Educate A Child Programme Donor Update on some of the 2015 Activities

Transcription

1 Samina, an Afghan refugee girl at school thanks to the EAC programme, is keen to learn English. She wants to be a teacher when she grows up at Kot Chandana refugee village in Mianwali, Pakistan. Photo UNHCR/ Duniya Aslam Khan Educate A Child Programme Donor Update on some of the 2015 Activities In 2012, UNHCR entered a partnership with the Educate A Child (EAC) Programme of the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, chaired and founded by Her Highness Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser of Qatar, to plan activities across 12 countries where there were high numbers of refugee children out of school. UNHCR s ambition then was to ensure that the first 172,000 of the 1.2 million refugee children globally who are out of school were able to turn up to a classroom with a trained teacher and the right learning materials sometimes for the first time in their lives. Four years on UNHCR has met that target several times over and with the help of donors is working towards providing access to school for a million children before the end of Progress in 2015 In a year when things got even tougher globally for the world s refugees, resulting in more than a million making dangerous journeys onwards in search of help in Europe, across our operations as numbers of displaced people soared by another 10 million to over 60 million the highest ever number. We doubled our efforts to reach as many people as possible with the funding we have. The Educate A Child programme kept hopes alive for the future for almost 570,000 children across 12 countries, including children trapped inside Syria whilst conflict still rages. Our amazing donors stayed with us in funding the programme helping us make this a reality keeping children in school, learning and gearing up for their future, whatever that will bring. This report is the first of our now twice yearly updates and it focuses on activities in the second half of Once again, conflict situations affected so many of our operations during this period making it very hard to track some of our key statistics around the retention of children and the official new enrolment figures. Data gathering is now a much slower process and more complex process due to the interruption that security situations bring. In time we hope to validate the estimates. Here is some detail on what we achieved with your amazing support during

2 We funded special training and initiatives specifically to provide extra support to children who are so caught up in conflict Given the massive impact of conflict on refugee children, we paid special attention to what we can do to provide extra support through our programming in Syria, Yemen and Ethiopia, helping to mitigate the impact of conflict on children s education. For example, through a wide network of 500 community outreach volunteers, hotlines and 30 community centers, UNHCR in Syria accessed a large number of students particularly those in hard-toreach areas unable to access the UNHCR office. We reached thousands of Syrian students who had been forced from their homes inside Syria with various forms of support including providing information, counselling as well as cash grants to allow families to purchase much needed educational materials for children. UNHCR in Yemen also delivered an integrated Child Protection and Education training on Psychosocial Support for Children Affected by Conflict, in which 40 teachers and social counsellors as well as the Ministry of Education and Sana a Education Office participated. In Ethiopia, we conducted an integrated Education and Child Protection workshop in Shire that engaged Child Protection, Sexual and Gender-based Violence and Education personnel drawn from UNHCR and partners. Participants and facilitators discussed practical approaches on how to mainstream and complement Education and Child Protection with other protection, prevention of SGBV (sexual and physical violence) and youth initiatives. We funded the construction of 3 brand new schools using an innovative funding mechanism We got great value for our supporter s investment through a new initiative in Iran. This was following another success for us - an advocacy success where the Government of Iran officially agreed to allow undocumented Afghan refugee children into national school. Our part in this partnership was to help fund the associated infrastructure expansion to make this possible. Assessments showed that an additional 12,000 classrooms were required to provide adequate education space for Afghan refugee children. During 2015 we funded the first 3 brand new primary schools in Semnan and Qazvin - each with 12 classrooms and in Shiraz with 14 classrooms. Combined they have boosted the student spaces by 1,900 for each academic year. The innovative mechanism allows us to reduce the construction costs substantially with the generous support of the Ministry of Education and a charitable organisation called the Charity of School Construction. While UNHCR covered 75% of the entire cost, the rest was funded by the charitable organisation with the Ministry of Education s support to equip, operate and maintain the schools into the future. In Iran in May 2015, a Supreme Leader s decree announced that all Afghan children in Iran shall have access to formal education regardless of their status and documentation. UNHCR was delighted that 40,000 Afghan refugee children could join school as a result! The Ministry of Education reported that approximately 40,000 undocumented Afghan children were newly registered for the current school year, which is between September 2015 and June 2016 And we arranged the repair and maintenance of more than 28 other schools and learning centres In Syria we helped renovate 6 schools back from their conflict damaged state into use. The schools will give many years of service meaning that they will have helped educate thousands of children in their lifetime. In Malaysia we invested in the maintenance, upkeep and operation of some 22 learning centres to help keep them open and functioning for the 2

