Mennonite Weekly Review

WEST BEIRUT, Lebanon — Nour Barkouk, a 15-year-old Palestinian refugee, wants to be a doctor.

Nour Barkouk and Ihsan Abozalam participate in MCC-supported remedial classes in West Beirut. — Photo by Ryan Rodrick Beiler/MCC

“That’s my dream,” said Nour, a ninth-grade student participating in remedial classes supported by Mennonite Central Committee. “I’m not afraid of failing, but I need high marks so that I can get into the university and be a doctor.”

Nour lives in a poverty-stricken home in the Tarek al Jadidah neighborhood in West Beirut. Her father died in 2009, and her mother is sick.

The youngest child in a family of four daughters, she hopes she will have the opportunity to study medicine and provide medical services in Palestinian refugee camps.

Nour is one of 90 students selected to participate in after-school remedial classes provided by Popular Aid for Relief and Development, or PARD, a long-standing MCC partner in Lebanon.

These students attend crowded schools in poor neighborhoods in West Beirut and in the Shatila refugee camp — a camp established in 1948 for Palestinians during the conflict that led to the founding of Israel, explained Ahmad Halimeh, co-founder of PARD.

After six decades, Palestinian families continue to live in the impoverished refugee camp, in Palestinian communities called “gatherings” or in poor neighborhoods. Students attend schools operated by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

“Without access to after-school support, students drop out of school,” Halimeh said. “If they complete high school, their marks are too low to meet entrance requirements of universities. Many people cannot afford private tutors.”

PARD has been offering remedial classes since 2000, said Halimeh, but PARD has limited financial resources and can only accept a small percentage of students who want to participate in classes.

In March the remedial classes became part of MCC’s Global Family education sponsorship program. PARD has now expanded its program, formerly for grades seven to nine, to include remedial education for Palestinian and Lebanese children, ages 6 to 13, in West Beirut and south Lebanon.