By donating to our Community Centre, you're helping us to provide Education for All.
The Community Centre
Salam LADC provides Education, Social Stability and Livelihood activities to both Children and Adults through the Community Centre (CC). Classes are taught by a mixture of local staff from the communities that we serve, and international volunteers.
The CC is located in Saadnayel, Central Bekaa. It was founded in 2017 with the central aim of providing high-quality, accessible education for all, whilst creating dialogue between the Lebanese, Syrian and Palestinian communities living in the area.
Currently, there are over 700 students registered in classes at the Community Centre, ranging in age from 2 to over 60 years old.
Programmes offered include:
- Basic Arabic Literacy and Numeracy for out-of-school children
- English as a Second Language and French as a Second Language for children and adults
- Early Childhood Education for 2 to 5-year-olds
- Literacy for adult women
- Extracurricular activities including Art, Cinema Club, Dabke, Skating, Yoga and Music
- Vocational training courses including carpentry, electrics and sewing.
Why It Matters
Unfortunately, finding funding for the CC is an ongoing struggle. Twelve years after the start of the war in Syria and four years after the start of Lebanon’s economic crisis, attention has shifted away from this region.
Meanwhile, the CC and its programmes are more necessary than ever. According to UNICEF (2023), around 700,000 school-aged children are not in school. Although every child in Lebanon has the legal right to a free primary school education, overcrowded and oversubscribed public schools, complex registration procedures for refugees, high transportation costs and the need for child labour income prevent countless children from receiving education.
With almost 80% of people in Lebanon now living in poverty, most cannot afford to attend school unless it is within walking distance of their home. Since there is no public school within walking distance of the Salam LADC Community Centre, the CC is the only option for many families to educate their children.
As well as meeting the educational needs of children and adults in the area, the CC serves as a neutral space where people from different communities can come together and grow in understanding. The worsening economic situation and increased competition for jobs and resources pose a serious threat to social stability, especially here in Bekaa, where tensions between refugees and local Lebanese people are higher than in any other region of the country. Since it opened six years ago, we have seen a marked difference in the relationship between refugees and the host community in the neighbourhood surrounding the CC.
We Need Your Help
We want to continue serving the communities here for as long as they need us. The Community Centre is now reaching more people, with more activities, than ever before. But even as the demand for our services has increased, our funding has decreased.
If, like us, you believe that everyone has the right to an education, please donate today. Even $1 makes a difference!
Thank you for your support!
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