Tamkeen Fund - edSeed

About The Fund

Tamkeen Fund’s premise is to enroll youth in academic institutions at undergraduate level.

The education facilitated leads them to hold mainstream internationally or multi country recognized academic degrees, in addition to building their character through complementary programs. The goal is for them to have the most primary tool to seek economic sufficiency that would help them stand on their feet wherever they land. And to equip them so that some may take further steps to a brighter future where they would become active contributors to societies they seed themselves in.

The spirit of Tamkeen is seeded in a family lineage that for generations has been passing on the torch of education as the pillar. I myself the founder of Tamkeen was given this torch by my late father Ihsan Al Kawas إحسان القواس and by the legacy of my and my husband’s late maternal grandfather Hasan Jabbara حسن جبَّارة. In turn, we passed it on to our daughters who are passing it on to our grandchildren.

This fund is a tribute to Hasan Jabbara and Ihsan Al Kawas may they both rest in peace, built with the ethics that both held in every act and in silence: Honesty, Integrity, Responsibility, Courage, Respect of others, a great sense of applied Justice, and Humility.

Integral to Tamkeen is its positioning itself as a partner in alleviating ongoing strain and hardship in Lebanon.

As the founder, and a human, my role is to give the torch a form and identity, only to then pass it on to the wider family of humans who see eye to eye and who can take Tamkeen to places I could not imagine.

Tamkeen تمكين: an Arabic word from the root Makkana and Makouna جذر [مكَّن و مكُن], with the approximated translation of empowering and enabling.

Meet the torch igniters and the torchbearers

This fund is a tribute to two igniters, and to those who will carry the torch forward as long as it may be needed,

Hasan Jabbara حسن جبَّارة (b. 1902, d. 1959)
Ihsan Al Kawas إحسان القواس (b. 1916, d. 2012)

Both men, may they rest in peace, embodied ethics in their every act and in poised silence. Their discretion in their work and existence invites one to both, mention them, all the while hold true to their discretion in their very existence.

Humbly, as Ihsan’s daughter and Hasan’s granddaughter, and for purposes of responsibility towards contributing funders, as the founder of Tamkeen,Salwa Al Kawas Al Jabri has dedicated over 40 years in social development, first thru the field of architecture and construction where setting high execution standards was central. In 2014, Salwa’s passion, decades of learning and focus weighed on education and equipping young Syrians to excel in spite of refuge. She established Tamkeen in 2020 after 7 years of working through Social Support Society in Lebanon.

Salwa is grateful to what she carries from both men, and sees Tamkeen as a mechanism for others to carry those values forward with her and onward.

With gratitude to the VIP Fund’s partnership.