Fayez Abu Eid || Working Group
In light of the suffocating economic crisis gripping Syria, where more than 90% of the population lives below the poverty line, Palestinian refugee families face compounded suffering in securing university education for their children. The significant increase in university education costs places these exhausted families in front of bitter choices: either depriving their children of higher education or forcing them to face the challenge of working and studying simultaneously.
The Action Group highlights in its report the suffering of an entire generation of Palestinian students in Syria, who struggle to maintain their dream of higher education under crushing economic conditions, where opportunities for higher education diminish in the face of rising inflation and the fixed incomes of their families burdened by living expenses and rents.
The story of Assem, the young man displaced from the Yarmouk camp, embodies this bitter reality. Despite his hard work in a café with a monthly salary of 750,000 Syrian pounds during his summer vacation and his ability to buy his university study supplies, what remains with him is not enough to cover the expenses of his third year in the Sociology Department at the University of Damascus.
As for Nour, which is a pseudonym, she is displaced from the Daraa camp and lives with her family in one of the city’s neighborhoods in a rented house. She is a university student, and Nour will study her third year at the University of Damascus, Daraa branch, majoring in Mathematics. She worked throughout the summer vacation in a commercial mall selling clothes””and still does””earning a monthly salary of 400,000 Syrian pounds. She says, “I couldn’t save any money for university supplies because I needed to buy some clothes.”
Ahmad, who was displaced from the Handarat camp in Aleppo and lives with his family in one of the neighborhoods of Aleppo in a rented house, is a university student. Ahmad will study his first university year at the University of Aleppo, majoring in Mathematics. He worked throughout the summer vacation as a painter””and still does””earning a monthly salary of 900,000 Syrian pounds. He says, “I have secured some university study supplies, but I have nothing left for pocket money, and I still need to work more to get the money necessary for my university studies.”
At the end of its report, the Action Group for Palestinians in Syria demands that the university assistance provided by the Palestinian embassy in Damascus include all Palestinian students, be regular on a monthly basis, and be increased to match the high costs of university education.