{"id":5883,"date":"2019-08-30T10:28:18","date_gmt":"2019-08-30T08:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/?page_id=5883"},"modified":"2023-05-31T12:26:52","modified_gmt":"2023-05-31T10:26:52","slug":"mohamad-al-jounde","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/advocacy\/winners\/mohamad-al-jounde\/","title":{"rendered":"2017 &#8211; Mohamad Al Jounde (16), Syria"},"content":{"rendered":"<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"350\" src=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Mohamad_profielfoto-Ys-600x600-1-e1582287107378-560x350.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;The future is unknown, so I&#8217;m focusing on what I can do now.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2 class=\"longread-factsheet__title\">Almost half of 500,000 Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon can&#8217;t go to school<\/h2>\n<h4><strong>Mohamad&#8217;s impact<\/strong><\/h4>\n<ul>\n<li>Mohamad and his family built a school in a refugee camp in Lebanon<\/li>\n<li>This school now teaches 200 refugee children<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Mohamad&#8217;s story<\/h2>\n<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"700\" src=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/syria-longread-v2_0-560x700.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<p>Mohamad, 16 years old, grew up in Syria, but fled for Lebanon when life became too dangerous at home. Like thousands of other refugee children in the country, he couldn\u2019t go to school, so he set out to make a difference for children in the same situation. Together with his family,\u00a0<strong>Mohamad built a school in a refugee camp\u00a0<\/strong>where 200 children now access their right to an education. At the age of 12, he already\u00a0was teaching math and photography. He helps children to heal, learn and have fun with games and photography. Mohamad is a natural storyteller, raising awareness about the challenges facing refugee children by<br \/>\nbringing their stories to a wider audience.<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"embedded-media embedded-media_YouTube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Lifestory Mohamad Al Jounde, winner of the International Children&#039;s Peace Prize 2017\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/mIYa3LQEKYk?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0&#038;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>Having to flee from Syria<\/h2>\n<p>Mohamad\u2019s parents, active in the Syrian revolution, brought him up to be politically aware. When he was 12, Mohamad\u2019s home town saw the arrival of refugees from war-torn Homs and Hama, and he was moved to help the children that had left everything behind. Mohamad took part in a workshop about helping children traumatized by war by offering them psychosocial support through friendly play.<\/p>\n<p>Not long after,\u00a0<strong>Mohamad became a refugee himself.<\/strong>\u00a0His mother was arrested and detained twice, and when they received a threat that she would be killed by the regime, his family had to pack their belongings and disappear without saying goodbye.<\/p>\n<h2>From Lebanon to Sweden<\/h2>\n<p>After a long journey they arrived in Aley, near Beirut in Lebanon. They couldn\u2019t find work in Lebanon, so Mohamad\u2019s father, fleeing by boat via Greece, sought asylum in Sweden. Back in Lebanon, Mohamad, his sister and mother struggled with poverty, but they\u00a0<strong>never lost their will to help others<\/strong>\u00a0more desperate than themselves.\u00a0Family reunification was recently granted by Sweden, three years after Mohamad last saw his father.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;There was no opportunity for me to go to school, and I wanted to do everything I could to make sure this would not happen to the younger children.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h2>Mohamed&#8217;s action<\/h2>\n<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"368\" src=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/screenshot-10-560x368.png\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<h2>Building a school, building a future<\/h2>\n<p>For his first two years in Lebanon, Mohamad couldn\u2019t go to school. It was a struggle, but rather than defeat him, it fueled his will to<strong>\u00a0fight for a better future<\/strong>, for himself and for his peers. Together with his family, Mohamad started a school for Syrian children in a refugee camp. He\u00a0<strong>built it with his own hands<\/strong>\u00a0and at the age of 12,\u00a0he was teaching math and photography. When the government decided to remove the refugee camp, the school was destroyed. But it was rebuilt professionally, and staffed with formal teachers. It now teaches 200 children, who\u00a0after completing two years can move on to the formal Lebanese school system.<\/p>\n<h2> A picture says more than a thousand words<\/h2>\n<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"373\" src=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Jarahiyya-Collection-Friends-1-560x373.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<p>Mohamad draws on his biggest passions, photography and film making, to tell the stories of his fellow refugee children in all their diversity. He teaches photography, and encourages children to take photos of their daily lives. Drawing on his earlier training and on his own experiences, Mohamad encourages them to\u00a0<strong>express themselves<\/strong>\u00a0and to\u00a0<strong>process their trauma<\/strong>.\u00a0<em>\u201cChildren are hiding their stories inside,\u201d<\/em>\u00a0he says.\u00a0<em>\u201cIt takes trust to get them out.\u201d<\/em>\u00a0Living in the here and now can be a great help. The refugee children who Mohamad works with harbor painful memories of war, they miss family members, their friends and hobbies, and are afraid to start all over again. Mohamad creates opportunities for them to interact with other children from both Syria and Lebanon.<\/p>\n<h2>The International Children&#8217;s Peace Prize 2017<\/h2>\n<p><div class=\"embedded-media embedded-media_YouTube\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"International Children&#039;s Peace Prize 2017 Award Ceremony Highlights\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/ponDT7DYLO4?feature=oembed&#038;rel=0&#038;wmode=opaque\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<h2>KidsRights &amp; Mohamad<\/h2>\n<img decoding=\"async\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" src=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/9\/2019\/09\/Mohamad-met-kids-2-560x315.jpg\" class=\"attachment-medium size-medium\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" \/>\n<p>Supported by the KidsRights Care and Study Fund, Mohamad&#8217;s education will be funded. KidsRights is proud to, with your help, empower Mohamad as a global\u00a0<em><strong>changemaker<\/strong><\/em>\u00a0the rights of refugee children.<\/p>\n<p><strong>You can help changemakers like Mohamad!<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>You can contribute to the work of our changemakers and help them improve the position of children worldwide.<\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/donate.kidsrights.org\/en\">Support them by donating here.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The future is unknown, so I&#8217;m focusing on what I can do now.&#8221; Almost half of 500,000 Syrian refugee children living in Lebanon can&#8217;t go to school Mohamad&#8217;s impact Mohamad and his family built a school in a refugee camp in Lebanon This school now teaches 200 refugee children Mohamad&#8217;s story Mohamad, 16 years old, &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/archived.kidsrights.webkey8.nl\/uk\/advocacy\/winners\/mohamad-al-jounde\/\">Continued<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"parent":5693,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"templates\/pt-sections-subnav.php","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5883","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.7 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>2017 - Mohamad Al Jounde (16), Syria - Kidsrights UK<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"2017 - Mohamad Al Jounde (16), Syria - Kidsrights UK\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&#8220;The future is unknown, so I&#8217;m focusing on what I can do now.&#8221; 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