When the people of Timor-Leste chose independence from Indonesia in September 1999, pro-Indonesian militias responded with brutality. At the beginning of what was supposed to be the 1999-2000 school year, three quarters of the population fled across the border into…
The Palestinian education system has emerged through its formative years against a backdrop of on-going crisis, repeated emergency and intensifying restrictions on movement. When the Palestinian Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MoEHE) was established as a result of the…
USAID emergency education programmes have ranged from rebuilding education systems in Afghanistan to supporting the tsunami-affected countries and post-earthquake Pakistan with education programmes that quickly begin to restore order, create stability and regenerate public sector capacities. The challenge has been…
Established in the mid 1980s and funded primarily by Germany and UNHCR, BEFARe runs formal and non-formal educational (NE/NFE) activities for both the local population and Afghan refugees. It has been involved in operating over 300 schools and over a…
The Minimum Standards for Education in Emergencies, Chronic Crises and Early Reconstruction were developed in a consultative process by over 2,250 individuals from more than 50 countries, including students, teachers and staff of NGOs, UN agencies, donors, governments and universities.…
Many meetings on education and conflict fail to consider the perspectives of children. Children should be considered as ‘clients’ and as the reason for education interventions. Frequently, however, children are alluded to from a theoretical perspective. The emphasis on the…
Less than two years ago I spent my schooldays wondering if I would have to run from the classroom to escape shooting. Today I am eighteen years old, in my first year of secondary school. And instead of worrying about…
Just across the border from the conflict-ravaged Sudanese region of Darfur, in the arid countryside of eastern Chad, wind and dust whip through an open-air class where groups of girls struggle to study. Scattered trees offer little shelter but, in…
Until 2004 the number of asylum seekers approaching UNHCR in North Africa had been modest – at most a few dozen a year in each country. Numbers have steadily increased as a result of persistent conflict and violence in a…
For 25 years, Forum Réfugiés has helped refugees with housing, healthcare, information about their rights and integration into French society. Although our lawyers have provided training courses for professionals and volunteers working with refugees, we had never before been asked…