As the humanitarian crisis evolves; Children on the Edge will be working with local partners to create a number of classrooms and safe spaces for some of the most vulnerable new arrivals. With thousands more refugees arriving every day, the needs far outweigh the resources available.
An already grim situation for Rohingya migrants in Bangladesh has reached dire new levels over the past month in what has turned into a humanitarian catastrophe for the Rohingya. A fresh wave of violence and atrocities in Rakhine State, Myanmar coincided with near record levels of flooding in the region. Over 330,000 have fled across the border into makeshift refugee camps and local communities, many of which are underwater. Children on the Edge partners on the ground report the situation as ‘chaotic’ and ‘unpredictable', as they join the effort to provide aid to thousands of arrivals, fleeing what the UN is describing as a 'textbook example of ethnic cleansing'. Most of these have arrived in the Cox's Bazar area where we work. Local staff are estimating that with this new influx, there are now at least 500,000 Rohingya arrivals since the last spike of violence and displacement in October 2016. The timing could not be worse for such a human catastrophe to unfold. Large swathes of the country remain underwater as the region has received near record rainfalls in the past month. Already impoverished Bangladeshi communities, which are still taking stock of flood damage, are ill-equipped to host scores of tramautised new arrivals, many of whom have had their homes burned by the Myanmar army and witnessed even more unspeakable acts. The government in Naypyidaw has made little secret of its disdain for the nearly one million Rohingya in Myanmar, and this latest outbreak of violence appears to be another dark chapter in their larger campaign to force them out of the country. We have been working with Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh for the past seven years, educating children in Kutapalong camp, one of the largest makeshift camps on the border. Our classrooms provide a child-friendly, stable and safe space for these children to learn and recover from trauma. Our years of experience working with the Rohingya community here makes us uniquely placed to respond to the current crisis. We are responding to both the immediate relief needs of the new arrivals as well as preparing to provide services once the crisis passes and world's attention turns elsewhere. There are 200,000 newly-displaced, stateless children who are extremely vulnerable, arriving in communities where we are working. It costs just £4.30 a day to provide a safe space for 60 Rohingya refugee children. Make a donation today and help us support and protect as many of these children as we can. “I don’t remember what life was like before coming to the camp”, says Azima, “but my friends tell me we would play and go swimming”. Azima is nine years old and lives in a Rohingya makeshift refugee camp on the Bangladesh-Myanmar border. Her mother told us about when they fled Myanmar due to the persecution of the Rohingya, saying “After the riots and looting started we were scared. When the violence came to our village we fled with only what we could carry. We walked one day to the water. Then took a boat to Bangladesh. Then we walked one more day”. Azima is one of six children, her father has been missing for over two years after leaving to find work on a fishing boat. Her mother weaves fishing nets to try and earn enough money to feed the children, but this is a constant struggle. When we talked with the Rohingya community back in 2010, the only thing they requested was education for their children. The official United Nations Kutupalong camp provided such services, but the overspilled makeshift camp, a sprawling mass of mud, stick and plastic shelters, had nothing. Not only this, but authorities would not permit permanent structures or formal schools for unregistered refugees. For a long time, thousands of children wandered the camps, unoccupied and vulnerable. We made education possible in what looked like an impossible environment, by supporting the refugee community to build low-profile schools for their children. These 45 classrooms were built onto existing dwellings and are now educating 2700 children in the makeshift camp. We trained over 40 Rohingya refugees as teachers using a curriculum especially designed for refugee children who have missed out on education. Over the last six years, these 2,700 Rohingya refugee children have received an education, in a safe and nurturing environment. Not only are they following a government approved curriculum and sitting exams, but, after what they have been through, they are developing their confidence and self worth. To reach the most children, one child from each household attends school, and then shares their learning with their siblings, parents and friends. Azima’s mother says “Azima is a very hard worker. That is why we chose her to go to school. She is smart and helpful. She spends many hours teaching her brothers and sisters to read and write. It is very important for the future of my family that my children know more than I do. I never learned to read. Without the schools my children could only weave nets like me. That is not a good life. I hope we can do better”. Azima is doing well, flourishing at the camp school and would love to be a teacher herself one day. In fact a 97% pass rate has recently been recorded, and she and her friends have also learnt skills to communicate with army officers, read vital health leaflets, negotiate better prices at the market and understand about the world by reading newspapers they find in the camp. “I don’t leave the camp because I am afraid of the police” says Azima, “but I love to go to the school. Without it I would have nowhere to go. It’s only hard sometimes when I am hungry, but I love to see my friends. My teachers are good people and they work hard every day. My favourite teacher is my English teacher as he likes to make jokes!” A new wave of violence against the Rohingya in October 2016 resulted in an additional influx of around 70,000 refugees to Bangladesh. It drew the eye of the international community and softened the government's position on unregistered Rohingya. We are optimistic that our education programme will now be recognised by the authorities and facilitated by UNICEF. With children like Azima in Kutupalong makeshift camp receiving the services they should, Children on the Edge can replicate the model to support new Rohingya arrivals, as yet unable to access services. You can help us to help these new arrivals by supporting our ‘Back to School’ campaign. Getting children Back to School
