BEIRUT: UNESCO and the Qatari foundation Education Above All have pledged to allocate $10 million, to help rebuild schools that had been damaged by the Beirut Aug. 4 explosion.

The project was launched last Tuesday and aims to reconstruct 55 schools, 20 technical and vocational schools and three universities with the help of the Qatar Fund for Development.

The devastating Beirut Port explosion, which killed more than 200 people and injured thousands impacted the education sector as well, caused partial or complete damage to around 200 schools the neighboring areas.

According to a statement released on Nov. 4 from both organizations, the work to rebuild has already begun in around 20 percent of the schools.

I visited shattered schools and classrooms in Beirut right after the blast. Faced with this traumatic experience of loss for students, their teachers and families, our responsibility is to restore learning as quickly as possible and to rebuild the damaged schools, said Stefania Giannini, UNESCOs assistant director-general for education.

Education Above All Foundation, which is partnering with UNICEF and UNRWA had worked on previous projects since 2012 to provide around 17,600 children in Lebanon with safe and quality education, according to Mary Joy Pigozzi, executive director of the Education Above All Foundations Educate A Child program.

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