UNICEF launches campaign to bring education to displaced children

World Today

UNICEF said some 75 million school-aged children around the globe are in desperate need of educational support. One in four children between the ages of three and 18 live in countries affected by humanitarian crises.

The organization has launched a new campaign to reach these children and is looking to governments around to help fund it $3.85 billion is the goal. Pakistan would be one country qualifying for aid.

CCTV’s Danial Khan traveled to the southwestern province of Balochistan, and visited an Afghan refugee camp, for an up-close look at the state of education in the camp.

Located about 40 kilometers (24 miles) outside Balochistan’s provincial capital of Quetta, is Saranan camp, the largest out of 12 Afghan refugee camps in the province.

Hosting more than 30,000 residents, the population of Saranan has steadily increased since 1986, when it was established.

There are nearly 8,000 children under the age of 5, living in unforgiving conditions.

Scarcity of resources and ever-growing poverty often leaves small children exposed to extreme circumstances.

“All the children at the camp cannot go to school because there are a lot of problems at the camp. When 40 students get admitted in grade 1, only 10 to 15 students reach the 12th grade,” Zahir Pashtun the school principal said. “Because of the financial problems, thousands of students have to let go of their studies and they start working from a young age.”

The children are forced to work after school. Each child gets a mere 30 cents for a day’s work at the brick kiln, working under the scorching sun, lifting heavy bricks for hours on end.

Inside the Saranan camp, six schools have been established. But almost all seem deserted, and the ones that are operational, have meager resources.

What does stands out is an ostentatious display by the United Nations, as one enters the school.

A UN education campaign launched in the year 2000 aimed to provide “Education for All” by the year 2015 – with pledges from 164 countries.

With that goal unmet UNICEF’s new “Education Cannot Wait” campaign is hoping to raise nearly four billion dollars to reach children living in crisis situations over the next five years.


Sarnata Reynolds discusses educating refugee children

To take a deeper look at the issue of educating refugee children displaced throughout the world, CCTV America’s Rachelle Akkufo spoke with the Director of Strategy for Humanity, Sarnata Reynolds.