Abstract
There is a growing number of Syrian children that are being born in Lebanon and a growing number of Syrian children that fled Syria at a young age and therefore have few memories of the country. A vast number of these children might not be able to return to Syria in the foreseeable future, and they will most likely have very limited rights and opportunities in life if staying in Lebanon, which might be the only option for some. This thesis will investigate ow an NGO providing non-formal education, mostly by and without exception for Syrians, is attempting to empower Syrian refugee children as proud Syrians by looking at their Identity and Peacebuilding classes. This became an important subject for the school as many children started claiming they were from Beirut when getting the question, “where are you from?”. Information was collected through fieldwork during the fall of 2017 by the means of interviews and participant observation in the classrooms. The thesis discusses the challenges of teaching children where they are “from” despite many being born in Lebanon. The aim of the NGO’s focus on Syrian identity is to teach the children to be proud Syrians and to try to make them feel committed to Syria while creating a feeling of responsibility of one day returning to rebuild the country. As the Syrian civil war is still ongoing, and as the war is only hours away from the children’s classrooms in Beirut, the school also tries to make the children feel like a united people despite the disputes within the community.