On Sunday, UNIFIL’s Italian Battalion delivered school supplies to South Lebanon from Italian students as part of an initiative to support education in Lebanon amid the prevailing debilitating crisis.
The Italian troops distributed books, notebooks, pens, and backpacks, provided by students of 160 school classes in the Italian Province of Pesaro and Urbino.
The supplies were provided at the request of the 28th Regiment of the Italian Army in a special initiative launched on November 20th, titled: “From Italia’s students to Lebanon’s students, to learn together.”
The initiative was launched in the wake of the August 4th Beirut explosion, which damaged more than 160 private and public schools and impacted over 70,000 students and 7,600 teachers, according to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF).
“We are committed to the appeal launched by the United Nations to support the Lebanese capital, and solidarity has no color,” the head of the Municipal Council in Pesaro, Marco Perugini, told the National News Agency (NNA) on Sunday.
UNIFIL’s French peacekeepers have also been supporting schools in south Lebanon. Just last month, “they developed and distributed 4,000 educational kits to 30 schools, enabling teachers and young students to teach and learn during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” according to UNIFIL UN Missions.
That is in addition to the UNIFIL troops from Finland that have started renovating classrooms and toilets in several southern schools.
This kind donation from the students of Italy comes to further help the students in the south.
Ambassador of Lebanon to Italy Mira Daher coordinated the initiative between the Lebanese authorities and Italy’s 28th Regiment. She told the same source that the initiative is “an example of the meaning of humanity and brotherhood.”
On a similar move, in response to the deadly August 4th blast, UNESCO and the Qatari Education Above All Foundation recently pledged $10 million to help rebuild damaged schools.