School’s out for summer, but you will have seen plenty of ‘Back to School’ supplies in the shops and online; as children get kitted out for their return in September. But getting ‘Back to School’ for the children we work with around the world is a lot more complicated than just buying pens, uniforms and packed lunch boxes. These children face enormous barriers to getting an education, but through our projects, we make it possible for them to access learning again, in a safe place. We provide education for thousands of children like Azima, living 'on the edge' in refugee camps, slum communities and in some of the most remote parts of the world. Could you make a donation today to help us support more children like Azima? Just £10 can provide exercise books and text books for ten Rohingya refugee children for a year in one of our camp schools in Bangladesh
Described by the UN as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities”, the Rohingya people from Rakhine state, Burma have faced generations of horrific anti-Muslim violence and abuse from the Burma authorities. As a result, thousands flee over the border in the hope of finding refuge in Bangladesh.
With official UN camps in Bangladesh at capacity, arrivals since 2005 have been denied official refugee status. They are forced to settle in makeshift border camps, and any provision for unregistered refugees is prohibited by the Bangladesh authorities. On the request of the Rohingya community in one of these makeshift camps, we have provided education for 2,700 Rohingya refugee children through a low-profile approach. Ahmed is 10 years old and lives in the makeshift Kutapalong refugee camp with his parents and six brothers and sisters. He attends one of the schools run by Children on the Edge in the camp. His family are Rohingya, and faced constant persecution by the authorities in Burma. They fled to Bangladesh during a surge of violence towards their people group in 2012. His father says “We had a simple but happy life in Burma. I worked as a farmer and sometimes a fisherman. We were not rich, but we had everything we needed. Then the Rakhine mobs came to my village. They burned down my neighbour’s house. I did not wait to meet them. I took my family and ran. I have never met my neighbour again. We walked for two days to cross the border. Some mosques gave us food and water along the way. After we crossed, we walked another half day to Kutupalong camp. That first day we arrived I began building our house. I knew we had no other place to go”. Ahmed does not remember much about home, as he was just five years old when they fled, but he remembers being happy and playing with his friends in the grove of coconut trees near his house, taking turns climbing the trees. “All I really know is life in the camp. I get up at 5.00, finish my school homework and eat, go to the madrassa and then collect firewood if I can find any. Then I go to class. This is the best part of my day. I am lucky to learn, it gives me something to do each day. My favourite subject is English, but I can read and do maths, even my older brother can’t do this! If there is a newspaper I help my family understand what it says. I feel very proud to help them”. To reach the most households in the camp, Children on the Edge gives a place to one child from each household, then each student will share as much of their learning as they can with their family and friends. Ahmed’s father says “Ahmed is a smart boy and works very hard. Without education, he will just be a labourer like me. I believe he can do anything he wants if he studies hard. Without the schools, nobody in my family could read or write. I am very thankful that I have one child who can do this. Maybe they can all find a better jobs than me because they can learn. He brings his books home and shares them with his brothers and sisters, so I am hopeful he can teach the other children. Now I am too old to learn these things, but they still can learn. Also, people in the community know they can ask my son to read or write something if they need. That makes me proud”. Ahmed’s father tries to provide for the family by working as a daily labourer outside the camp. He does jobs that locals don’t want to do, but says that work is not always available and they are paid a pittance. Locals are unfriendly and he is often grabbed by the police who take any money he has earned. Ahmed never leaves the camp, and feels sorry for his friends that can’t attend the school. “They have nowhere to go, and they can’t read like me. I try to teach them, but it is not easy. If I couldn’t attend the schools I would be sad”. Ahmed feels that his future will be different because of the things he has learnt at the schools, he says “I know I can find a job because I can read, write, and do maths. And I know if I work very hard and learn many languages I can someday be a doctor in another country. Then I will take care of all my family. I love seeing my teachers, who are very smart, being with my friends and having books”. His teacher says “We hope that one day the children will