Military personnel from the Russian Center for Conciliation of the Enemy in Syria brought warm clothes and stationery to a school for girls in Aleppo.
“Today, under the auspices of the Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in the Syrian Arab Republic, we are holding another charity event at a school for girls aged 12 to 17. We have brought warm outerwear and school supplies – notebooks, pens and pencils. We brought about 250 kits – 230 girls are studying with them, and we brought a little more so as not to offend anyone”, – Russian Centre for the Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in the Syrian Arab Republic spokesman Peter Vangeli told reporters.
At Asma Band-Abu Bakr School, girls are in seventh to eleventh grades, mostly from poor families. In 2012, militants, desks, chairs and textbooks were used to heat the school, school director Nariman Addel said.
“The militants just threw us out. Here they set up their command post and brought in prisoners. This is where their hospital was. Right now, the biggest problem is the psychological state of the children. Many have lost their fathers. Their houses have been destroyed. We conducted special classes to restore the mental state of the girls”, – she said.
In 2016 the militants were expelled, but they took all office equipment and computers with them. The school was also affected by the fighting. Reconstruction work continued for a year, and four months ago it was opened. Inventories and textbooks were collected from other schools.
Before the war, there were 1,500 girls in school, now there are 250. Many left with their parents, became refugees and have not yet returned to Aleppo. Some have moved to other parts of the city and are studying in other schools. But the teachers hope that in time the others will return, and the authorities will provide material support.
“We lived here very badly under the militants. My brother is a military man, so my father was humiliated by the guerrillas in every way, summoned for questioning and then put in jail. All this time we weren’t studying. I’m 17 years old, and I have to go to the 12th grade, and now I’m in the eighth grade program. I will catch up with my peers”, – said Riham Tattan, a student.
A 15-year-old Ahad Jala also missed several years of study.
“At the very beginning of the war, my parents moved to another part of the city where it was safe at the time. But then they closed the school there too because of the shelling. I didn’t study for three years. Now I study like I used to. I like to learn foreign languages. I hope we will be taught Russian, too”, – she said.
Teacher Hannan Sukhliya said that separate classes were opened especially for girls who missed several years of study so that no one would feel disadvantaged.
“We teach them many subjects. And algebra, and chemistry, and physics. The culture of Islam. We also teach them English and French, but there are plans to replace French with Russian. Many children want to learn your language”, – she said.