Education for refugees
Education in Darfur: a critical component of humanitarian response
Emergency funding continues to overlook education
Authors:
M. McKenna; J. Perlman Robinson
Publisher:
Women's Refugee Commission, 2006
After nearly four years of conflict, there is still a lack of quality and appropriate education for the more than one million children and youth displaced from Darfur. This advocacy brief outlines findings on education from field visits taken by the Women’s Commission for Refugee Women and Children in 2005 and 2006, and recommends actions the international community can take to ensure that children and young people in Darfur have an opportunity to learn while displaced from their homes and communities.
The brief notes that:
- schools can be places where life-saving information - such as landmine awareness and HIV and AIDS prevention - is taught
- in refugee camps there is an opportunity to provide education and training to women and girls who previously had no opportunity to attend school
- investing in education eases the return home and furthers the reconciliation process
- young people left with nothing to do in displaced persons camps are vulnerable to exploitation and more likely to become involved in delinquent activities and violence
- children and young people have a right to education.
However, despite recognition of these protective effects of education, the lack of funding for schooling in Dafur is typical of the international community’s failure to support education in emergencies. The brief recommends that:
- the international community should pressure the Sudanese government to accept an international force able to protect civilians and deliver humanitarian assistance
- a high level of funding is required in Dafur that should include funding for formal and non-formal education
- the Government of Sudan, the UN and NGOs should establish Youth Centres and more programming for youth, including vocational training and accelerated learning programs
- UNICEF and other donors should continue to encourage the Ministry of Education to recruit, hire and adequately compensate more teachers, prioritising the recruitment and training of women in order to increase the girls’ participation.