replace us to teach in the community and also in the world. That they will be able to keep the name of the Rohingya known in the world. If this doesn’t happen then we will disappear. We need them to ensure the education goes down each generation.” Find out more about the project and consider supporting our work by clicking one of the buttons below. Across the world, over 65 million people have been forced from their homes as a result of war, persecution and poverty. This crisis dominates our media, but whilst much of the discussion is around the problems of migration in Europe, the vast majority of refugees flee to neighbouring countries. The Refugee Council describes how “It’s poor countries, not rich, western countries, who look after the vast majority of the world’s refugees” and state how The UN’s Refugee Agency have estimated that nearly nine in ten of the world’s refugees are sheltered by developing countries. Children on the Edge exists to help those children who are the most vulnerable; those living on the edge of their societies and forgotten by the media and international community. This is why we invest our support for those refugees that are trapped in border camps, often unregistered and denied even the most basic services. Below are a few examples of the refugee groups we work with and some detail about why supporting them is crucial. Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh Described by the UN as “one of the world’s most persecuted minorities”, the Rohingya people from Rakhine state, Burma have faced generations of horrific anti-Muslim violence and abuse from the Burma authorities. As a result, over the years, and with an additional surge of violence last October, according to the Bangladesh government, there are now an estimated 300,000 - 500,000 Rohingya people dwelling in Bangladesh. With official UN camps in Bangladesh at capacity, thousands are denied official refugee status. They are forced to settle in makeshift border camps, and any provision for unregistered refugees is prohibited by the Bangladesh authorities. On the request of the Rohingya community in one of these makeshift camps, we have provided education for 2,700 Rohingya refugee children through a low-profile approach. 45 small classrooms, dispersed throughout the camp, with basic learning materials have been built out of mud either within or alongside existing dwellings. Rohingya teachers have been trained from within the camps and the children learn with a child-friendly curriculum, that focusses on creativity and fostering self worth. Syrian refugees in Lebanon The years of conflict in Syria have created one of the most devastating humanitarian disasters of this generation. As the crisis enters its sixth year, the United Nations has reported that 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance. There are 4.8 million refugees and over 6.6 million have been internally displaced. Much of the media attention regarding Syrian refugees is focussed on their migration to Europe, but the vast majority of people seeking refuge remain in border countries. Over 1.5 million have ended up in Lebanon which, with a population of just 4 million themselves, have the highest per capita concentration of refugees in the world. The most vulnerable do not have the capacity to travel further than the borders, and the refugee community we have spoken with here have only expressed a desire to return home. The Lebanese government have been been struggling to accommodate this flood of new arrivals. Despite a national and international focus on providing education for refugees, the Ministry of Education’s ‘Back to School’ programme has a number of problems, resulting in insurmountable barriers for many refugee children in the Bekaa Valley settlements where we work. Consequently, through a number of informal tent schools, we are providing education for 500 Syrian refugee children. Syrian refugees are trained as teachers, using a child friendly Montessori curriculum that is taught in the Syrian dialect. Internally displaced Kachin people in Burma Since June 2011 the central government in Burma has been in open conflict with the Kachin Independence Army following a failure in peace talks to resolve their longstanding conflict. While this conflict dates back decades, the past six years have seen consistent fighting, displacing more than 120,000 people across Northern Burma. In 2012 we heard first-hand accounts of those fleeing the conflict, who spoke of brutal violence, ongoing atrocities and severe violations of human rights including the wide-spread burning of villages, rape, maiming and executions. Now the government appears determined to crush this last remaining pocket of wide-spread armed resistance in Burma and their tactics have been increasingly harsh. In October, with significant natural resources and political influence at stake, they began to use jets, helicopters and shelling to attack civilians in the camps where we work, forcing them to flee yet again. We have been working for a number of years in high-altitude, internally displaced people's (IDP) camps, providing education for 629 displaced Kachin children, in 14 Early Childhood Development Centres. We are the only international organisation providing ongoing support for young children in these remote camps. The Centres are safe spaces which provide children with vital opportunities to learn, play and get the support they need, so that they are able to grow and develop, in spite of the daily realities of war. Children on the Edge go where the need is greatest. Our programmes give refugee children like these a safe environment where they are protected and ensure that their rights are realised. 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On Tuesday 30th May ‘Cyclone Mora’ hit Bangladesh's border region, wreaking havoc in the Rohingya refugee camps and destroying thousands of homes.