3 thousands of Rohingya refugee children who attend as they are unable to join Malaysian National Schools. We ensured over 172 classrooms were built or renovated Across Chad, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan & South Sudan we constructed or repaired 172 classrooms creating learning spaces for over 8,500 children each year - for some 10 years suitable for their weather conditions and climate in the country. We recruited or funded almost 3,000 teachers We funded the recruitment or payment of 2,991 teachers across the programme in Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda & Yemen. This is one of the most vital elements in delivering a quality education to children. Siyad Aden Hassan (Kenyan national teacher) inducting newly employed teachers on child pedagogy Winnie Nandwa The great induction programs that I have attended have created opportunities for novice teachers like me, whom before had not learnt from best practices. I can now deliver content more confidently after I was trained on preparation and analysis of content before going to class to teach We arranged training for over 500 teachers, provided over 120,000 textbooks as well as thousands of desks and materials Across Kenya, Pakistan, Sudan & Syria 518 Teachers received special training to improve their teaching practise and also to help them acquire extra skills to help manage the classroom when there is a high number of children who have experienced trauma. Often in the refugee context, education systems have expanded rapidly and some teachers find themselves without sufficient subject knowledge or appropriate skills because of poor quality, or complete lack of, formal teacher training. This lack of subject knowledge can present teachers with difficulties in understanding and breaking down the curriculum for their students. This is why UNHCR prioritises short in-service courses in child pedagogy access to recognised teacher training courses, as well as longer term diploma training that builds the capacity of the teachers, and empowers them to ensure the content they deliver to the learners is delivered professionally. The short training is often conducted during the school holidays and has helped to consistently improve quality of education. 3

4 Rahmo, a class 7 pupil in Central Primary school in Hagadera camp, Kenya clutching her EAC funded textbooks. UNHCR/Nasrullah Throughout Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Malaysia we have delivered almost 121,000 textbooks, exercise books, writing materials and reference books to hundreds of thousands of children across the programme building up stocks to reduce the need to share books and take turns using materials. In Kenya & South Sudan, we have provided over 3,700 desks enabling 11,100 children to sit up to a table making studying much more comfortable and helping the children to devote their attention to their studies more easily. Rahmo says: I am grateful to the support given to our school by our sponsors. The textbooks that we have received have helped me study on my own and even do homework. Since our school started getting these books, my performance has improved especially in my favourite subject which is English. I want to pass my exams and become a lawyer in future to help women and girls get rights. We funded computer equipment in schools helping to give children the skills that will serve them in the modern world In Kenya we trained 30 teachers in how to deliver ICT classes. In Malaysia 13 schools were supported with internet access helping teachers to download teaching materials and online support, and in South Sudan an ICT tutor was recruited and computers were bought to staff and equip the Ajuong Thok learning centre We supported over 10,700 children and families living in extreme poverty with cash grants, and exam fees to help their children access school Across Chad, Sudan, Malaysia & Syria, we have provided cash grants for school fees, for transport costs, for exam fees and to savings and loan schemes to help Parent Teacher Associations provide support to families who are particularly vulnerable were all successfully delivered. In Chad, some 20 PTA revolving schemes were supported with starter grants of $1,000 each, 1,100 students in Malaysia whose families were missing the $35 to ensure they could afford the travel costs to school. In Sudan, 3,761 students had their school fees paid or examination fees paid; whilst in Syria 5,856 refugees received school grants to help them continue their studies as best they can in the conflict. We provided almost 11,500 school uniforms to children to help them attend school in dignity and with added protection In Ethiopia & Yemen, we provided over 11,400 uniforms to children from the most vulnerable families helping them to join school in dignity, and with the extra safety measure that a recognisable uniform can bring for children on their journey to and from school. We know that uniforms have a positive effect on dissuading would-be exploiters as they know the child is expected and that they will be missed if they don't turn up at school. Next page: Afghan refugee students in Gamkol Refugee Village in Kohat, in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. They are among the students who received school uniform, books and stationary under the Educate A Child Programme UNHCR/Afridi 4

