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Safe Places To Learn

Charity Theirworld is ensuring thousands of children in marginalised communities continue their education during COVID-19
Amal receives her Virtual Summer School activity pack at Bourj Hammoud School in Lebanon as part of a Theirworld project funded by our players (Photo credit: Theirworld / Adrian Hartrick)

Theirworld is a global children's education charity committed to ending the global education crisis. It strives to give every child in the world, regardless of their background, the best start in life and a safe place to learn and build skills for their future.

Even before COVID-19, the world was facing an education crisis, with 260 million children not in education. Thanks to the pandemic, this number has now increased to around a billion - more than 60% of the world's children - making the charity's work even more vital.

With the support of players of People's Postcode Lottery, Theirworld has helped to ensure that thousands of the most marginalised children continued their learning throughout the pandemic.

One of the projects Theirworld supported included distance video learning and home activities to families and caregivers of almost 20,000 children in Lebanon with learning differences and special needs. Others included distributing learning materials to children in Uganda and Tanzania who were unable to access online information because they could not afford an internet connection. It also provided virtual summer activity packs to more than 500 Syrian refugee children in Lebanon.

Groundbreaking Ideas

Alongside these projects, Theirworld has used funding from players of People's Postcode Lottery to:

  • Set up coding clubs for girls to enable them to become coders and entrepreneurs. To date, 1,300 girls and young women across Africa and the Middle East  have been trained in coding since the launch of Theirworld's Code Clubs in 2016.
  • Support refugees who had otherwise lost their dreams of running a business to enrol in a two-year MBA programme in partnership with Edinburgh Business School. In August, the students collected tablets that will allow them to access the bespoke learning platform and course materials for each of the MBA core courses.
  • Initiate the groundbreaking idea of the double-shift system in Lebanese schools, where Lebanese children go to school in the morning and Syrian refugee children in the afternoon, using the same schools, teachers and curricula. This has helped to provide education to more than 300,000 vulnerable and Syrian refugee children.
  • Deliver training workshops to more than 1,000 teachers and counsellors to help them support almost 5,000 refugee children facing emotional difficulties or post-traumatic stress because of experiences in their home country's conflict.

Theirworld combines grassroots projects and campaigning with advocacy at the highest level to unlock change for marginalised children. This month, as global leaders prepared to meet virtually at the United Nations General Assembly, it launched a campaign to highlight the inequalities at the heart of the education crisis.

Deserving Causes

It's not only superb charities like Theirworld that have received support. Find out more about some of the other amazing causes our players have raised over £600 Million for so far!

Published: 28/09/2020

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