Alsama’s mission is to educate, empower, and offer new horizons to teenagers living in Lebanon’s refugee camps. Primarily hailing from Syrian or Syrian/Palestinian backgrounds, these children live in poverty and have been failed by both the Lebanese schooling system and prevailing sentiment that they should either begin working or marry during childhood.

Alsama provides opportunities to overcome these obstacles through a number of strategic objectives: world-class education, vocational training, scholarships, social enterprise employment, and cricket. These objectives are supported by a crucial foundation of psychological support. Alsama students have witnessed war, the death of friends, family members and neighbours and the destruction of their homes. They are left with trauma, depression and PTSD. Many also face difficult home lives and have experienced abuse.

Following a successful grant from the ALMT providing mental health support at their first school in Bourj El Barajneh refugee camp in 2023, Alsama Project is now looking to extend psychological support to their new school for 220 students. The project aims to limit the drop- out rate of students, improve wellbeing and access to professional support, reduce early marriage for teenage girls and increase skills and capacity within the staff team.

The resident psychologist will provide early support for mental wellbeing and will manage existing problems – effectively responding to the needs of students. They will offer a mental health assessment to all students, 1-to-1 counselling, and will make referrals to other professional services where required. The resident psychologist also increases the capacity of the existing staff team by training all staff so that they can identify at-risk individuals and understand the best way to support them. This strengthens Alsama’s capacity to deliver mental health support and ultimately the education programme overall.