Dear friends,

« I will stay in Syria, even though our life is terrible, because I want to teach the values of my people to the children of my country! » Myriam is 24 years old. Law student at the University of Latakia, she works hard to become a lawyer. This does not stop her from getting involved in one of the four educational centres of Mission Enfance in Syria. Every day, 1.200 children, displaced from war zones, especially from Raqqa, come to seek an essential school reinforcement to make up for the many years of school break. Their traumas are taken into account, their misery also… Our teachers are almost all students. Together, they decided to give their time, their energy to transmit their knowledge and listen to these children.

In Damascus, Charles, Lebanese archaeologist, coordinator of our association, teaches students of a high school in the Syrian capital the richness of their country’s heritage. Dumbfounded by its multi-millennial history, they understand how respect for its historic monuments is an integral part of human life.

The goodwill of this future Syrian generation who has the courage to stay to educate the most fragile of them is an encouragement for children. Relying on these young adults, we provide our educational support, constantly looking for the project that will reach the most isolated. School after school, pupil after student, Mission Enfance prepares a post-war period in which we want to believe.

Every day, Yazidi and Chaldean students from the Nineveh Plain in Iraq, still refugees in Erbil, Iraqi Kurdistan, make the round trip by bus to reach the one hundred and sixty kilometers that separate them from their camp to the University of Mosul. Their transportation being financed by Mission Enfance, they can devote themselves freely to their studies, even if the road is long and dangerous…

In Qaraqosh, half of the population spontaneously returned from the camps of Iraqi Kurdistan to resettle in this Christian city martyred by the men of the Islamic State. The streets have become real anthills. Everywhere there are signs of restaurants as well as shops selling household equipment, sheets, pipes… Here, we close the tunnels dug by the Yazidi slaves and that Daesh used to secretly pass from one house to another. Further, we seal the cracks. In appearance anyway… The feeling of insecurity in a city today in the hands of uncontrollable militias dominates the minds. Mission Enfance is rehabilitating the « Mar Ephram » kindergarten for 200 young children who will celebrate their first Christmas in three years.

The Yazidis, greeted by Kurds in northern Iraq, are waiting in the tents for calm to return to their home lands of Sinjar, one of current troubles’ stakes in this country. We continue to support the educational center of the Yazidi IDP camp in Sharya, Iraqi Kurdistan.

All these peoples of the East are exhausted by these years of wandering, fear and violence… Our presence and our commitment to them are their ultimate guarantee of hope. We will not abandon them.

For Christmas, do not forget these thousands of children! By making them simple schoolchildren, you will give them life. The school remains this ultimate space that gets them out of the hell of war and allows them to build peace…

Receive, dear friends, my sincere gratitude and my best wishes.

Domitille Lagourgue
Director of Mission Enfance

WITH 50€, YOU OFFER A STUDENT A MONTH OF TRANSPORT TO HIS UNIVERSITY

WITH 100€, YOU ALLOW A WAR DISPLACED CHILD
TO WALK THE PATH TO SCHOOL AGAIN