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Syrian kids don't get to have a childhood. Who's going to help?

Kids from the war-torn country are not getting admission into schools. Why does the world have so much apathy?

I have heard this sentence too many times from my friends in the UAE: "The news is too depressing". I get it, there are so many 'bad things' happening around the world and people are tired of consuming bleak news 24/7. But you know who doesn't share this mindset? The Syrians who are living in tents, their children who wonder when they'll go to school again, and those of them who risked their lives to cross the Mediterranean Sea. They don't have the luxury of tuning out the news.
I've been covering the impact the Syrian war has had on families for a while now, specifically those living in the UAE. Thanks to the support of the UAE government, several of these families have rebuilt a happy home here. Some still struggle to glue together the broken pieces of their lives.
Last year, I reported on six Syrian children from two families who hadn't been to school in more than two years. I covered this story from at least four different angles in a span of three months and made two videos before a school finally offered to help them.
Today, they are happily going to school and are learning again free of cost. However, after that story appeared, an influx of Syrian parents in the UAE started messaging about how their kids are also stuck in a similar situation (so far four families with 12 children have gotten in touch). I already knew what a big problem this was. Charitable schools had told me that they had more than 2,000 children on their waiting lists. These families cannot afford the tuition fees of private schooling. Hence, their kids just stay home, often for several years.
Khaleej Times has covered their stories on a regular basis. The new school year is going to start in September and none of the kids have got a confirmation about their admissions. One charitable school is expanding to host 700 more students. But they already have 1,500 students on wait lists. Some of these children are turning 18 and are worried they won't have the opportunity to complete their education.
Thousands of Syrians, Palestinians, Yemenis, Iraqis and children from other war-torn countries are already getting an education, thanks to the charity schools that have been set up by the UAE. These include schools such as The National Charity School in Ajman, Dubai and Sharjah, as well as the Al Ahlia Charity School for Girls in Ajman and the Manar Al Eman Charity School in Ajman.
But as more people leave their war-torn countries to seek refuge in the UAE, they are struggling to find seats for their kids in schools due to the high volume of children already attending.
I did the most I could as a journalist - I gave them a voice, told their stories and sent the newspaper to countless schools and residents. The understandably worried parents constantly look for avenues to support their children and reach out to everybody they can, asking for help. Journalists start losing ways to tell their stories. The same one told repeatedly, begins to lose readers. We become desensitised.
This situation is a reality wherever these survivors have landed throughout the world. Wave after wave of families arrive, many shattered, and hoping for succour and relief.
Children whose childhood starts to be defined by the conflict in their home countries and those who don't receive even an education, might carry the trauma and anger as adults - not good contributing traits to any society they choose to later settle in.
I've been asked why I don't focus on the "problems of your own country," Pakistan, which I find absurd. If every journalist started 'focusing' on the problems of their own countries, who would tell the stories of countries where so many journalists are losing their lives?
Meanwhile, the kids are all waiting for a miracle. I've heard many of those happen in the UAE.
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com
Sarwat believes that education is a fundamental right for all