Bring education to kids in emergency shelters in Lebanon

Join mama restaurant group and CodeBrave in keeping education alive for children living in shelters across Lebanon. Donating $20 will support 20 hours of a child’s education. $300 could fund 1 week’s worth of education for 60 children at 1 shelter and $1,250 could fund 1 week’s worth of education for 240 children at 4 shelters.

Our founder Wassef Haroun was forced to leave Lebanon during the civil war in the 1980’s to pursue education. This is why mama restaurant group and CodeBrave have come together to make sure more children aren't left behind, and can keep building towards their futures.

Through the November and December holidays, mama restaurant group will be selling holiday dinner packages as well as our retail mezze goods, and fundraising through sales of both packages.

Retail products: The donation from this package will support 20 hours of a child’s education. Over the holidays, for each order of our mamnoon fine foods retail package, including our famous mezze products (hummus, baba ganoush, muhammara and more), we will make a donation of $20 to CodeBrave.

Holiday dinner package: The donation from this package will support 30 hours of a child’s education. Over the holidays, for each order of our holiday dinner packages, we will make a donation of $30 to CodeBrave.

Why support?

Education cannot wait—even in times of war. Hundreds of thousands of children have been forced from their homes, struggling with fear, loss, and uncertainty. 60% of public schools have become shelters to house the 1.2M displaced and over 350,000 children are left without education.

But despite the bombing, these kids are hungry to learn.

• Younes now lives in one room with his 20 family members after being displaced. His whole family leaves their room when he has his CodeBrave classes so he can focus.
• Hind, who is currently living in a camp after being displaced, joins her class from the pavement outside the camp using the computer we provided her with.
• Fatima is just one of many students asking their teachers for extra material to learn as they’re currently out of school and wanting to make the most of their free time.

How CodeBrave is responding:

CodeBrave is continuing children’s education through game-based coding and robotics classes that build basic literacy, numeracy, and science skills. This hands-on, engaging approach is one of the most effective ways to keep children learning, providing hope, stability, and a much-needed escape from the chaos around them.

We are leaning into our expertise of working with children who suffer from toxic-stress, our experience in online learning and our game-based education approach.

• Emergency education activities at shelters. We are delivering classes at shelters to teach basic literacy, numeracy and science through game-based coding and robotics. This is one of the most effective ways to keep children engaged in learning and provides a needed distraction from the conflict.
• Online programme for youth (aged 15-18). We are continuing our online Web Development programme, and 86% of our current students have said they want to continue learning online despite many of them being displaced. Their coding lessons are providing a respite from the situation and allowing them to invest in their future.

What are we teaching children in emergency shelters?

When children are suffering from toxic stress and trauma, game-based education is one of the most effective ways to help them learn. We chose our 'Supercoder' course that involves projects revolving around taking care of their physical and mental well-being, while building coding skills and reinforcing literacy, numeracy, and science skills. Activities include learning to code playful animations, send kindness messages with micro transmitters, and create music while learning about circuits and loops. They’ll be using code, maths, and science concepts in real-life, creative applications.

You can make a difference.

We urgently need your support to deliver our emergency education activities for children living in shelters across Lebanon. Help us keep hope and learning alive for students facing unimaginable hardship.

Who is CodeBrave?

CodeBrave has a mission to empower Lebanon’s youth with the tech skills they need to secure safe and decent work and ultimately lift themselves out of poverty. Since 2018, we have been providing innovative coding and robotics programs at schools and shelters for vulnerable youth across Lebanon. We combine a child psychology approach with a cutting edge tech education curriculum to ensure that students reach their full potential. We have upskilled over 2,435 young people, 53% girls, who would otherwise have had no access to tech education. CodeBrave is a registered NGO in Lebanon (#20609, official name Bukra La’ilkom). CodeBrave Foundation is a registered charity in the UK (#1188692).