LONDON : The UAE-based Varkey Foundation announced Lebanon’s Alsama Project as the grand prize winner at the Education World Forum in London. Selected from nearly 3,000 applications across 113 countries, the grassroots organization was hailed as a “standout” beacon of innovation by celebrated filmmaker and campaigner Richard Curtis and Sunny Varkey, founder of the Varkey Foundation.

Founded in 2020 with just 40 teenagers in Beirut’s Shatila refugee camp, Alsama (meaning “sky” in Arabic) has grown to operate four education centers in Beirut’s Shatila and Bourj al-Barajneh camps, and one in Homs, Syria.

While most refugee education programs focus on younger children, Alsama uniquely targets adolescents, an overlooked age group often trapped in a system where 85% of Syrian refugees in Lebanon cannot attend school, and fewer than 2% complete secondary education.

“Ninety percent of our students arrive unable to read, write, or perform basic math,” said co-founder Kadria Hussein, who accepted the award. “Within six months, most can do all three.”

Alsama’s hyper-practical, accelerated curriculum teaches beginners Arabic via road signs and numeracy through grocery budgeting. This context-driven approach allows students to progress to university readiness in just six years, half the time of traditional pathways.

The formula works: Alsama’s first cohort graduates this July, with students already securing prestigious scholarships to the University of Cambridge, the University of Leicester, and Arizona State University.

The school’s resilience was pushed to the brink during the heavy bombings of Beirut in 2024 and early 2026. As students fled back across the border to Syria, Alsama became one of the only education providers in Lebanon to continue teaching uninterrupted. The organization launched emergency fundraising to distribute SIM cards, shifted entirely to online learning, and set up makeshift classrooms inside displacement shelters.

What makes Alsama truly unique is that it is built and run by the community it serves:

72% of the staff are refugees.
96% come from refugee or local vulnerable communities.
Most senior leaders share a refugee background.

Alsama acts as both a school and a shield. Each center provides trauma-informed psychosocial support, employing full-time psychologists and hosting weekly sessions on gender equality, personal safety, and human rights.

Remarkably, 98% of students report feeling safe at Alsama, despite living in environments where violence and instability are daily realities.

The $500,000 grand prize, which comes on top of a $50,000
“Overcoming Adversity” category award Alsama won earlier this month, will fund a second accelerated learning center in Homs, Syria. The new center will offer core academics, financial literacy, and rights-based awareness alongside yoga and cricket.

The Global Schools Prize is the newest addition to the Varkey Foundation’s $1 million prize pool, completing a “trilogy” alongside the Global Teacher Prize and Global Student Prize to celebrate innovation on the front lines of education.

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