Through its various local charities, Qatar is making strides to provide an education to disadvantged children in Qatar and across the world.
For the ongoing 2023–24 academic year, Qatar Charity (QC) has launched the ‘Education Makes it Possible’ campaign to support educational projects within and outside of Qatar, aiming to benefit at least 100,000 students in 38 countries worldwide.
According to QC, the campaign supports children’s right to education, which is one of QC’s strategic areas of work, at a time when the number of those deprived of basic education is on the rise in many regions across the globe, especially in countries going through crises and natural disasters.
The countries targeted by the campaign include:
Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Somalia, South Africa, Sudan, Tanzania, The Gambia, Togo, Tunisia
Middle East: Jordan, Lebanon, Palestine, Turkiye, Yemen
Asia: Bangladesh, Indonesia, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Sri Lanka
Europe: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro
With the ‘Education Makes it Possible’ campaign and through education, QC hopes to make it possible for children to improve their quality of life and economic or financial status, and have successful futures.
The campaign covers the costs of school bags, school uniforms, and laptops, as well as tuition fees. Additionally, bicycles will be provided to students in Yemen, and scholarships will be offered to students in Djibouti and The Gambia.
Moreover, the campaign includes building, maintaining, and rehabilitating 66 primary and secondary schools and vocational training centres.
Within Qatar, under the campaign, the charity will implement educational projects for orphaned students and students from low-income families. These projects include providing school bags, school uniforms, and laptops, as well as covering tuition fees, transportation fees and other expenses. A total of 4,510 students will benefit from these projects.
QC urges people in Qatar to support the ‘Education Makes it Possible’ campaign to help meet the basic educational needs of the students. This will allow them to improve their knowledge and understanding, assist them in improving their lives, contribute to the social, economic, and health development of their communities, and turn their harsh reality into a safer and more prosperous future. qcharity.org
In addition to QC, there are other local charity organisations working on providing education to children in need around the world. Education Above All (EAA) is the brainchild of founder HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, the consort of the Father Amir HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a long-time advocate for education. EAA seeks to transform the lives of millions of marginalised children and young people through education. To date, 59 countries, more than 49 implementing partners, and over 100 projects have joined their mission to transform the lives of over 16 mn children and youth through education. Together, they have secured more than QAR8 bn (USD2.2 bn) in funding to provide educational opportunities, technology-enabled resources, remote learning facilities, scholarships, and school seats for millions of the world’s Out of School Children (OOSC). educationaboveall.org
During 2014 to 2018, Qatar’s total spending on education and culture reached approximately QAR766 mn, which benefited nearly two and a half million people in 50 countries around the world. In 2022, Qatar approved its budget for the 2023 fiscal year, with particular focus on health and education sectors, announcing that these sectors will receive about 20% of spending in 2023.
In February 2023, the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) pledged USD20 mn to support the United Nations’ Education Cannot Wait (ECW) initiative. In cooperation with EAA, the donation will support children around the world who have been denied the right to access education due to crises in their home nations. The pledge is part of Qatar’s growing efforts to support education globally, particularly in the most vulnerable areas.
According to EAA, more than 72 mn children across the world are out of school due to poverty and marginilisation, with 59 mn of them being at primary school level and unable to receive an education.
In Qatar, EAA, in partnership with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs and the Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE), established two non-profit Ihsan Schools in 2019–20 to help provide an education to Arab and non-Arab expatriates who cannot afford to place their children in local schools. Addressing financial problems, and the age and educational gap faced by children in Qatar, the schools provide free education.
The first Ihsan School was established in Umm Ghuwailina in 2019. The second Ihsan School was established in Ras Bu Aboud in 2020. Each school can accommodate 800 students.
The first Ihsan School is for non-Arab communities in Qatar. Fully supported by Qatar Charity (QC) and Afif Charity, the second Ihsan School is for Arab expatriates in Qatar. The school adopts the Qatari curriculum of local public schools and is completely free of charge including school books, uniforms and other necessities. QC extends its support in various ways, including building educational facilities and training centres, and providing sponsors for students and teachers.
MoEHE provided the buildings for the school and provides many services such as maintenance, security and academic supervision, while the school’s board of trustees is concerned with appointing the teaching staff, school administration and other operational matters. The school buildings have been renovated and rehabilitated in the old traditional style. The cost of each school exceeded QAR4 mn, excluding maintenance, with the MoEHE covering most of the expenses.
Children’s Right to Education
A child’s right to education entails the right to learn. Every child has the right to learn.
Children are deprived of education and learning for various reasons. Poverty remains one of the most obstinate barriers. Children living through economic fragility, political instability, conflict or natural disaster are more likely to be cut off from schooling – as are those with disabilities, or from ethnic minorities. In some countries, education opportunities for girls remain severely limited.
Even in schools, a lack of trained teachers, inadequate education materials and poor infrastructure make learning difficult for many students. In many cases, students come to class hungry, ill or exhausted from work or household tasks to benefit from their lessons.
Compounding these inequities with digital divide is a growing concern. Some two thirds of the world’s school-aged children do not have internet connection in their homes, restricting their opportunities to further their learning and skills development.
According to UNICEF, without quality education, children face considerable barriers to employment and earning potential later in life. They are more likely to suffer adverse health outcomes and less likely to participate in decisions that affect them – threatening their ability to shape a better future for themselves and their societies.
Source: UNICEF
Author: Ola Diab
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