The Nour Center was founded in 2013 to meet the educational needs of newly arrived Syrian children and families in Burj al Barajneh. Surveys for the 2017-18 school estimated that between 50-60% of Syrian children living in Lebanon were not attending school. The numbers have increased nowadays because of the economic crisis that Lebanon is passing through. Additionally, many of those newly arrived families bring with them stories of war and displacement. There is a critical need for safe and supportive environments within their receiving community, and the Nour Center was founded with that intention.

We believe that the Nour Center, targeted towards children and youth who are otherwise unable to go to school, is a fundamental part of the development and well-being of our community. On an individual level, students at the Nour Center are able to develop their personal competencies and interpersonal skills at an early age. On a community level, students learn about their rights and responsibilities to each other and their larger communities.

In these past years, the Nour Center has expanded from an initial class of 25 students to now serving over 200 students each day. At the Nour Center we work on empowering children and youth (aged 5-24) to reclaim their education and their future. We believe that education has the power to transform lives. The aim and intention of this project is to give each child the care and education they need in their early years, and to provide students who have been out of school the opportunity to re-enter an educational setting that recognizes their unique experiences. At the Nour Center, we work each day to build a healthy and strong generation of young people, helping parents and children to realize their full potentials within a challenging environment.

Our rights-based learning is introduced and reinforced through daily curriculum based in Arabic, English and math lessons, life skills sessions based around health and hygiene, in addition to indoor and outdoor activities that challenge and develop the child’s creativity, imagination, thinking skills, and social skills.