Education for Rohingya refugee children

Kutupalong in Bangladesh is the world's largest refugee camp and home to over
880, 000 Rohingya refugees who have fled violence in Myanmar.

Children on the Edge has been working here since 2010, supporting
education for refugee children who are otherwise cut off from learning.

Currently, 150 colourful classrooms in 75 learning centres provide
high quality education in a child friendly space, for 7,500 children.

Ten year old Nisha is watering plants outside her Learning Centre in Kutupalong. She is wearing bright pink.

NAIFAH is ten years old and lives in Kutupalong refugee camp with her family. Her father was attacked when they lived in Myanmar and is now paralysed.

She attends one of our learning centres, where she learnt to read and write, and is happy that she can use her new skills to support her family and neighbours.

“We hadn’t seen any school like this in the camp before, and I really enjoy it. I have also learned a lot more about hygiene and keeping clean and well”.

Naifah likes to help water plants outside the classroom and skip with her friends after school.

WORKING ON 'THE EDGE' IN KUTUPALONG

The Rohingya people have faced decades of persecution and attack from the military in Myanmar.
In August 2017, co-ordinated military attacks against them forced 750,000 Rohingya into Bangladesh.
This brutal offensive was described by the UN as ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’.
These refugees arrived directly into the border areas and into Kutupalong refugee camp where we had been working for eight years, providing education for Rohingya refugee children.
Children make up 50% of the refugee community in Kutupalong camp and, despite a wealth of agencies investing in education, currently 500,000 children still lack access and are denied a curriculum in their own language.
Without adequate support, children face the prospect of growing up without an education and with no means to process the horrific events they have lived through.

WHAT WE DO TO HELP

Since 2010 we have been working to provide education and support to Rohingya refugee and slum dwelling children in Bangladesh. Working with our partner organisation, Mukti Cox’s Bazar, we now support 150 classrooms in the Kutupalong camp providing education for 7,500 children. 75 colourful learning centres encourage creativity and self expression with digital lessons, plenty of play and basic health support in safe spaces with trusted adults.

Children on the Edge were well placed to respond when the crisis hit in 2017 and hundreds of thousands of Rohingya refugees fled Myanmar into Bangladesh. Together with Mukti Cox’s Bazar, we worked quickly to construct 75 learning centres in the Kutupalong camp and train 150 Bangladeshi and Rohingya teachers. Each learning centre has two classrooms, which are colourful spaces with vibrant ‘gardens’ growing outside. Rohingya children benefit from daily access to basic education, play, health inputs, nutritional support and creative opportunities.

Image shows a young female teacher wearing a yellow headscarf and smiling. Behind her is a colourful classroom with lots of artwork on the walls, painted desks and children learning.

Kamrunnahar is a teacher at one of the colourful Learning Centres we support in Kutupalong camp.

Daily digital lessons are projected onto screens in each classroom, to break down language barriers and enable children to genuinely understand and learn. This technology also gives them the opportunity to experience something of life beyond the confines of the camp.

Through ‘Moja Kids’, their own online platform, students create video updates to share back and forth with children outside the camps. This not only gives them a voice and a place to express their talents and creativity, but enables them to interact and tackle their sense of isolation.