Vocational school in Lebanon offers hope of economic liberation

Mennonite Central Committee
Saturday, 8 April 2000

SIDON, Lebanon --Stuck in the stifling confines of a Palestinian refugee camp here, students of Salaam School are learning vocational skills to help them achieve some economic liberation.

The school offers courses, from four months to one year, in Arabic literacy, English, radio and television repair, barbering, hairdressing, computers and typing. Half the students are women.

Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) has been the major supporter of the school, located in Ain El-Helweh refugee camp, since its inception in 1983. MCC's Lebanon program grants $15,000 Cdn./$10,000 U.S. to the school each year.

A further $7,500 Cdn/$5,000 U.S. comes from Global Family, MCC's sponsorship program. Global Family sponsors help pay the cost of tuition fees, books, and supplies for those who can't afford the full price.

Most Palestinians living in Lebanon fled there after the 1948 creation of the state of Israel. Many jobs, like teaching, engineering and banking, are off-limits for them. "So we have to select jobs in which young men and women can work without permission from the Lebanese government," says school director, Khalid Miaari.

While Salaam School doesn't provide a quick fix to unemployment problems--which are serious in all of Lebanon, and worsening for Palestinians--it fills a niche. "We are the only center here [in Ain El-Helweh] doing these vocations," says Miaari. "So Salaam School program is very, very important."

Still in recent years, Miaari says only about a third of graduates have found good, full-time work.

Nisreen Hussein, 20, is one of 110 students currently studying at Salaam School. She is learning computer skills and hopes to find work as a secretary or typist once her studies end later this year. Prior to this, she completed only four years of formal schooling. She says now she at least has hope of finding work. If nothing else, she'll do typing projects from her home.

"We are not solving problems for the Palestinians," says Miaari. "But we are giving them some hope."

For more information, or to contact Mennonite Central Committee, see their website at: www.mcc.org