Edited by Editorial staff FC
Almost half of the 14.8 million refugee children in school age in the world are excluded from the school system. There are therefore 7.2 million refugee children who do not have access to school, as emerged from the latest report on UNHCR education. If the education is crucial for everyone’s future, for them it represents something more: it can save their life. Especially during humanitarian emergencies, the school, in fact, protects refugee children, reducing the risks of forced recruitment in armed groups, of juvenile work, of exploitation, sexual and gender violence, pregnancies and early marriages.
Guarantee access to education, to bring color and hope in the lives of many children fleeing wars and violence, is the goal of “We color the future of refugee children”, the UNHCR campaign, the UN agency for refugees. The funds raised will support the “Primary Impact” UNHCR program in 26 countries around the world, which aims to ensure access to school to 250 thousand children by 2027.
«The school saves the life of refugee children, the tests are evident. On the desks, children are protected by exploitation, abuse, violence, forced recruitment, early marriages. But not only that, through education a refugee child can leave the trauma behind and return to live a reassuring normality, an essential factor for healthy psychophysical growth. Furthermore, only through the school, refugee children can integrate into a new country, socialize, learn and they will, one day, be able to realize their dreams and aspirations for their benefit and the communities that have welcomed them or their country, when there will be the conditions for returning home », he comments Laura IucciDirector of UNHCR Italia fundraising.
As emerges from the UNHCR report, only 65% of refugee children attend primary school. To fully understand the reasons for this problem, we must observe the barriers that children and children refuge in school age are facing. First of all, the costs: The school involves expenses that are sometimes unsustainable for the fleeing familiesamong these the uniforms, books and other educational materials, transport. In particularly vulnerable contexts it also happens that there are no schools to attend or that the classrooms are overcrowded or could serve the lack of basic structures such as water, toilets and health services.
The girls and refuge girls often face superior obstacles, sometimes of a social and cultural nature. Collect water or fuel, take care of the younger brothers or older relatives, to carry out the household chores: they are all tasks that fall heavily on girls. Finally, teachers often face classes of over one hundred students with few resources. The teachers themselves are often not very trained and equipped to face the numerous difficulties that children and refugee boys carry with them. In fact, they have lost months or years of school, have traumatic experiences behind them and are faced with linguistic barriers and new study programs.
The funds raised with the campaign will therefore support UNHCR’s “Primary Impact” program in 26 countries around the world, including Sudan, Syria, Yemen, Ethiopia, Burkina Faso and Nigerand which aims to guarantee access to primary school to 250 thousand boys and girls by 2027 and to ensure that another 500 thousand members do not abandon education. Among the various interventions envisaged in the program: the improvement of school infrastructures through, among other things, the construction and renovation of classrooms and the supply of benches; the supply of didactic materials including uniforms and backpacks; economic assistance to allow families to face schools related to school; the training of teachers; Psychosocial support and for the mental health of children. «For the survival of a refugee child, the school is no less important than food, of accommodation, medical care. For UNHCR, in fact, in an emergency situation, ensuring immediate access to education for children fleeing violence is a priority, but we need everyone’s help because the available resources are not sufficient. For this I make an appeal: we all donate to number 45588 by sending an SMS or calling from a fixed network. Let’s color the future of refugee children together », concludes Laura Iucci.
Until February 23, the campaign can be supported by sending an SMS to the solidarity number 45588 or by calling from a fixed network. The value of the donation will be 2 euros for each SMS Posted by Windtre, TIM, Vodafone, Iliad, PosteMobile, Fastweb, Coop Voce, Tiscali. It will be 5 or 10 euros for calls from a fixed network Tim, Vodafone, Windtre, Fastweb, Tiscali, Geny Communications and, always for the fixed network, of 5 euros convergences, PosteMobile.
All information, also for donations: https://sostieniunhcr.it/campagna_coloriamo_il_futuro
