1001 Meals Experiences Engaging Children’s Hearts and Minds in Refugee Camps
Amman, 25 March 2020- A civil engineer, an accountant, a sports news reporter, a pharmacist, a child protection supervisor, and an astrophysicist. These are the respective backgrounds of Faris, Heba H., Nadine, Aya, Mohammad, and Heba A., members of the 1001 Meals team helped deliver the Programme to thousands of school children in the Zaatari refugee camp this winter.
1001 Meals combines World Food Programme (WFP) healthy school meals and 1001 Inventions science activities to help improve the wellbeing of vulnerable children. A fantastic team of passionate young Jordanian, supported by a wonderful group of Syrian refugees, help deliver the Programme in refugee camps in Jordan. On recruitment, the team is trained to help build their skill set including working with children – particularly the most vulnerable, managing school groups, facilitating sessions and presenting educational content with simple and engaging techniques.
Brought together by passion for helping others and making a change, they share their reasons behind joining the 1001 Meals programme and what they learned from their experience during this phase that ended earlier this month.
For Heba A., her impressions of 1001 Meals are full of excitement and hope. In describing her experience as a science explainer, she notes: “I eagerly wait for the beginning of a new day and during the session with the children I keep looking at the time, because I don’t want the day to end. …working with children doesn’t involve routine, for each child has a story.” Heba A., who is a physics educator and trainer specialised in astrophysics, remarks that the students had a look of amazement on their faces when they saw the new experiments and learned about the fascinating story of Ibn al-Haytham. She adds, “the story of the 11th century pioneer inspires hope. Suffering gives birth to success and despair does not exist. The children are on the path of science from which a new generation of scientists will rise.”
Echoing these feelings of excitement Aya, a pharmacist who following her passion now works in the humanitarian field, says that, “the experience was very emotional and full of excitement when I first joined 1001 Meals, especially since it was the first time for me in the field and in refugee camps. The Programme is helping me a lot on a personal level. Some of the qualities I have developed include responsibility over a whole team and maintaining harmony amongst us all. The Syrian team members are the real deal! The relationship we grew throughout the Programme is precious!”
First-time facilitator Nadine said that she learned that experiential learning is more impactful than direct instruction. She added that sharing knowledge through experiences, experiments, and play engages the young learners’ hearts as well as minds.
Describing his experience working on the Programme, Faris, the 1001 Meals project coordinator, says: “it is great working with the World Food Programme team. They are very collaborative, understanding and supportive. They help ensure the overall implementation process of the project runs smoothly.”
When asked about his impressions of this phase of the Programme, Faris, who also participated in previous phases of 1001 Meals mentioned that he was happily surprised when children attending a session for a second time — to accommodate absences due to harsh weather — were correctly answering all questions. He added saying that, “it was so wonderful to see the excitement in the children’s eyes and how enthusiastic they were to show their friends that they knew the answers!”
Mohammad, who works in the field of child protection and who has been part of the 1001 Meals team since last year said that in his previous job, he enjoyed his role to motivate refugee children to follow their ambitions and to learn through different games and activities. He added that being part of the 1001 Meals team offered him something different and beautiful. He said, “I was able to live the story of the scientist Ibn al-Haytham and at the same time, I could apply the ideas and see them in practice, to hold the tools in my hands, to try, and to discover.” He adds, “It was exciting to see that some of the students used simple tools and objects at home to replicate the experiments we run and came back to tell us about their experience and ask questions.”
As for 23-year-old accountant Heba H., the youngest member of the team, she learned that “no matter how much we educate ourselves we still know little and we have to learn more. We also have to leave our mark in society by giving all we have to other people.” Like the rest of the team, she wishes that 1001 Meals expands to share with children the stories of other scientists and reaches wider audiences. She ends, “I hope that we continue to educate our children about scientists from the golden age of Arabic science, so they grow having role-models from their own culture! There are lots of young people who are waiting for a chance to make an impact in this world, and I felt like we were giving them this chance! This felt absolutely amazing!”
The 1001 Meals initiative is a partnership between the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) and 1001 Inventions organisation. It inspires creativity, curiosity and hope among vulnerable children deprived of crucial opportunities for meaningful engagement to support their physical, emotional and intellectual wellbeing.
1001 Meals team transform makeshift classrooms in refugee camps into an inspiring space for the children to enjoy an exciting educational experience. Thousands of children are introduced to introduced to scientific concepts through stories of lesser-known pioneers from a historical golden age of science and innovation that occurred in the Middle East.
You can help too!
To support the initiative, download the ShareTheMeal app on your smartphone — select to join the “#1001Meals” Team — and with just a tap you can donate US$0.50 to “share the meal” with a child in need.
#1001Meals / www.1001meals.org
www.facebook.com/1001meals/
www.twitter.com/1001meals
About United Nations World Food Programme
The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP), the largest humanitarian organization saving lives and changing lives worldwide, provide food assistance to more than 90 million people in 84 countries annually by delivering food assistance in emergencies and working with communities to improve nutrition and build resilience. In addition to their efforts in relief and rehabilitation, development aid and special operations.
Since 1964, WFP has been present in Jordan working with the Jordanian government, as well as international and local organizations, to create economic and livelihood opportunities for food insecure and vulnerable communities.
WFP’s operations have also supported the government in providing food assistance for half a million Syrian refugees in camps and in the host community. WFP has also been offering vocational training opportunities and on-the-job training to develop human capacities and improve employability for targeted vulnerable Jordanians and allow the opportunity for the current influx of Syrians to be self-sufficient.
About 1001 Inventions
1001 Inventions is an award-winning, British-based organisation that creates international educational campaigns and engaging transmedia productions aiming to raise awareness of the contributions to innovation, technology and culture from the golden age of science in Muslim Civilisation.
1001 Inventions has engaged with over 400 million people across the globe working with a network of international partners, including UNESCO, National Geographic and leading academics to produce interactive exhibits, short films, live shows, books and classroom learning materials that are being used by hundreds of thousands of educators around the world.
