Two weeks ago in the Zaatari camp in Jordan for 80,000 Syrian refugees I was struck by the energy and hope of the adolescent girls there who are excited by OLE’s Tiger Girls program.
Now, Global Giving is now matching dollar for dollar, up to $1,000 for each contribution, to the Tiger Girls program . On a first contributed, first matched basis, Global Giving will gift up to $50,000 to match contributions to the Tiger Girls program and 17 other programs focused on Syrian refugees. Now each $20 will enable two Syrian girls to join a Tiger Team. To be sure your contribution is matched, please give now as much as you can for these displaced girls.
The 16 month Tiger Girls education program, launched in November, will serve up to 2,400 Syrian adolescents living in the UNHCR Zaatari camp in northwestern Jordan. Twelve Syrian women, will be trained as coaches, working with small Tiger Teams of girls to increase their literacy, numeracy and social skills while designing and implementing a community improvement project. Each Tiger Team will use OLE’s innovative Personal Learning System of a multi-lingual, digital library and tablets filled with the Arabic and English resources to expand the girls’ learning and increase their sense of agency, meaning and connection.
A team of students from Harvard’s Graduate School of Education has designed a survey of over 100 of the 10,000 girls in Zaatari to be used in developing the program and in evaluating its effectiveness.
In December, Agnes Asamoah-Duodu, OLE Ghana’s head coach, Emily Larkin from OLE’s Cambridge office and a coach from the International Education Association (IEA) in Beirut, Lebanon will initiate an ongoing training program for the Syrian coaches. OLE is also seeking to build connections between the Syrian Tiger Teams and parallel teams of American adolescent girls.
Please send us your suggestions and your contributions. During this matching program each $20 contribution by you will enable two additional Syrian adolescent girls in Zaatari to become Tiger Girls and join a Tiger Team.