The Kayany Foundation was founded in response to the growing needs of Syrian refugee children in Lebanon. It provides aid and education to some of the most vulnerable children living in informal tented settlements (refugee camps) in an effort to save a whole generation at risk.
In the summer of 2017 at the height of the Syrian the mindseye team, Anthony Dawton, Jim McFarlane and cameraman Jon Webb entered several of the refugee camps set up in the Bekka Valley for Syrian refugees by the Kayany Foundation. A foundation headed up by the indefatigable Nora Joumblatt.
What we saw was difficult: ramshackle tents made up of various scavenged material and cardboard with three or four generation families living in one tent. Under normal circumstances these conditions would give rise to a distressed and demoralised camps but the ‘makeshift’ schools (essentially converted containers) set up next to the camps had instilled a sense of hope and relief that no matter what the future held for them, their children would be educated and well prepared to make their way in the world. The positive atmosphere that daily school brought was reflected in the pride with which parents prepared their children for school each morning: clean clothes (no easy thing in a refugee camp), brushed hair and an insistence on punctuality. As for the children, this photographer was nearly knocked to the ground by the joyful ‘stampede’ of children that came through the school gates at the start of the day!
