Abdullah Al-Hussein has been teaching at the SB Overseas Bukra Ahla school and center in Beyrouth since 2016. As part of the staff since October 2016, he mainly teaches Arabic and Mathematics for Years One and Two. Before becoming a teacher, Abdullah left his native Syria to study at a Lebanese university where he majored in Arabic. He was in Lebanon when the war broke out and already well acquainted with the country and had worked as a sound technician for an events company.
Abdullah heard about SB OverSeas through Facebook and was very interested in joining and becoming one of the main players in the education department of the NGO. Through his interaction with the Syrian community in Lebanon, he had noticed that the children were the most vulnerable group amongst the refugees. The poor living conditions, harsh memories of war, poor education, child labor and other forms of abuse motivated Abdullah to help make a positive change for the youngsters.
Despite the exhausting nature of his job, he finds immense joy working with children and describes the friendly team at Bukra Ahla as “one big family”. Whilst teaching, he stresses the importance of including fun activities in order to enrich the learning process. Activities in art, music and playing ‘brain-games’ on the tablets along with sports on weekly basis help the children to absorb the learning material. Moreover, Abdallah states that these activities as promoted by SB strengthen the bond between the students and the teachers as well as making learning more interactive and helping the students to build skills in communication, art and enhance their creative skills. The teacher praises SB OverSeas as it continuously strives to upgrade its teaching methods and keeps its curriculum updated even in secondary subjects such as arts and crafts, and life-skills.
Abdullah believes that the children in the center need special attention and care. The teacher has to give from a big heart, a sharp mind and show high level of patience and endurance. However, Abdallah and other teachers understand this given the tough environment of their students, as many have received very little to no education and have experienced issues related to access to health-care, malnutrition, high unemployment rates of their caregivers, poor housing conditions and so on. Being an active, positive and ambitious person, Abdullah wants to continue forging a career in the challenging field of child education. He plans to continue his higher education which can open up to him new opportunities in the future. He defines his mission in life as: “to raise the general consciousness of the present and future generations by spreading useful knowledge and embracing humanitarian values to achieve peace and prosperity in the region”.
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