About 5 years ago it came to HCI’s and its partners’ attention that many of the high school graduates of Lebanese villages were dropping out of university despite the fact that many of them had great educational potential and very good grades, because they were unable to afford the tuition fees.
Many of these students eventually become a burden on society relying on charity, others find work that doesn’t provide enough money for a decent life, some wait for a chance to follow their relatives to Canada, the USA or Brazil, and others end up as delinquents.
More and more, their younger relatives that are still in elementary school are starting to drop out at an earlier level and younger age because they know that they will eventually be unable to afford continuing their education. It is perceived as hopeless case for many because they know that they will share the same fate as those before them that struggled to get through school, only to find they are unable to afford university.
HCI, along with its grassroots partner The Bekaa Youth for Development and Free Education NGO, decided it was time to do something about it, so the program started by helping meritorious students unable to afford university fees by providing a very small number of them with a small monthly grant, which contributed to easing the financial burden off their shoulders. The program helped 4 students the first year, the next year we had around 10, and then 11 and then 14 students.
After a short break due to restructuring, the program was re-launched this year with much improved scale and scope and a better more systemized process, including more adequate funding. We now no longer provide monthly payments; instead we give payments per semester per year directly to the university, complemented with several social and educational activities for the same students and for others. A new screening and selection system was developed and introduced this year to improve the efficiency and the effectiveness of the project. A new monitoring and evaluation system was also introduced.
This year we have around 36 students, 15 of which are females and 21 males. More than two thirds of them attend Bekaa valley universities; the others go to Beirut universities. All of them with no exception are in a great need of tuition support to be able to continue their education, and around 50% will be obliged to drop out if our help stops. All of our students are undergraduate students; we don’t assist post-graduate students at the moment.
Additionally, the program also implemented various social and educational activities for non-university students such as health and first aid training, and we are preparing to start a one month class to teach people how to use computers.
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