June 20 marks World Refugee Day, a day when we recognize the tragic impact that war, persecution, conflicts, and natural disasters have had on millions – causing them to flee their homes. Today, nearly half of the world’s refugees are children and some of the most vulnerable are the more than three million Syrian children who have grown up only knowing war.
The war has created millions of refugee families and some 2.5 million Syrian children have had their education disrupted. Studies into the mental health of Syrian refugee children also show staggering levels of trauma and distress. Schools often provide children with a vital source of safety, stability and routine but, unable to attend school and socialize as children should, the feelings of stress and isolation felt by Syrian refugee children is compounded.
To reach these children, All Children Reading: A Grand Challenge for Development (ACR GCD), in collaboration with the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (Norad), the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, the mobile operator Orange and the Inter-Agency Network for Education in Emergencies, launched the EduApp4Syria competition, funded by the Norwegian government.
With high availability of smartphones among Syrian families, this technology was identified as the best channel for reaching children with fun supplements to facilitate their continued learning and future reintegration into school. As such, the competition sought the development of a smartphone app that could build foundational literacy skills in Arabic and improve psychosocial well-being among Syrian refugee children.
