The community and friends overseas allowed SB with the opportunity to raise awareness on the need of education to displaced children, giving them their childhood back whilst learning, reading and discovering the world that surrounds them.

SB OverSeas is thankful to everyone of them and is developing a new, visual, product to track where all the Give Hopers are! This tool will help not only to visualise the supporters but will be also be an opportunity to show to the community in Lebanon, all of those who sustain their right to education!

People from all around the globe are sharing the vision of SB OverSeas. A vision to provide education to everyone. There is an entire generation of school-age children who have been displaced due to the Syrian conflict and therefore not having access to key years of school. Having the opportunity to see a classroom again means having hope for their future and self-development. Here how the map looks like. Explore where SB supporters are!

Want to added to the map? Tag SB OverSeas in a photo on Facebook or send an email at hq.communications@sboverseas.org.

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Thanks to SB Espoir, every Saturday and Sunday, unaccompanied minors and young refugees living in the centres can meet and interact with SB Volunteers, who come from a variety of different backgrounds, some being students, others being from the EU institutions and others working in the corporate world. This allows them to exchange their experiences and be exposed to different lifestyles.

Thanks to the partnerships developed, SB OverSeas has been able to offer as part of this project a variety of interesting and unique workshops,  such as chocolate-making , bicycle repairing and a photography workshop given by a professional photographer on the surroundings of the city. Throughout these experiences in the hosting community, young people learn not only about their new home, but they also have the opportunity to discover their interests and passions. All of which is an essential part of their ownself-development.

Since 2016, this project has shown positive results with regard to the relationships between the youth and SB Volunteers. Sometimes the youngsters living in the centres do not know each other, do not know their names or nationalities, their stories. In this way, the activities of SB Espoir is crucial as it encourages participation amongst the youth ultimately boosting the sense of solidarity and community. Every weekend, SB OverSeas aims to not only foster integration and self-confidence, but also to provide a feeling of  ‘home’ to those young people  who may feel alone and remind them that they are not!

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According to United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), Lebanon hosts 12 refugee camps in total, howeverShatila seems to be well-known due its harsh living conditions. Environmental and health conditions in this refugee camp are reported to be extremely bad. Shelters are often overcrowded,  lack basic infrastructure and security measures. Dangling electric wires, open drains and an overloaded sewerage system are the norms here.

 SB OverSeas works on the ground in Lebanon to provide education, empowerment and aid to displaced people fleeing conflict. One of the SB schools is located within the proximity of the Shatila camp and provides education to its inhabitants. SB runs a Volunteer Programme which allows young people to teach English in its catch-up schools and have the opportunity to help SB OverSeas with its mission of helping those displaced people in need.

One of SB OverSeas volunteer, Barney, wrote about his experiences in Shatila camp:   “From the west-facing windows of SB Overseas’ apartment for Lebanon volunteers in Beirut, you can survey the jumbled sprawl of the Shatila refugee camp, between the school and the sea..” Read the full story here.

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In 2018, the Syrian war reached its seventh year. In the longer term, this young generation, who should be the ones rebuilding Syria, will be a “lost generation”. A generation deprived of the right to education, a right recognized by the United Nations Convention of Human Rights.

Barriers to education are a reality and can either be financial or logistical in nature. Lack of legal permits, high school fees, and transportation costs all constitute as barriers to education.  This, as well as their financial situation, leaves them vulnerable to exploitation, and children often work, losing precious days of education, which ultimately means losing their childhood and the opportunity to develop. Their childhood is then restricted to helping their parents and their family survive. Adolescent girls are amongst the most vulnerable categories, highly exposed to exploitation and other forms of abuse.

In order to prevent a so-called ‘lost generation’ from happening, SB OverSeas , an NGO working in Belgium and Lebanon,  provides catch-up schools in the most disadvantaged areas populated by refugee populations. Attending these schools grants these children the opportunity to prepare for the entrance exam tests and be admitted into the Lebanese education system. This year, the“Give Hope” campaign will be launched the 4^th April and set a more ambitious target of 1,400 children accessing education.

Louma Albik, Chairwoman of SB OverSeas, calls on the entire community in Brussels to contribute: “By joining this campaign, people can play an active role in supporting access to education and giving hope for a better future to the hundreds of students we support in our schools.” SB OverSeas invites everyone to join this solidarity movement on social media with the hashtag #GiveHope and tagging SB OverSeas.

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“Spring usually doesn’t knock”, said the Italian song-writer Fabrizio de André, “she enters resolutely”. The tiny square shines, the sun illuminates the colorful mosaics on the floor. Place St- Denis is full of surprises. There is no need to look up to the clear sky, just look to the ground, to your feet, from the roots where it all begins. You will find mosaics depicting a smile, a child carrying a kite, a family holding hands.

A stones throw away from the square, there is the SB OverSeas headquarter, a Belgian NGO found in 2013 whose mission is to help refugees in Lebanon and Belgium.  After the outbreak of the Syrian war, Lebanon found itself hosting more than 1 million refugees, the largest number per capita in the world. According to the latest UNHCR data, approximately more than half of the 500,000 school-age Syrian children registered in Lebanon are not enrolled in formal education. The families fled Syria to seek peace but found themselves without documents, necessities nor hope, once they arrived in Lebanese territory.

SB OverSeas and Louma Albik, its founder, could not stand back in the face of this humanitarian emergency and garnered all her network and resources to help those most in need. Through the team on the ground, they started to set-up schools, which offer the opportunity for these displaced children to catch-up in order to enter the Lebanese educational system. Most of the time, refugee children are not entering a classroom for a long time, almost seven years in some cases. Often displaced, they miss key years of education and most do not have a basic level of literacy.  SB OverSeas runs three non-formal schools and womens’ centers in Beirut, Saida and Aarsal in order to bridge this educational gap.

The daily work of SB OverSeas’ team on the ground concentrates on education, empowerment of women and humanitarian aid. The NGO works to prevent a lost generation, child marriage and the exploitation of refugee children who are vulnerable in this situation. To provide humanitarian aid to the camps, every three months, SB OverSeas collects goods in its warehouse in Forest, Brussels which then reach thousands of families in Lebanon providing them with clothes and essential goods.

Humanity is one of the main principles of SB OverSeas and in this spirit, we work in Belgium.  After having been present in Parc Maximilien in 2015, SB OverSeas and its team of volunteers organise activities for unaccompanied minors during the weekends in the refugee centers in Uccle and Noord-Heer-Ovembeek. « SB Espoir », which translates as SB Hope and is the name of the program, aims to bring this hope to these young people by helping them to integrate into the host community through activities and share experiences to realize what bonds them as humans. Young people from different countries, learn to explore different ways of entering this new society: they attend chocolate-making courses, learn how to fix bikes, play team-building activities all the while learning how to share their thoughts constructively, listen to others and embrace the value of diversity.

SB OverSeas believes in a culture of integration through the increasing the awareness and the value of citizenship amongst the younger generations. Its work in Belgium is essential and complementary to their efforts in Lebanon with the goal of giving hope to children, families and supporting women in shaping their own future. SB OverSeas gives hope and whispers in their ears “tomorrow will be better”.

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