Perched on the side of a mountain some 50km from the Syrian border,
St John's monastery in Lebanon is home to around a dozen hermits and
priests.
A printing press that published books in Arabic, the world's first, can still be found within its halls.
Today, the monastery has become an educational refuge for Syrian children hoping for a future that was removed from them when the regime under Bashar al-Assad indiscriminately dropped barrel bombs on his own people.
In one class of around a dozen children, a 10-year old girl calls out the letters of the alphabet in French. Some have never attended school before.
Learning French is among many obstacles they face in an effort to insert them into a wider Lebanese public school system where they'll be segregated and most likely bullied.
"One of the main reasons why [Syrian refugee] children are out of school in Lebanon is language," said Poppy Alice Hardee, an area manager for the NGO, Terre des Hommes Italia.
Public schools in Lebanon are taught in English and in French, depending on the area, which puts Syrians at an immediate disadvantage.
Read More: Lebanon crisis overshadows EU aid for Syrian refugees
A printing press that published books in Arabic, the world's first, can still be found within its halls.
Today, the monastery has become an educational refuge for Syrian children hoping for a future that was removed from them when the regime under Bashar al-Assad indiscriminately dropped barrel bombs on his own people.
In one class of around a dozen children, a 10-year old girl calls out the letters of the alphabet in French. Some have never attended school before.
Learning French is among many obstacles they face in an effort to insert them into a wider Lebanese public school system where they'll be segregated and most likely bullied.
"One of the main reasons why [Syrian refugee] children are out of school in Lebanon is language," said Poppy Alice Hardee, an area manager for the NGO, Terre des Hommes Italia.
Public schools in Lebanon are taught in English and in French, depending on the area, which puts Syrians at an immediate disadvantage.
Read More: Lebanon crisis overshadows EU aid for Syrian refugees
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