Save the Children's Boston Leadership Council Raises Funds for a Mobile Library for Syrian Refugee Children in Lebanon

FAIRFIELD, Conn. (November 9, 2018) — Syrian refugee children in Lebanon will soon have access to a mobile library thanks to the efforts of Save the Children’s Boston Leadership Council and its inaugural benefit event held at the Downtown Harvard Club on Friday, Nov. 2.

The event was hosted by Tim Douglas, assistant director of academic advising at Emerson College and co-hosted by WCVB-TV’s Janet Wu. The evening benefit featured renowned author, journalist and commentator Cokie Roberts of ABC News and NPR and highlighted Save the Children’s “Return to Learning” initiative. “Return to Learning,” a pillar of the global humanitarian organization’s 100^th anniversary campaign which kicks off in 2019, aims to get children displaced by conflict back in school within 30 days.

The mobile library will make hundreds of visits to refugee children, ages 3-14, in Beqaa, Lebanon, a remote community in the eastern part of the country where there are many children out of school, and there is limited space in schools to accommodate them. The event, which was attended by more than 170 people, raised more than $100,000 during a paddle raise to establish a mobile library program for one year. The mobile library will be equipped with educators, activities and books.

Roberts served as a moderator for a conversation between Mary Mendenhall, ED.D, an associate professor at Teachers College, Columbia University and Greg Ramm, vice president of humanitarian response at Save the Children. The program also included a livestream interview with Save the Children’s Lebanon country director Allison Zelkowitz, who shared stories from the field with the audience and saluted the Boston crowd by wearing a Red Sox cap in honor of the recently crowned World Series champions.

The event was organized by the newly established Boston Leadership Council, a group that consists of Boston-area volunteers committed to supporting the work of Save the Children including co-chairs Roberta Moore of Dover, ML Krakauer of Wayland and Tasneem Ghogawala of Needham. To learn more about how you can support the efforts of the Boston Leadership Council go to http://www.savethechildren.org/BLC. 

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