Aleppo schools run by activist group move underground to avoid bombs
Children in conflicts, Education in emergencies
A damaged primary school after an airstrike in the opposition-controlled al-Ansari district of Aleppo last year
At the unofficial schools run bySyrian activist group Kesh Malek in opposition-held districts ofAleppo, the children don’t go outside to play during breaks incase a barrel bomb should drop from the sky.
With 110 teachers, most of them new to the profession, theorganisation runs seven schools serving around 3000 children inthe divided and war-ravaged city.
Syria’s largest city before the civil war, Aleppo is thescene of heavy bombardment as the Syrian army, backed by Russianair strikes, tries to encircle it and wrest control of therebel-held areas that are home to around 350,000 people.
Marcell Shehwaro, executive director of , said thegroup’s schools had closed for a holiday and had not re-openeddue to the intensified bombardment in recent days. She said shedid not know when they would re-open but had not lost hope.
“When working on education you feel how important it is thatthere is another generation and this generation needs to have achance, the chance to have education,” she told Reuters in aninterview in London.
“We are thinking short-term. Let us deal with the situationas it is now. If Aleppo is besieged tomorrow, we are going tofind a creative way to face that. It’s all about resistance.”
Kesh Malek has tried to locate its schools in basementssurrounded by high buildings – that present clear targets – toprovide some protection against aerial bombardments.
“Sometimes you feel ashamed of yourself, you are choosingplaces where others are going to be bombed and you aresurrounded by protection, their houses are protection,” saidShehwaro.
A former dentist who left the profession in 2010 to studypolitical science, she later became an early participant inprotests against President Bashar al-Assad that evolved into thecivil war that has killed at least 250,000 people across Syriaand driven 11 million from their homes.
A Christian, Shehwaroserves Aleppo’s Sunni Muslim community.The name Kesh Malek means checkmate, or defeat of the kingin chess, and refers to the group’s ideal of creating ademocratic republic in Syria rather than what it sees as Assad’sdictatorship.
The group started setting up schools in Aleppo in 2011, atfirst using normal school premises. But that changed after agovernment bombardment in April 2014 on the Ein Jalout school inthe city. Shehwaro said 23 children had died in that attack.
Two children whose school was bombed in Aleppo pose in a mock-up to symbolise a destroyed classroom set up by charity Save the Children outside the Houses of Parliament in London on February 3 – ahead of the
“The worst case scenario is he (Assad) is going to targetschools. Right now none of our schools have a yard. We don’thave sports or this kind of activity,” she said. “We replacethat with drawing and puppet shows and indoor activities.”
At first the schools were funded by the activists themselvesand their local supporters – but over time foreign donors haveoffered support. Shehwaro cited Catholic aid groups Pax Christiand Development and Peace as major sources of funding.
Nevertheless, the flow of funds is irregular and sometimesteachers go without their salaries of about $115 a month.
Shehwaro said the group was political but the children werenot exposed to political slogans or campaigns.
“We don’t want them to know about the revolution but wewant them to know they have rights,” she said.
Gender is a major focus for Shehwaro, who describes herselfas a feminist. Activities have included encouraging girls toformulate dreams for the future such as becoming a president ora carpenter, and one of the services on offer is home schoolingfor girls who married early.
Shehwaro said one of the difficulties was that 80% of the teachers were inexperienced and most of them were women who had little access to relevant training as most programmes available in Syria targeting women focused on areas like sewing or cooking.
“Let us break this view of Middle Eastern women … We should be enabling them in every sector they are trying to work in, not only what we assume is a sector they should work in.”
Another problem is the psychological strain of war, which requires traumatised teachers to find creative ways to talk to children about themes such as death, hatred, and the future.
“The teachers themselves are burnt out, the students are burnt out,” said Shehwaro.
“One of the teachers said to me, ‘why are we teaching children who are going to die next week?’ To me it’s harsh, but it has its own logic. They look at the children and imagine that they are going to be the next victims.”
The , the charitable arm of Thomson Reuters, covers humanitarian news, women’s rights, corruption and climate change.
More news
