 Over 18 months since the start of the Rohingya refugee crisis, despite the wealth of agencies investing in education for children in Kutupalong, only about 45% of refugee children currently have access to education in the camps. Navigating the multiple layers of bureaucracy and negotiating building space in the densely populated camp has made provision a huge challenge, and as the crisis has become protracted, the promised formal curriculum for refugee children was postponed by the government for over a year. Despite these obstacles, Children on the Edge have successfully established 75 Learning Centres which have all been running five days a week since June 2018, providing education for 7,500 children. 150 Bangladesh and Rohingya teachers are fully trained and running classes each day. They have been trained on communication, child rights, health, hygiene, first aid, identifying trauma, classroom management and how to make learning engaging.
The unique traits of these Centres are as follows:
We are confident that our prior experience in the camp and unique perspective on education with Rohingya children will allow us to set the benchmark for quality education in the refugee camp areas in the coming year.
 In the last few days Storm Norma has hit Lebanon with heavy rains, snowfall and freezing temperatures, leaving an estimated 70,000 refugees in need of emergency assistance. Lebanon hosts over 1.5 million Syrian refugees, many of whom live in informal settlements with little to no infrastructure, as official refugee camps are not permitted. This makes these kinds of crises difficult to address, and UNHCR’s Interagency Coordination group report that 361 informal settlements and 11,301 refugees have been impacted by the storm so far. Unfortunately, the body of an 8 year old girl reported missing on Wednesday 10th January was recovered the day after. She had drowned after slipping into a rainwater channel. For over four years, Children on the Edge have been supporting a small Lebanese organisation called Triumphant Mercy, to provide education for 500 Syrian refugee children, living in informal settlements the Bekaa Valley. They are also instrumental in providing additional support, care and supplies for the children and families living in these camps. When the areas they work in were hit by the storms this week, this dedicated local group responded immediately, and Children on the Edge are urgently appealing for donations to assist them in rebuilding shelters. Project leader Nuna Matar says, "All the refugees who are living under tents, or who are living in unfinished buildings were really severely hit by this storm...some of the tents are like shacks, so the winter snow is heavy on the roof, and some of them had their roofs collapse on them, so they had to find refuge in neighbouring tents and they had to rebuild, again”. Many families have had mattresses, bedding, clothing and food destroyed and some tents are completely underwater. Children on the Edge are currently raising funds to pay for wood and plastic to help with rebuilding. Nuna and her team are visiting the camps to provide help, but they struggle to get across the mountains from Beirut because of the heavy snow. Another storm is expected next week and they urgently need support to help affected families. 315 sites in the Bekaa area alone are at risk of further flooding and/or the accumulation of snow. Nuna says, “There’s just not enough food, clothing, and shelter. Getting donor support for Lebanon has been challenging because the Syrian refugee crisis has fallen off the front page.” You can support the appeal by visiting http://bit.ly/lebanonstorm * Update 16/01/19*Thanks to the generosity of our supporters, yesterday we were able to send $1,000 to our partners in Lebanon. Today they have already began distributing warm jumpers and blankets in the storm-hit refugee camp (see photos below). Project leader Nuna Matar said "I went yesterday to the camps to check how people are coping with Norma storm that hit Lebanon few days ago. And what I have seen is flooded tents, wet belongings and in some cases ruined tents. Another storm is also hitting today so I wanted to do the trip before roads are blocked with ice and snow. We tried to help as much as possible distributing warm clothes for the children and opening up one of our schools as a shelter. I know we can do more. I received yesterday several calls from neighbouring camps begging us to come and help. We are so grateful that we are able to respond in some small way." Thank you to everyone who has shared our social media posts and donated.
Watch this space to see the development of these plans and click the buttons below to get involved.
 In addition to the primary education provided for Syrian refugee children in the camps of Bekaa Valley, Lebanon, now older students are being given extra learning options to equip them for their daily lives and improve their future opportunities.
