The first day of school can be a little intimidating for any child, but this year it was even more so for Ahmed, 11, and his sister Sevin, 12. The start of the academic year marked the first time they had been in a formal classroom for three years.
\nAhmed and Sevin fled from Syria to Iraq with their parents in 2013. But their parents couldn\u2019t afford to send them to school.
\n\u201cSchool was too far away and we couldn\u2019t pay for transport,\u201d said their mother Azizar. \u201cMy husband can only get work as a day labourer, so he doesn\u2019t work full time.\u201d<\/p>\n
That changed this summer when Ahmed and Sevin were able to attend a mobile school which came to their village in Shawis, on the outskirts of Erbil.<\/p>\n
There are over 228,000 Syrian refugees in Iraq. UNICEF estimates that about 64,000 Syrian children in Iraq have had their education disrupted.<\/p>\n
With a generous contribution from the German Bank for Reconstruction (KfW), UNICEF partner INTERSOS equipped a van and two tents with supplies and teachers in two locations in Erbil.<\/strong> Both mobile schools operated in two daily shifts, with teachers hired from the community, and aimed to bridge the gaps for children who\u2019ve been out of school for a long time. \u201cWe played football together,\u201d Ahmed says, \u201cand I found out what is was like to be in school.\u201d \u201cI was nervous about the new environment at first, and I didn\u2019t like it, but when I made friends that changed,\u201d Sevin said. \u201cNow I like everything about my new school. I want to become a teacher.\u201d The first day of school can be a little intimidating for any child, but this year it was even more […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95442,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"give_campaign_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[679,678],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-95441","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\n\u201cAhmed didn\u2019t want to go to the mobile school at first, because he didn\u2019t know anybody,\u201d his mother said. \u201cHe felt alone because he didn\u2019t have any friends, but he went and he\u2019s comfortable now, and he made friends.\u201d<\/p>\n
\nAfter two months in the mobile school the children were ready for a formal classroom, and INTERSOS helped them to register at Bader Khan School in Shawis. The initial hurdle to the family, the cost of transportation, has been met by the programme and the children are picked up by bus.<\/p>\nOctober 1st was a big day for the family.<\/h4>\n
\n\u201cI\u2019m studying very hard,\u201d Ahmed says. \u201cI like Arabic and music and I\u2019m learning to play the tambour.\u201d
\n\u201cIt was an exciting day,\u201d Azizar said, \u201cBecause my children had been at home doing nothing, and now they will learn and becoming something in the future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"