A new opportunity for Zahra's daughters
Zahra (26) is a mother of four children (two boys and two girls) who were all born in Lebanon. The mother came with her family to Lebanon in 2013 where she met Rami, her husband, and got married in 2014; they live in Saida and got the chance to know the “Back to the Future” program from their surrounding community and AVSI’s community liaison staff.
I learn from home
In December 2019 the family approached ‘Back to the Future’ center, located in Saida at al Moasat Institute, seeking educational opportunities for their children. Khadija (5) and Israa (4) then started attending the Community Based Early Childhood Education activity (CB-ECE), until the Lebanese government declared a state of emergency due to the COVID19 virus spread, by the end of February 2020.
After the declaration of a pandemic and the total lockdown of all educational platforms, since May 2020 the BTTF2 project adapted “I Learn From Home” remote distant learning program in collaboration with Seenaryo, where caregivers are reached routinely with interactive educational lessons through the different WhatsApp groups, in order to support and help provide education for their children.
Learning to improve
Two years ago, the family discovered that Israa has a speaking impairment which identified her as a student with special needs. Therefore, thanks to the services currently provided by BTTF2 project and their local partner Al Moasat Association, Israa started attending speech and occupational therapy sessions.
With COVID-29 pandemic and the national lockdown, the two siblings started attending distant CB-ECE classes with BTF since May 2020, in addition to one to one remote educational support by AVSI inclusion officer.
The girls have shown remarkable improvement through remote learning, and they are regularly applying the workbook exercises, sometimes without their mother’s help. Israa started to pronounce few letters which were difficult to pronounce before; on the other handKhadija was very shy and would barely participate nor speak to her classmates and her teacher. However, with the remote learning Khadija is showing a lot of interest, enthusiasm and character.
When we asked the mother what was the change that she noticed after her two daughters started their involvement in back to the future project, she replied: “Before I found out about your program my daughters used to spend most of their time doing nothing but watching TV, especially Sally who is in need for educational support; however, after they started coming to the BTTF center their lives changed, they became motivated and interested, it gave them the opportunity of meeting a lot of friends.
Currently in this distance learning, their progress is noticeable and it makes me happy each time I see them growing. Thank you for changing my daughters’ lives”.
"Back to the Future" is funded by European Union in Lebanon, through the EU Regional Trust Fund in response to the Syrian crisis, the EU Madad Fund, and implemented in partnership by AVSI, Terre des hommes Italy in Lebanon and War Child Holland in Lebanon.