Scholarships bring hope to poor Palestinian women

An IDRC-supported fund in Lebanon has helped 123 Palestinian women obtain a university degree and an escape from poverty.

In Lebanon, many Palestinian families have lived for decades in refugee camps. Their unemployment rate hovers around 40%, and poverty is common.

The Scholarship Fund for Palestinian Refugee Women in Lebanon was created to foster the hope that comes with a university education. Launched in 2000, the program has funded 221 students, 123 of whom have graduated.

“I would never have gone to university without the scholarship. It turned my life around,” says Lara Jabbour Saman, a chemistry graduate now employed as a teacher and school administrator. Today, she’s also working toward a master’s degree.

A companion to IDRC’s research work in support of a resolution to the refugee issue, the scholarship aims to improve daily conditions in the interim. It has attracted funding also from the Canadian International Development Agency, the OPEC Fund for International Development, Qatar, the United States, France, and Spain. The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East administers the program.

The scholarship has improved job prospects for women like Iman Sanhan, now an acting financial officer for an international agency. But she says education means more than that: “It enriches you in different ways, gives you more knowledge, and makes you a stronger person.”

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“Getting access to the scholarship fund has been completely life-changing for these remarkable women and their families. This is not an expensive program and yet it has strengthened whole communities, for instance when these graduates work as teachers, dentists, and pharmacists, some of them in refugee camps. The ultimate effects of this modest initiative have been very significant.”

IDRC senior program specialist Roula El-Rifai

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SEE ALSO...
(links below)

Scholarship Fund for Palestinian Refugee Women in Lebanon
Project profile

New Hope for Palestinian Refugee Women in Lebanon
Palestinian women refugees are getting a chance to go to university as a result of a scholarship program supported by IDRC.

United Nations Relief and Works Agency
UNRWA's Education Office in Beirut, Lebanon, administers the Scholarship Fund.

IDRC in Lebanon
IDRC’s support for research in Lebanon has focused in particular on peace building, Palestinian refugees, dryland agriculture and watershed management.

Published: 10 Mar 2010

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http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts/ev-151850-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Improving Women's Lives
http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts/ev-151862-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html Scholarships bring hope to poor Palestinian women
http://www.idrc.ca/uploads/user-S/12017963651Microsoft_Word_-_Scholarshi... Scholarship Fund for Palestinian Refugee Women in Lebanon
http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts/ev-26056-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html New Hope for Palestinian Refugee Women in Lebanon
http://www.unrwa.org/ United Nations Relief and Works Agency
http://www.idrc.ca/lastingimpacts/ev-128460-201-1-DO_TOPIC.html IDRC in Lebanon