Giving Compass' Take:

• The Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) as a well as a partnership between HP, Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), UNICEF and Google.org help Lebanon's public schools let more Syrian refugees get access to education. 

• What other services beyond schooling do refugees need access to? 

• Read the Giving Compass Guide for donors to address the refugee crisis. 

Every day begins the same for Marah, a 12-year-old girl living in Beirut. “At 8 o’clock, I have my breakfast. I spend some time with my family, while they are having their coffee. Then I prepare myself for school and I prepare my bag,” she says.

Four years ago, her family were uprooted by the warfare that has ravaged Syria, sending five million refugees over that country’s borders in search of safety and creating one of the largest humanitarian crises on the planet. Nearly one million Syrian refugees now live in neighboring Lebanon — including the current 130,000 school-aged children with no school to go to or lack the transportation needed to get them to one.

Marah was among a generation of Syrian children whose education was interrupted by war.All across the refugee settlements of Lebanon, Syrian parents shared the same worry.

It takes many years before those in a major, protracted refugee situations are repatriated to their country of origin, and a generation of young Syrians are at risk of growing up without the basic human right of an education.

But now Marah and thousands of students like her are back in the classroom. Lebanon’s Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE), along with the support of institutional donors and foreign governmental aid, extended the school day and last year were able enroll 200,000 non-Lebanese students in both morning and “second” shifts at school.

An innovative partnership between HP, Clooney Foundation for Justice (CFJ), UNICEF and Google.org provides additional support for public schools and students across Lebanon, from Beirut to the Beqaa Valley. Currently, HP technology is being used in nine schools and will reach around 3,500 Syrian refugee students, as well as thousands of Lebanese students and teachers in the first year of the program.

Read the full article about educating Syrian refugee children from HP Garage Blog at TriplePundit