Hana’s Smile is Back!

“Her beautiful, glittering smile had disappeared,” says the principal of the school where Hana is a sixth grader, “but now we can see she is smiling again.”

Hana, is a 13 years old Syrian  refugee from Aleppo, Syria. The Syrian crisis forced her family to flee to Mafraq, north Jordan, one year ago. She is supposed to be in the 7th grade now, but, similar to many Syrian students, Hana unfortunately lost one school year.

The school in Mafraq welcomed Hana, knowing that the experience of the conflict in her country had caused her a lot of pain and anguish.

When she first arrived, her face was full of sadness and fear. She was shy and depressed and did not want to participate in different school activities with her classmates.

From September through November 2015, Hana was enrolled in the remedial education classes provided by World Vision Jordan as part of the No Lost Generation (NLG): Stand By Me project, funded by Global Affairs Canda (GAC).

Remedial education is part of the formal education system in Jordan and provides instruction in subjects such as Arabic, English and Math. These classes are catch up classes for Syrians and Jordanian students who find difficulties in understanding the Jordanian curriculum.  World Vision provides these classes under NLG in order to enable Children and youth to have sustained, improved  access to appropriate education opportunities in a protective learning environment. 

Following Hana's enrolment in remedial education classes, the school principal and teachers noticed a positive change in Hana’s personality. She gradually started to participate more during class activities, and became noticeably more content and happy. Then her smile returned.

For Hana's principal, the change has been dramatic: “Remedial Education has had a positive impact on Hana, both academically and personally.”

** The content of this story was gathered and written by the Remedial Education Team in NLG Project