The 10th grade class has been learning a variety of different topics including intensive English classes, computer literacy (i.e. typing, Excel, Photoshop, Powerpoint), sewing and tailoring as well as going deeper into their academic studies. They have also had experience being ‘teacher’s aides’ for part of term, which enabled them to see how lessons are planned and taught and how teachers manage the classrooms. Students then planned their own small lessons and taught some classes. Project worker Hannah says “It was difficult at first, but as time passed they became so much more confident in organising and leading the students”. Students have also enjoyed a crafts and home decoration class with a volunteer teacher, taking things from their homes and turning them into decorations. They then had the opportunity to sell their crafts and decorations at a local market. They are also part of a building and wood construction course, where they learn the planning process, purchase materials, measure, cut and finally assemble different wooden projects. In addition to practical skills, the entire school year have been learning economics, which is integrated into class times and projects. They collect money every week into a kitty to spend on things they want for the class. They have used this for craft materials and wood, then sold the items they made to make a profit. Hannah describes how “It is an amazing real time example and practice of economics. I saw some small tables they are building and was so impressed with their work!” A short term volunteer also delivered solar oven building training for adults. The idea is that they can learn how to make solar ovens and then create small businesses. The added bonus is that, as electricity is unpredictable in Syria, when these refugees go back they will have useful transferrable knowledge to help refugee communities cook using solar power. Click the buttons below to support this work further.  The 25th August 2018 marks one year since the start of the fastest growing refugee crisis in modern history. Causing suffering on a catastrophic scale, escalating violence from the Myanmar military forced over 700,000 Rohingya people over the border to Bangladesh.
 Children on the Edge are committed to investing in education and stability for the Rohingya children attending their Centres, and in time hope to increase their reach to cater for larger numbers. Recognising the burden on already hard pressed host communities, they are also supporting education for Bangladeshi children in Cox’s Bazar and Rohingya children living in enclave areas outside Chittagong.
 Following our initial humanitarian response to the Rohingya refugee situation, and alongside our provision of education for 7,500 children, we have worked in line with Bangladesh Government strategy by contributing to sustainable energy sources in the Kutupalong Balukhali camp. The hundreds of thousands of refugees seeking safety in this country have had little choice but to overburden the surrounding jungles in the Ukhiya hills. The Bangladesh Forestry Department has stated that the weight and rate of the influx has created an environmental crisis in the border district. Stripping away 4,000 acres of dense forest land; miles of tarpaulin and dust as far as the eye can see, has now formed the largest refugee camp in the world. Ongoing fuel needs for the one million people trapped here vastly escalates this problem each day. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation Forestry Officer describes how “An average 1 kg of fuelwood per person is required every day for cooking, which corresponds to 800 tonnes of fuelwood per day for the Rohingya refugees in the camps. This means that forest covering an area roughly the size of five football fields is cut every day for fuelwood”. Most staple food rations distributed here consist of lentils, beans and rice, which have to be cooked in order to be edible. Almost all families rely on small fires, often used in poorly ventilated spaces, but with prohibitive prices for market firewood, most attempt to gather it from the nearby forest. Children are often sent to collect firewood alone and, with disappearing reserves, trips of up to 12 miles each way can now take the entire day. To attempt to save firewood, some people undercook their food or skip meals. As part of our discussions with local authorities when planning our Learning Centres in the camp, we agreed to source and distribute 500 gas stoves in the surrounding areas. This has provided around 3,500 people with a sustainable means of cooking and the Centres are being used as bases to provide training to use the stoves. In addition to this, earlier in the year we provided high quality, portable solar lights to 5,250 homes. The Kutupalong-Balukhali expansion site is vast and remains mostly unlit. This heightens risks for everyone, but especially for girls and women who have often reported feeling unsafe going out after dark. As well as issues of safety and functionality at night, the lights also help to curb the use of firewood. Mohammed (pictured below) and his family used to build a fire to try and create some light in the evenings, but the wood was too expensive and smoke poured into the shelter. Since he’s been using the light he has said “It’s better for my family. Now we can cook and clean in the evening, it gives light to the whole room”. We have recently planted shrubs and flowers in the grounds outside each Learning Centre to begin to grow green oasis areas for the children within the barren landscape of the camp. In time we are hoping to grow vegetables in these spaces and raise funds for solar powered fans to cool the atmosphere inside.