5 We helped over 22,500 children re-engage with their education even after missing years of schooling In South Sudan, some 6,076 students were enrolled in accelerated learning catch up schooling classes, whilst in Syria some 16,671 children benefitted from this innovative way to keep their education going whilst they struggle through conflict in their country. This education compresses several years of learning into intense courses designed to help children particularly those who are now beyond primary school age into a one year course. The aim is to help them re-join school at the appropriate level, or in the worst case scenario, provide them with a completed level of basic education to help them access training or a job. We funded pre-school classes to help prepare younger children for school In Yemen & Pakistan, we funded 8 early childhood centres in Pakistan and opened 5 more, and funded the addition of 55 specially trained staff, to provide safe, preparatory day care for children under 5 years old to give them a great start in life and also enable older siblings to attend school and their mothers to be free to pursue employment or education. In Yemen, we funded facilities so that 107 young children were able to join early childhood daycare too. We worked hard to engage parents and community members to get involved in vital aspects of the management of schools and as ambassadors for education throughout the community Across Chad, Pakistan & South Sudan, we funded some 43 recruitment and back to school campaigns across 3 countries helping to engage parents, teachers and students in explaining the benefits of education to people from all walks of life and make communities who are particularly struggling aware of the financial support they could get to help fund school uniforms, learning materials and fees where these were a barrier for their children turning up to school. 5

6 We made sure 635 children with disabilities did not miss out on their right to an education In Kenya, Rwanda & Yemen, we supported some 640 children with disabilities or special educational needs across 4 countries. We paid school fees for 100 children in Rwanda with visual impairments and we provided assistive aids like sticks, glasses and wheelchairs for 540 more in Kenya and Yemen, as well as 6 blocks of toilets with widened doors in Kakuma camp in Kenya to enable children to attend school with dignity. We kept our focus on ensuring that we do more to seek out the children who are still out of school and provided support to the overall education system including monitoring and reporting systems to pot problems and identify good practise Throughout Kenya, Rwanda & Ethiopia we continued our work carrying out research at community and household levels seeking out children who are still out of school and identifying the reasons why so that we can provide targeted support to them and their families to make education a reality for them too. In Malaysia, Ethiopia, Yemen & Rwanda, the programme continued our work convening all the parties across the Government, social services, local school networks and child protection sectors to continue raising standards, and working to make it a reality for refugee children to join schools in the national system. In Yemen, we brought together the ministry of education and our protection teams to work on designing a more integrated support system for refugees. In Malaysia and Ethiopia, we worked on refining the curriculum and training staff on education programming for refugees to ensure that programmes are designed to take account of their special circumstances and experiences. In Iran, our previous work paid off, when the Government announced through a Supreme Leader s decree that all Afghan children in Iran shall have access to formal education regardless of their status and documentation. Some 40,000 undocumented Afghan children were newly registered for the current school year, between September 2015 and June In Yemen & Kenya, UNHCR continued building the infrastructure for the monitoring and quality maintenance of schools in Ethiopia and Rwanda, providing the next stages of roll out of the online Education Management Information System helping schools to track performance, attendance, enrolment, attainment and quality of education. Where schools are still outside of national inspection system like in Malaysia, we funded the visits and inspections of 55 learning centres as well as 6 social counsellors in Yemen to help monitor the progress of children affected by conflict. UNHCR continues to provide free primary education to 68,913 Afghan refugee children They live in 54 refugee villages and attend school at one of the 175 schools, 48 satellite classes, Early Childhood Education centres and 15 home-based girls schools supported by the EAC Programme in Pakistan. For girls who are not allowed to attend regular schools, we have established Home Based Girls Schools. Afghan refugee students attend their routine class in Pakistan s Quetta city, which is home to approximately 170,800 registered Afghan refugees. UNHCR/Khan 6

