Forge a future with a present with a full of doubts, needs and false hopes. The difficult role of young refugees in Shatila.
An estimated of twenty-eight thousand Syrian and Palestinian refugees lives under the crammed sky of Shatila (Beirut, Lebanon). Built in the middle of the twentieth century for the protection of Palestinians fleeing of the newly created state of Israel, it’s still welcoming victims of the conflicts in Syria and Palestine.
With a very poor educational conditions, 70% of the student’s absenteeism and a precarious teaching team, young refugees between 11 and 18 years of age, live in a limbo, waiting to create a future with an uncertain present.
With the constant hope of a better life, some of these teenagers take their first steps in the workplace of the family business. This is the case of Mustafa Teyson (13-year-old Syrian refugee who lost three of his brothers in the civil war and arrived in Shatila with his parents), who helps his family in the little shop of fabric. Other young people don’t have that opportunity and start to live as a beggar or belonging to a band of young rebels.
