Many Syrian refugee children often know their country only as a place of war and blood. That's why a fellow refugee named Jassem wants to teach children about Syrian history and heritage - through puppet shows.
A small tent and some puppets bring Syrian refugee children from a village in northern Lebanon into a magical world where they can discover the history of Syria.
The shows are staged by Jassem, a Syrian refugee himself. He uses puppets to bring back to life the rich heritage of his country for the children, who laugh and shout questions throughout the show about a homeland that most of them do not remember.
Children 'are the future of Syria'
UNHCR has told Jassem's story on its website, which notes that the ''28-year-old former physical education teacher came to Lebanon as a refugee in 2011 having fled insecurity in Raqqa, settling first in the capital Beirut before moving to Nakhle village in the northern district of Koura. He said he and fellow refugees began putting on the puppet shows when they realized how little Syrian children in Lebanon knew about their own country.''
"Many Syrian children were born or raised away from home. All they know about Syria is war and bloodshed," he explained. "You feel like they don't have a sense of belonging to Syria, but those children are the future of the country - how will they rebuild if they know nothing about it?"
The initiative was born out of Jassem's voluntary work, which began when he moved to Koura and became an outreach volunteer for UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency. Working with vulnerable refugee families, coupled with his teaching background, led him to identify a need to help young Syrians with their education, the website noted.
"As well as the puppet show, Jassem and other volunteers also run morning classes three times a week for Syrian children enrolled in Lebanese public schools. The lessons focus mainly on Arabic and French language skills, and having started out helping a handful of neighborhood kids, the classes have now grown to almost 50 pupils,'' it said.
Telling of Syria through puppets
Lebanon hosts 976,000 registered refugees from Syria's conflict, now in its eighth year. More than half of them are children. Across the region, more than a million refugee children were born after the outbreak of war, meaning they have known nothing but conflict or exile.
During the show, Jassem introduces the youngsters to Syria's 14 governorates and their specific traditions and histories, including folk dances and major monuments such as the Umayyad Mosque in Damascus. The children are engrossed, but the strongest response often comes from the parents, the UNHCR website said.
''As we perform the play, we are often affected by the emotional reaction of parents, who burst into tears as they recall their memories of Syria," Jassem said. "This usually triggers a discussion between parents and their children about the heritage and cultures of their hometowns."