Refugees or not, children deserve an education
Photo of the week: Children at the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in northern Uganda and millions of other refugee children need support to ensure their education is not interrupted
June 24, 2016 by GPE Secretariat
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2 minutes read
Refugee children in a preprimary classroom in Kiryandongo refugee settlement, Uganda. Credit: GPE/Chantal Rigaud

Many children squeeze into this preprimary classroom at the Kiryandongo refugee settlement in northern Uganda, and many others peer through the windows and doors to listen in as well.

Most of them are refugees who have fled violence in neighboring South Sudan.

They are part of 17 million of school-age children around the world who are forced to be refugees or displaced in their own countries due to conflict.

Kiryandongo counts close to 50,000 refugees from South Sudan, a huge increase from 5,300 in 2013.

Earlier this week, as we observed World Refugee Day, we are reminded that millions of children like the ones in this photo need our support to ensure that their education is not interrupted, that their lives, already disrupted by turmoil, retain a semblance of normalcy, and that they can continue to dream of a better future for themselves, their families and their countries.

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We are now in Summer School on Higher Education in Emergencies, Geneva, discussing the issue of education in emergencies situation especially higher education. Most of the opinions are supporting the idea of making education accessible and sustainable for the situation. However, other ideas came up on what can be done to minimize or reduce the refugees rates? If we critically, looking into issue of the refugees in Northern Uganda from South Sudan, we can find that the cause was civil war that erupted between Government led by President Salva Kiir and the opposition group led by his First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar on December 2013, which was ended by the Peace Agreement of 2015, and had been implemented since April 2016 by formation of Transitional Government 11of National Unity (TGNU).
Another problem of Economic Crisis in the country has fueled up the situation and made the refugee camps to be best option for vulnerable people who have no ability to face the challenge. They migrated to neighboring countries like Sudan, which require more camps for settlement and other basic human rights to be met. I am for opinion of putting more focus on the causes of emergencies situations rather than solutions, if causes are minimized, it will reduce the rates of emergency situations and can be managed .

We are now in Summer School on Higher Education in Emergencies, Geneva, discussing the issue of education in emergencies situation especially higher education. Most of the opinions are supporting the idea of making education accessible and sustainable for the situation. However, other ideas came up on what can be done to minimize or reduce the refugees rates? If we critically, looking into issue of the refugees in Northern Uganda from South Sudan, we can find that the cause was civil war that erupted between Government led by President Salva Kiir and the opposition group led by his First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar on December 2013, which was ended by the Peace Agreement of 2015, and had been implemented since April 2016 by formation of Transitional Government 11of National Unity (TGNU).
Another problem of Economic Crisis in the country has fueled up the situation and made the refugee camps to be best option for vulnerable people who have no ability to face the challenge. They migrated to neighboring countries like Sudan, which require more camps for settlement and other basic human rights to be met. I am for opinion of putting more focus on the causes of emergencies situations rather than solutions, if causes are minimized, it will reduce the rates of emergency situations and can be managed .

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