An estimated 500,000 Rohingya, a Muslim minority from Burma (Myanmar), have been fleeing from horrific human rights abuses, into Bangladesh for decades. UNHCR assists 33,000 Rohingya refugees in two official camps in Bangladesh, but there is an additional estimate of several hundred thousand undocumented Rohingya living in makeshift sites and host villages. We work to provide education for 2,700 Rohinga children in one of the makeshift camps in this area. As most homes in the camps are made of mud, sticks and plastic, they offered little resistance to the strong winds. It has been reported that in this region more than 17,000 houses were destroyed and more than 35,000 were damaged. A spokesperson for the UN has reported that they are ‘very under resourced’ to deal with the damage. The cyclone comes just seven months after a new wave of violence from the Burma military caused a further 75,000 Rohingya refugees to cross the border into Bangladesh. These new arrivals were traumatised, vulnerable and many were wounded. They arrived to camps which had little or no resources to help them, and have been existing since this point in hastily constructed tents of bamboo and plastic which will have given no protection from this storm. Visiting the camp today, John Littleton, our Asia Regional Manager said “The cyclone has damaged 70% of the houses in the camp. Sadly eight of our schools will need to be completely rebuilt and 18 schools need new roofs.”. The storm has had a devastating impact on the entire Cox’s Bazar area, so around six of our schools for working children in Cox’s Bazar slum communities also need repairs due to wind and flooding. The total cost for repairs in both the camp and Cox’s Bazar community is estimated at between £7,000-10,000 and we are working to find these funds. 27 year old Hamida Begum told Reuters “"I hate being a Rohingya. We are being tortured in Myanmar. Now in Bangladesh, we have no rights. Nothing. After this cyclone, we don't have a roof. We are living under the sky. We have no future.” Find out more about the work we do with the Rohingya and consider a donation to the project by clicking the button below. In Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, we work with local partners to provide education for around 500 Syrian refugee children. Most of these children are living in informal settlements on the border and are provided with child-friendly education in tent schools. We support the training of Syrian refugees as teachers, so the children can learn within their own culture and feel a sense of safety and familiarity. One of the schools for refugees is based in a thriving Community Centre, run by our partners in Beirut. It caters for both Syrian and Iraqi refugees and not only provides education, but is a hub for the wider support of the refugee communities and the Lebanese poor. Project leader Nuna Matar says “Life is difficult in the refugee settlements, but refugees in Beirut face huge difficulties too. There are people living on rooftops and in garages, they have no facilities, they can’t send their children to school and face a lot of discrimination”. Over 100 children attend educational classes at the Centre, studying English, Arabic, maths, art and computers. It also provides psycho-social classes for around 300 children, vocational training and adult education. There are monthly clothes distributions and computer lessons for all ages to enable learning and contact with relatives back in Syria and Iraq. Noora fled her city in Iraq where her husband worked in a restaurant, when it was surrounded by ISIS. They first fled to the north of the country with their three children, witnessing people killed around them and enduring a four hour journey on foot. “Everyone was afraid”, says Noora, ”we left with nothing at all. The children still remember this day and have nightmares”. After a month or so they made the trip to Beirut to find safety. “Life is very difficult in Beirut. I worry about my children as there are no doctors and medication is too expensive. My husband has found work in construction but not enough for the rent, which is for two small rooms. With my parents, there are now eight people in these rooms. I feel safer here but the children still play games about war and shooting, and we have no security for the future.” Noora has registered for an English summer school at the Centre to give her more options in the years to come, and her children come along to the education classes. The Centre in Beirut is a lifeline for refugees like Noora. It is attended by around 800 people a day, with new registrations every week. Find out more about the work we support in Lebanon and consider donating to the project with the button below. Burma’s Kachin people have suffered enormously at the hands of their own government in an ongoing conflict which has worsened in recent months. After military attacks and occupation, thousands of displaced people have been forced from Zai Awng camp and are now struggling in a hastily constructed settlement in northern Kachin. We are currently the only international organisation working with this forgotten community in the remote mountain camps. Our Asia Regional Manager, John Littleton visited this extremely hard-to-reach area of Burma in April 2017 and found that the situation has changed drastically, with many children now in increasingly desperate