, joyous and full of enthusiasm thanks to the safe space provided to all children. This helped them express their feelings and release their energy. Because of the love, care and attention provided by the PSS team and activities facilitators in the summer school; we noticed a good improvement in children that were suffering from some behavioral problems and facing difficulty in dealing with their peers. The close follow- up helped in improving their interaction with their friends, teachers and even families. It was a really noticeable improvement.”

One of the participant students in the summer school said,” The summer vacation is usually boring and monotonous. However, this year, the vacation was very interesting because I participated in the summer school that included various activities such as sports, music, mental math in a fun and interesting way. I benefited a lot from the PSS sessions as we learned how to communicate with each other and solve our problems non-violently and learned our rights as children. I started immediately to apply all the learned information at home with my family and little sister who also was a participant in the summer school. She enjoyed the experience of the summer school a lot and used to tell me every day about the activities she had in the summer school”.

MECC team implemented positive parenting sessions for the mothers of children who participated in the summer schools. The sessions addressed positive parenting, correct methodology in dealing with stress and self-care, age specific characteristics, effective communication and problem solving in order to improve their relationship with their children and families.

70 mothers were able to break their daily monotonous routine through engaging in a new positive activity. MECC team had a feedback meeting later with the participant mothers to learn their experience in applying the learned information with their children.

One of the mothers said,” I am a mother of two children who are 7 and 11 years old. I benefited a lot from the PSS sessions. My behavior has changed by 99%. I became calmer after I used to be stressed all the time. I used to scream, cry and get angry if my children do anything wrong. I hope I can take part once again in similar courses as, thanks to this PSS, I became more relaxed and able to help my family and myself”.

“I became friends with my children. I am no longer nervous when dealing with them. The change was so evident that my mother was surprised. My children’s behavior changed as well after participating in the summer school. Nowadays, they communicate with each other quietly without screaming or getting angry; particularity my younger child who changed his violent behavior when dealing with his brother and others. Thank you very much for the summer school and for the mother’s PSS training.”

It is noted that the summer school teachers and PSS facilitators had a training on the basics of PSS and child protection before launching the summer school. The facilitators attended as well an additional training including practical sessions to improve their hands on experience so they can provide the most appropriate PSS to children.