Watch this space for more news from the Centres.
 The tent school teachers we support in Lebanon have been increasingly observing how Syrian refugee children in their classes struggle with creativity in their writing. Staff reported how “When learning their own Arabic language in Syria, teaching tends to focus on grammar and not on creative storytelling”. One activity to address this was introduced by a visiting volunteer, who used an old, crumpled ten dollar note. She asked the children where they thought she had got it from and talked about how, judging by how it looked, it must have had a very long journey. She then passed it to one of the children and encouraged them to make up a story about where they had got it, the background of who had owned it before, and how they might have earned it. The latest field report from staff stated how “This was a great way of encouraging out-of-the-box thinking in writing. Creative, imaginative thinking is a new concept to so many of our students. We’ve also noticed in the Syrian culture, they don’t often read books or stories”. To encourage a love of stories, two ‘storytelling training sessions’ have been held for all the teachers. They then got the chance to practice what they had learned and tell stories to their classes in teams. The students enjoyed giving feedback on their storytelling abilities, and discussions were had about how using adjectives can generate excitement in writing, in the same way a film builds tension with background music. Teachers say how “Reading stories is really helpful in capturing the students’ attention and encouraging them to read and learn about different people and contexts”. To develop this, the older children have been visiting a newly established library, to choose a book each week and help with the upkeep. Every Friday, the class reports on what they have borrowed, reviewing each book and describing if and why they would recommend it. The younger classes also take turns talking to their friends about the stories they have read.
 Children on the Edge are focussing on long term provision for Rohingya refugee children in the border camps of Bangladesh. Described by the UN as ‘a textbook example of ethnic cleansing’, brutal attacks by the Myanmar military in August 2017 forced over 700,000 Rohingya civilians over the border into Bangladesh. The majority of these arrived directly into the areas where we have been providing refugee education since 2011. After delivering an initial humanitarian response, our main concern over the next few years is that children have consistent support, long after the current surge of attention subsides. Already, many of the agencies that arrived after the crisis hit the headlines, are beginning to withdraw. Children make up 50% of the Rohingya refugee community here, and an estimated 625,000 children lack access to learning opportunities. New arrivals are living in highly congested areas (around 8m sq/person) and are susceptible to disease and malnutrition. In addition to the daily stressors of displacement, children have suffered profound trauma and with little access to safe, child friendly facilities, face serious protection risks including abuse, child marriage, trafficking and child labour. This month, we have begun the construction of 150 classrooms; within 75 new Learning Centres in the Kutupalong camp. Over the last few weeks, 10 Centres have been built and opened to groups of children. Through two shifts a day, children have the opportunity to learn basic language skills, reading, writing and arithmetic. Rohingya facilitators are being trained in dealing with trauma in children, and how to create a welcoming, safe environment. Each space is a bright, colourful haven, with a focus on art, play and self expression. In time, we will be creating vibrant ‘green spaces’ outside each one through pot gardening, to create an oasis feel within the arid landscape of the camps. The Centres will also serve as a hub for community learning in areas like First Aid skills and the use of gas stoves. They are semi-permanent structures, to enable durability against the rains (deep concrete floors), whilst maintaining flexibility on location, should the refugee population move on elsewhere. Watch this space to read more about the progress of these Centres, and consider signing up as a regular donor to provide steady support for this work going forward. You can also read about how we are supporting education for Rohingya children living in enclave communities and slum communities further inland.  Learning Centres are semi-permanent structures with deep concrete floors enabling durability against the rains. |
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