Pre-primary schools provide the first educational encounter to children for their early childhood social, psychological, and cognitive development. Refugee children often do not get opportunities for early childhood education. Bhutanese refugee children have become vulnerable after UNHCR pulled back its humanitarian assistance and CARITAS Nepal ended its education program.
Global Bhutanese Organization-GBO endeavors to provide learning opportunities to these children by raising funds through small donations from individuals and organizations. The funding aims to provide safe learning spaces, interactive learning, and meaningful engagement in educational activities. It envisions to improve literacy, assist in post-school educational needs, encourage social participation, and contribute towards building a better community.
Children in the Bhutanese refugee camps are struggling, and their futures are in limbo. GBO seeks to collaborate and partner with resettled Bhutanese communities in Australia, Canada, Denmark, Netherlands, Norway, New Zealand, The United Kingdom, The United States, and the refugee community in camps to generate funds and implement the educational project.
Education is a fundamental human right for all. Refugee children must receive schooling because it creates a sense of security and hope, often lacking in refugee settings. Primary education in the modern days is a fundamental tool without which it has been harder for anyone to navigate the world to survive comfortably. This education level is where we can teach humanitarian values making the world more civil to creating it a better place to live in.
Therefore, Global Bhutanese Organization-GBO, in conjunction with Camp Management Committee (CMC) Beldangi and Patharisanischare in Nepal, is trying to build the future of refugee children better and brighter through education. The project partners are renovating the Pancha Oti School site into Child Development Center for play-based learning and constructing of new ECDC School building in Patharisanischare camp.
This education project in the refugee camp will play a key role in building positive and inclusive learning environments. We hope to address the psychological needs of these students creating comfortable learning by providing necessary materials. We also hope to boost the Morales of the management team at the site.
Bhutanese communities in different parts of the world have a crucial role in supporting refugee children in the camp for their education. GBO and ECDC/CMC aim to construct a school building to hold Nursery and Pre-Primary students as well as their teachers comfortably.
Project
Title
Operation Site
GBO ECDC Education Project
Early Childhood Development Center (ECDC) / Montessori
Beldangi, Damak and PathariSanischare Camps, Nepal
GBO initiated this project in response to realization of challenges faced by the refugee children aged 3-5 years in the refugee camp, Nepal. These little ones needed to walk to Dhukurpani High School as the older children did once the donor organizations like UNHCR and CARITAS-Nepal were shying away from supporting educational programs inside the refugee camp. For this reason, GBO came up with the initiative to support the little ones trying to fund their schooling in Beldangi and Patharisanischare refugee camps. GBO is also making various approaches to support these children by implementing a wide range of strategies to provide additional support for a quality educational foundation. The support included education materials for children, uniforms for the children, backpacks, shoes, school operating costs: construction of classroom buildings and maintenance, and salaries to staff, Children’s tiffin snacks/launch/ day meals, etc.
The issue of the Bhutanese refugee children is a mere example in the world context. As more people throughout the world are forced to leave their homes due to conflict, climate change, or in search of a better life, host nations are trying to keep up with the influx of new students in their education systems. With scarce resources and limited funds, governments and organizations are forced to come up with new ways of including refugee students in local schools. However, with increasing gaps in policies for integrating these new students is not without barriers. Language restrictions, finances, and lack of job opportunities are just a few of the obstacles keeping kids out of school. Furthermore, displacement and resettlement can leave children out of school for years at a time, making it difficult for them to re-join formal education. Hence the emerging strategy of refugee inclusion in national education systems and draw on real-world programs as potential solutions to some of the challenges that refugees face in obtaining an education.
