Al Madad Foundation launched Education Grant 2019 for Children in Lebanon

Deadline: 18 March 2019

Al Madad Foundation has launched its first call for proposals, which will focus on the topic of ‘Education’.

The overall objective is to identify initiatives in support of the development and improvement of educational experiences of refugee and displaced children in Lebanon.

A broad range of initiatives will be considered, but preference will be given to:

Capacity building within local civil society organizations in order to tailor creative and innovative alternative education opportunities for refugee children
Identification and introduction of wellbeing schemes for introduction into existing educational bodies and structures supporting refugee and displaced children
Research around current education schemes implemented with Syrian refugee children and the extent of their impact after 8 years of conflict

Strategic Priorities

Bridging the educational gap for out-of-school refugee children with alternative programmes to prepare them to successfully reintegrate into mainstream school
Supporting the development of tailored educational settings to empower displaced and refugee children in host communities through the means of education
Effecting change in the lives of displaced and refugee children through the means of artistic expression and specialist artistic intervention
Promoting understanding of heritage and cultural activities to help displaced and refugee children preserve the connection with their communities
Supporting holistic approaches to wellbeing to help emancipate the most vulnerable and eliminate as many of their immediate needs as possible

Values

The Foundation also looks to promote the following values in particular through the projects they fund:

Safety above all
- Working with children means that extra precautions must be taken regarding child safeguarding and safety in general (e.g. Health and Safety procedures).
Increasing service user feedback
- Effectively obtaining service user feedback is an important part of any international development project, and helps projects to demonstrate due respect to the communities in which they operate and to achieve their goals more quickly. They recognise that this can often be difficult to obtain, especially in situations where service users have limited access to internet-enabled devices, and are therefore particularly keen to see creative methods of collection ‘built in’ to projects.
Benefitting the sector
- They appreciate that a great deal of work goes into preparing grant applications for submission, and endeavour to make the process as easy as possible. Additionally, as a significant amount of time is given to considering each short-listed application, they are pleased to provide feedback to all applicants, regardless of whether or nota grant is awarded.
Tailoring creative solutions
- With the help of consultants, experts and partners, they work to gain a better understanding of specific local challenges and develop innovative strategies for overcoming them.
Promoting capacity building
- They seek to include capacity building wherever possible, and to ensure that as many of their projects as possible have an impact beyond their end date.
Enhancing learning through monitoring and evaluation
- When designing programmes, they take into consideration the complexities on the ground, the volatile situation of the regions they target, and the overall risk involved in their work. This is complemented by adapted monitoring and evaluation tools that enhance their learning and strategic planning.

Funding Information

Organizations can submit one application for any amount up to £20,000 GBP for a defined project of up to three years’ duration.

Eligible Activities

Examples of projects and activities that could be supported under this call are, but are not limited to:

Innovative/improved training courses for those working with refugee and displaced children
Efforts to bridge knowledge gaps regarding education in volatile situations
Exploration of the relationship between influencing factors in crisis situations
Examination of the success/failure/challenges of existing structures for vulnerable children
Projects that seek to tackle currently unaddressed issues within the sector
Projects that specifically target, and work to mitigate, factors that negatively impact the educational experiences of refugee and displaced children

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be considered eligible, organizations must:
- Be a registered charity in the country in which they are headquartered; individuals who wish to apply can only do so in conjunction with a registered organization (e.g. an academic researcher might apply with the backing of his or her university)
- Have an annual income of between £5,000-£500,000 and at least three years’ continuous accounts
- Be able to meet foundation’s reporting and acknowledgement requirements
- Have a Child Protection Policy in place that conforms to the laws of the country in which they operate and a clear methodology that demonstrates that it is appropriately and consistently applied
The proposed project:
- Must not have as an aim the promotion one religion or faith
- Must not duplicate work already in practice in the field
- Must not be an existing project, unless it is entering a new phase of development; foundation will consider incorporating existing costs (if applicable) during the implementation of the new project if there is a demonstrably necessary link between the two
- Must clearly illustrate the organization’s ability to effectively implement the project, and that it would provide value for money, constitute added value in the field and contain a clear monitoring process
The following will be favoured:
- Projects that will be sustainable, or will have sustainable elements, beyond the period of AMF’s involvement OR projects which have a natural, defined end-point
- Projects in which staff are able to commit to regular contact with AMF in order to communicate progress
- Projects that have ‘built in’ methods of obtaining service-user feedback (see also: ‘Values’ above)