The SSSP, after much discussion, chose Ain al Helweh camp for spring semester scholarship because it's where there exists arguably the most urgent need to aid current and future college students who today are under increasing pressure in this violent and ever-more-confessional region to choose a Kalashnikov over College, which they cannot afford, in exchange for $130 a month and free cigarettes, the current "salary" in Lebanon for all manner of gunmen employed by various so-called "political parties."
The Sabra-Shatila Scholarship Program believes that it can help Ain al Helweh youngsters and send a positive message to Palestinians in Lebanon and elsewhere to resist the temptation to drop out of school and to, instead, pursue higher education. SSSP seeks applications from across Lebanon and each semester brings its circuit scholarship award event to one of the 12 camps, because it believes SSSP must travel around Lebanon to the camps rather than require students to travel, sometimes with barriers for Palestinians en route, from the far North and deep South, all the way to Beirut.
The first two SSSP tuition grants events were held last April in Shatila camp and the second last month in Burj al Barajneh camp. Ms. Hajj explains that SSSP does not limit its aid to her fellow refugees who have the highest GPA's on the Baccalaureate II exams, but rather SSSP intentionally seeks out Palestinian refugee students, as long as they passed the "Bacc", who without tuition aid may well give up on the idea of seeking higher education.
Asked by a reporter during the most recent SSSP scholarship event whether the American donor funded efforts can fix all that, "Not a chance!" answers Reem, a precocious and charming teen-age SSSP volunteer from Ain al Helweh who wants to study engineering, "but as a project of resistance and to help our society we will try to the best of our ability."
Suha, a SSSP (sssp-lb.com) volunteer joked the other day that to a group of visiting Americans:
"We really do appreciate your US embassy's concerns and we love the American people. And if your embassy would only grant just ten scholarships for an average semester tuition cost of $1,700 per student, from our high number of applicants--we promise to move our event to whichever camp they prefer."
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