- AFS-funded projects
This year, AFS marks World Children’s Day by highlighting the vital work of its implementing partners in shaping brighter futures for Syrian children as the country continues on its road to recovery. Since the fall of the regime, approximately 430,000 Syrian children have returned to Syria with their families. Through focus on funding multi-sectoral projects, AFS has reached over 3.2 million children to date, helping restore their right to education, safety, and opportunity.
Bonyan for Youth and Development, a National NGO, received US$ 825,157 from the AFS under its third regular allocation (RA3) in March 2025 for its 17-month project “Igniting Minds, Transforming Lives”. As part of the project, Bonyan implemented a non-formal education summer programme to enhance the Arabic language skills of children aged 7 to 12 with low academic performance, including returnees from Lebanon and Türkiye. Organised between July and August to align with the return of families who had moved ahead of the school year, the programme combined structured classes with life skills and psychosocial support to facilitate returnee children’s integration into the Syrian school system. Classes were held across 15 schools in Ariha and Atareb, reaching 334 girls and 247 boys in total.
This summer, 13-year-old Mutaz returned to his family’s hometown near Ariha after more than 12 years of displacement in Türkiye. Having studied within the Turkish education system, he arrived in Syria unable to read or write Arabic. A local teacher, Ahmad, reached out to his father about the remedial summer programme and encouraged enrolment. “Mr Ahmed came and told us that there was a school here where I could learn. So I went to school, and I know how to write and how to read!” says Mutaz.