Date: Jan 24, 2019
Source: The Daily Star
Finland pledges $4.2M to kids in Lebanon
BEIRUT: Finland has pledged 3.7 million euros ($4.2 million) to a UNICEF initiative providing social services to vulnerable children, a UNICEF statement said Wednesday.

The funding will go to the “No Lost Generation” program, which aims to provide children age 10 and over with access to protection, social assistance and education.

“More than 7,000 children and youth currently out of any form of learning and exposed to high risks of child labor and child marriage will receive access to nonformal learning, psycho-social support, social assistance and competency-based and life skills training,” the statement said.

The children come from 56 different municipalities and “fall within the 251 most deprived cadasters in Lebanon,” the statement said.

“If a family lives from hand to mouth, children too must work - on the streets, markets or construction sites. The best way to get children from refugee families to school is to support their families. By supporting young people’s vocational education and training, we are offering them a chance for a better future,” Finland’s ambassador to Lebanon, Tarja Fernandez, said. Finland has previously donated money to UNICEF Lebanon for use in sectors including education, child protection, health and nutrition, and adolescents and youth initiatives.