- Country
- Finland
- Target Audience
- Authorities
- Educators/academics
- First responders or practitioners
- key themes association
- Foreign Terrorist Fighters and their families
- Vulnerable youth and youth engagement in P/CVE
- Year
- 2023
Organisation
The project was implemented by the Finnish Lifelong Learning Foundation (Kansanvalistusseura sr., Kvs Foundation).
Type of Organisation: Foundation
Project description
The suggested practice is a long-distance education programme for Finnish children living in the al-Hol refugee camp in northern Syria that was conducted by the Finnish government between May 2020 and mid- 2021. The innovative long-distance teaching model was commissioned by Finland’s foreign ministry and conducted by a Finnish educator entirely via the messenger service WhatsApp.
Children in the al-Hol camp received lessons via text message on their mothers’ phones and were taught Finnish, geography, history and English, depending on their age. This helped the children, who barely spoke Finnish and knew about Finland, to prepare for their repatriation. Above all, it gave the children and their mothers a purpose, routine and self-confidence.
The project was initially kept secret from the public – hence the name secret school – and publicised only after its completion. By enabling their children to participate in the programme, the mothers were taking a risk of losing their phones to the guards since phones are generally forbidden in the camps. The only way for the organisation to mitigate this risk has been to keep this project in secrecy and not become public.