Building Peace Through Education
Who We Are
Awareness Foundation is a charity with a vision of how education can help to positively enhance lives and build lasting peace in our troubled world, and especially in the conflict-ridden Middle East.
Our mission is to help that vision become a reality, driven by our unique and transformative programmes for children, young people, and women, that promote wellbeing and mutual understanding, while deepening faith and nurturing love.
A Message from Our Royal Patron
Her Royal Highness The Duchess of Edinburgh GCVO, GCStJ, CD
I am so delighted to be patron of Awareness Foundation, a cause I was drawn to from the moment I was introduced to it.
In our extremely troubled world, and particularly now in the Middle East, what Awareness Foundation is doing is very special – and so very needed.
On a visit to Beirut in 2019, I met with young people from Syria who had completed one of the Foundation’s programmes. They were incredibly energetic and simply brimming with amazing and practical ideas for how to bridge divides and bring people together.
Awareness Foundation has done so much for these young people, giving them confidence, and allowing them to have a platform and a voice. They, and others like them, are the future of their communities, and their voices can help us all understand how we can build a better future as people of faith and hope.
HRH The Duchess of Edinburgh GCVO
What We Do
The crises engulfing the Middle East have shattered childhoods. Youngsters have witnessed traumatic events, lost friends and family, and been torn away from the familiar, the safe and the supportive.
Little Heroes is a mentoring programme for displaced and disadvantaged children aged 6-12 in Syria. It aims to rebuild those childhoods by fostering self-esteem, emotional and mental health, and resilience. It empowers the children to develop existing talents and discover new ones. While based on Christian principles it is open to all. These are true Little Heroes.
Being a teenager anywhere is tough, packed with emotional turmoil and a host of difficult issues, choices, and challenges. In Syria, teenagers also face a society wracked by conflict, political confusion, and social collapse. In response, we’re developing a new Awareness Pioneers programme aimed at helping Syrian teens aged 13-17 to negotiate those demanding years amid the unique problems that they face.
We believe history has taught us that the solutions for lasting peace in any region cannot be imposed from the outside. Which is why our Ambassadors for Peace programme is aimed at equipping young adults in Syria, Iraq and beyond with the skills and sense of citizenship crucial to promoting reconciliation and harmony and celebrating difference among their diverse communities.
Women have traditionally played important roles across the Middle East. However, more recently extremism, discrimination, conflict, and instability have been devastating for many. Families have been destroyed and displaced, while persecution, insecurity and inequality have flourished.
Women face daunting challenges, personally, economically, and professionally. Our new Enterprising Women programme aims to support entrepreneurial women in Syria, empowering them to become leaders once more in society, and play a pivotal role in peacebuilding and the future development of the region.