A Brighter Future for Refugee Kids, Through Learning and Laughter
By Tina Hyder
The needs of refugees and stateless persons are many. They span the short-term (food, shelter) to the long-term (early childhood, education, mental health) too.
In fact, according to Sherrie Westin, the executive vice president for global impact and philanthropy at Sesame Workshop, out of all humanitarian aid, “less than two percent … goes to education needs, and a fraction of that goes to early education.”
To address this injustice, which threatens to scar and disadvantage a generation of Syrian children, Sesame Workshop, in partnership with the International Rescue Committee, worked to develop educational programs specifically conceived to address such needs and limit long-term repercussions for Syrian children now living in Jordan.
Thanks to a $100 million grant from the MacArthur Foundation, this pilot project, which was initially funded by the Open Society Foundations and the Bernard van Leer Foundation, will soon be expanded into Syria, Iraq, and Lebanon—ultimately reaching up to nine million children.
To learn more about this unique partnership, and the educational needs of Syrian refugees throughout the world, watch the video above.
At Open Society is a video series highlighting the people and ideas that are inspiring our work—and changing the world.
Until January 2021, Tina Hyder was deputy director of the Open Society Early Childhood Program.