7 Spotlight on Syria Our programme is Syria focussed on its four main strands during this year attempting to keep Syrian children s education on track: cash grants to help children fund their education needs whether it be study materials, transport to schools further away or home schooling; teacher training to help teachers upgrade their skills to help children who were suffering from the effects of the trauma of living in a war zone concentrate and keep up with their studies; the physical repair of school buildings to create safe spaces for learning; and accelerated learning - intensive courses to help children catch up months and sometimes years of missed schooling. Education grants are a practical mechanism to promote access to education - formal and informal - amid the current circumstances in Syria Rima Debsi, UNHCR s Senior Education Assistance Aya & Afrah UNHCR/Qusai Alazroni The Education Grant Programme aims at empowering refugee families to keep education of their children as a priority during the current crisis. Cash grants funded by EAC, provided refugees families with a sense of flexibility and as a practical protective tool from the risk of dropping out of school, and the common correlated consequences such as child labour. During 2015, some 5,856 refugee students received cash grants. Aya, 6, and her mother Afrah, pictured in a UNHCR community centre where they come to receive the education cash grant. In 2005, the family of five were forced to leave Sudan to seek refuge in Syria. Since then, they have received assistance from UNHCR, including cash grants under the EAC funded programme. The family suffered many hardships because of the crisis in Syria. They were forced out of their home in Rural Damascus to live in a rented apartment in Damascus where they barely can afford the rent. Afrah uses the cash grant to pay for stationary and transportation of her three children. Ahmed, an 18 year old refugee from Egypt also benefits from the cash grants together with his siblings Shahd, in 7th grade, and Rami, in 4th grade. This has helped him return to school after dropping out. UNHCR/Qusai Alazroni I have three children in school without the assistance we receive, we would not be able to send the children to school Afrah, mother of refugee children receiving education grants in Syria 7

8 UNHCR also provided support at community level helping children to reconnect with education the best way possible given their location and circumstances. We provided this hands on support through a wide network of 500 outreach volunteers, UNHCR s hotlines and 30 community centers. This is how we managed to access a large number of students particularly those in hard to reach areas or who those who were unable to afford commuting to UNHCR office to attend education awareness sessions. UNHCR was able to reach over 600 students with various forms of information to help them back towards education. Teacher training has continued despite major challenges on the ground. A total of 200 teachers in Homs and Tartous governorates received psychosocial support training (PSS) to help them provide appropriate support to children feeling the effects of the conflict on their ability to concentrate and stay connected to their studies. We worked with our partners to continue to improve the quality of education through training workshops focussing on topics communication skills, psychosocial support, behavior modification, child protection and other subjects. The objective of teachers PSS training program is to help teachers understand and identify the different types of traumatic events that a student has been exposed to at times of crisis and hence playing a role in mitigating their stress and help them re-establish their social connection through activities such as going to school, playing sports and engaging in hobbies. Our school repair programme continued - These are some pictures of some of the work done to bring a Damascus school back into safe use for children, ensuring that their education continued despite the chaos of the conflict raging around them. This is one of the six schools we were able to reach to carry out such works due to the worsening of the security situation. During 2016 we will ramp up our rehabilitation work moving into Homs to repair and bring back schools as security allows. Before and after repair at the Muslim Abdeen School in Damascus UNHCR Syria Lastly, we were able to continue our programme of accelerated learning, which proved a lifeline to help children reclaim their education before it was lost for ever. The programme is especially designed to help children who have had to drop out of school sometimes for months, or even years, to catch up to a level close to where they would normally have been if conflict hadn t have visited their childhood so dramatically. The purpose of this to help them re-insert into school in another location, or in time to sit exams which will help them stay in track in their learning and attainment saw a further 2,083 children who had been forced to flee their homes elsewhere in Syria join 865 more refugee students in accelerated learning classes at primary and secondary education. 8