need of support. We’ve been working for a number of years in high-altitude, internally displaced people's (IDP) camps, including Zai Awng, providing education for 629 Kachin children, in 14 Early Childhood Development Centres. These safe spaces have given young children vital opportunities to learn, play and get the support they need, so that they are able to grow and develop, in spite of the daily realities of war. However, the intensified conflict in recent months, including air attacks and shelling has made these camps increasingly unsafe. Thousands of people were forced to flee Zai Awng late last year, looking for refuge over the border in China, only to be met with beatings and forced back, before fleeing again to stay safe. They hid in the jungle until troops withdrew. Some returned to the old camp but were not seen again, so the remaining 2,000 people built a new camp and called it Sha It Yang. This terrified and traumatised community have nowhere left to run, and are living in appalling conditions with little food and no clean water. Three teachers from our Centre in the original camp in Zai Awng have remained with the community and re-built a safe space for children in Sha It Yang. They have set up two classes but there is need for another four. Children are in desperate need of support after what they have been through, with teachers reporting that the even Chinese New Year firecrackers heard across the border are now terrifying for them. One teacher said, “We are doing the best we can, but naturally the children are quieter, less active and less able to be engaged and creative. The wider community is so tired of the fighting, they just want to go home, and they don’t understand why the world isn’t paying attention”. In the northern camps of Kachin state there is not a single other international organisation offering ongoing support to children. As the area remains an active war zone, access to the camps is difficult. Aid agencies sporadically operate in the central government controlled regions of Kachin State, but leave when the operating environment becomes too difficult. We are appealing for donations to ensure we can both maintain and expand our work here, to meet the escalating need in the new camp. If you are unable to support the work here financially, please share this blog where you can to direct attention to a terrified group of civilians, currently forgotten by the international community, yet in need of critical help.
Each year on the 8th of March, International Women’s Day encourages us all to forge a better working and more gender inclusive world. Children on the Edge works with local partners to restore the ingredients of a full childhood to some of the most vulnerable children worldwide. A big part of this is working towards equality in opportunities and an end to discrimination for the girls we work with. The theme for the 2017 International Women's Day is #BeBoldForChange and we are privileged to be partnering with a number of truly inspirational women, who constantly use boldness and strength to bring about change for women and girls in their communities. Nuna Matar is the Director of Triumphant Mercy , the Lebanese NGO we partner with to provide education for 500 Syrian refugee children in Bekaa Valley, Lebanon. We interviewed Nuna about what inspires her to be bold in creating change, what changes are possible, and how she overcomes obstacles and barriers in her work.
The work we support for Syrian refugee children in Lebanon has a specific focus on ensuring children can learn in their own culture and dialect. Children in the tent schools, set up in Bekaa Valley refugee settlements, are taught in Syrian Arabic by Syrian teachers. This is key to help them recover from trauma and to help them to re engage with learning, making education materials familiar and easy to understand.
Learning in mother tongue language facilitates access to education, while promoting fairness for population groups that speak minority or indigenous languages, in particular girls and women. It also raises the quality of education and learning by focussing on understanding and creativity, rather than on rote and memorisation. Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. For the children we working with, continuing to learn in their own dialect with a Syrian curriculum is crucial to retaining a sense of self, and a knowledge of their own identity and history. As time passes in the camps the children can easily become disconnected to their home. Schools Co-ordinator Nadine Morcos says “The teachers here speak the same dialect of Arabic as their students (often they're from the same or the neighbouring camp as the children), they get their culture, so nothing gets by them. The teachers are motivated to learn, motivated to be useful, and motivated to be a changing force in their communities.” All the Syrian refugees we speak to in the camps say that all they want is to go home and to help rebuild their country. They see their situation as temporary, so having their children learning in Syrian dialect is the most logical solution for them. They want to ensure that their children are educated for their own future and wellbeing, but also with the hope that in the future they are able to help Syria to get back on its feet. Read more about our work in Lebanon. |
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