Celeste abou rjeili

Tucked away into the side streets of Beirut are children in a school, learning English to greater fluency than most other kids worldwide. These children detest their afternoon shift classes in semi-public schools and barely receive four hours of education per day. They undergo constant blame for our country's problems. Despite it all, they are teeming with potential.

Like all young brains, theirs are sponges. These kids absorb all of the information presented to them rather quickly. Most curious children are hungry for knowledge, especially the kids in this school. They beg to learn, striving for an education worthy of their young minds.

But many in their situation cannot attend school. For some reason, they are exempt from the human right to education. The Lebanese system evades this universal requirement.

Instead, we find these children on the streets, weaving their way through cars and knocking their hands against our windows. They interrupt our meals at restaurants by begging us for cash, and while we experience a mini-heartbreak every time we look into their eyes, we dare not give them anything, knowing that more children will flock towards us if we do. Plus, people often believe that paying these children will not help — usually, that money falls into the wrong hands anyway.

Most of these children are Syrian. They are human, even though many do not treat them as such, and they have a right to health, education, and safety, like everyone else.

The school I described is called 26 Letters, a free educational center, and it strives to take children off the streets to give them the education and life they deserve. It provides English classes, food distributions, and money to cover annual student fees for qualifying families. Most importantly, the school is akin to a community center for children who are otherwise often shunned in Lebanese society.

Politics aside, every child has the right to learn. All children deserve the chance to develop in an academic setting, regardless of where they come from, and especially these children deserve a chance to secure a better future.