9 How did we invest your money during 2015? This table shows a snap shot of our results for In the same way that some of our results are held up by conflicts raging around our operation, making it hard to verify information, the same is true for some of the expenditure. These figures represent the minimum amount we have spent achieving the results outlined above. Despite the tough year, we still helped children keep their lives on track by keeping them in education, so they can make the very best of their futures. Our donors have made this possible, and we are enormously gratefully for your continued commitment to refugee children through the Educate A Child programme. Shortly, we will be releasing details of the next stage of the programme as we Little Yasmeen joined school in 2015 thanks to the Educate A Child Programme in Kot Chandana Refugee village in Mianwali, Pakistan. UNHCR/Khan Countries of Operation Area of Programme Estimated spend autumn & winter 2015 Syria & South Sudan Catch up Schooling $4,749,452 Chad, Sudan, Malaysia & Syria Cash grants $1,976,753 Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, Uganda & Yemen Teacher Recruitment & Payment $2,198,702 Pakistan Education Package $1,147,690 Chad, Kenya, Ethiopia, Sudan, South Sudan and Malaysia Chad, Ethiopia, Pakistan, Rwanda, Sudan & South Sudan Iran & Syria Kenya & South Sudan Textbooks & Learning Materials Classroom Construction & Renovation Building or Rehabilitating Schools School Desks & Equipment $780,629 $699,484 $390,136 $317,722 Kenya, Rwanda & Yemen Disability $295,976 Chad, Pakistan & South Sudan Kenya, Pakistan, Sudan & Syria Community Education & Involvement Teacher Training & Materials $269,502 $257,140 Ethiopia & Yemen School Uniforms $191,284 Malaysia School Investment $138,060 Yemen & Pakistan ECD $77,730 Kenya, Rwanda & Ethiopia Malaysia, Ethiopia, Yemen & Rwanda Identifying and reaching children who are not in school Monitoring & Evaluation Infrastructure & Training $45,740 $36,300 South Sudan, Kenya & Malaysia Access to computers $17,000 Yemen & Kenya School Management $13,930 Yemen, Malaysia & Ethiopia Education System $10,200 TOTAL $13,613,431 continue our progress towards making education a reality for 1 million children in some of the worst situations in the world. Thank you for your amazing support helping refugee children access 9 their right to an education!

10 Top of the Class in Kenya! Kakuma s shining academic star The dust has finally settled and top performing Kenya Certificate of Primary Education class of 2015 candidates have had a week celebrating their achievements, some even gracing national TV stations to tell the whole country what it took for them to excel in the examinations. Some have even had parties in their honour as parents, siblings, former teachers and schoolmates seek to celebrate. In faraway Kakuma Refugee Camp, Margaret Awak Aguer is still coming to terms with her performance. Margaret defied all odds to score an amazing 400 out of a possible 500 Marks in the examinations and thus became the best student in the entire refugee camp where 2,939 candidates from 19 primary schools sat the examinations. The camp has 20 primary schools and 12 pre-schools with a combined student population of 71,972, just 28,773 of whom are girls). The bulk of the funding for school facilities, payment of teachers salaries and provision of teaching and learning materials is provided by the UNHCR and the Educate A Child Programme. Shambe Primary School in Kakuma Refugee camp, which Margaret attended is a nondescript school with 2,226 refugee students but no aesthetic beauty to write home about, in fact the classes are usually overcrowded. That however, did not deter Margaret and her fellow learners from pursuing their dreams. In 2015, the school presented 219 (38 of them girls) candidates for KCPE. Margaret s story is that of hard work, humility, discipline and desire to succeed in life, despite the obvious obstacles on her path. In 2010 at the age of 12, she arrived in Kakuma from Jonglei State, South Sudan accompanied by her aunty Sarah Abul, her younger brother and 3 other cousins, leaving her father, mother and two siblings behind as she pursued education at Kakuma Refugee camp. Her parents and the rest of the family eventually followed but she continued staying with her aunt Sarah because of the distance to the nearest school. I really wanted to go to school immediately but every time I went, some older children would bully me and so I stayed home says Margaret. She gathered courage and decided to confront her fears head-on and the following year she enrolled in 4 th grade at Shambe Primary School, about 2 kilometres from her home. Like many other girls in similar settings, Margaret had to balance between studies and domestic chores like fetching water, firewood, washing and occasionally assisting her aunty with cooking for the family. I enjoy cooking and can make very good mandazi (Kenyan food) she says, adding that her aunty has always been very supportive and even bought a solar lantern to enable her study at night. Whenever she came from school, she used to assist with the work, eat dinner and then study until around 11 pm. In the morning she wakes up at 5 am to fetch water, help prepare breakfast before leaving for school says her aunty Sarah. On the day the results were released, she ran back home, bought airtime for her aunt s phone and checked my results. I could not believe what I saw on the screen until I went to school and confirmed that I had actually scored 400 marks! says Margaret with a wide grin on her face. Kiswahili was the most challenging one for me she says, though she still scored an A with 80%. She is full of praises by her Kenyan class teacher known as John who she says kept on encouraging and guiding the candidates as they prepared for the exams. I m very glad I have successfully gone through my primary education. I want to study law and eventually become a judge she reveals excitedly. 10