World Children’s Day: Inclusion through digital lessons in Bangladesh

November 20th is World Children’s Day. This year's theme is ‘inclusion, for every child’. Across all our programmes, we ensure that children are included and given space to participate, so that they can realise their rights and thrive. Read on to see this in action through our innovative digital education programme in Bangladesh.

In Kutupalong, the worlds’ largest refugee camp in Bangladesh, around one million Rohingya refugees live in crowded conditions, unable to leave.  Children who have fled horrific violence in Myanmar not only struggle to access education; but when they do, they are forced to learn the Burmese curriculum, in a language they do not understand.

This is why our learning centres use digital lessons to enable our trained refugee teachers to teach Rohingya children in a meaningful way. Our digital team in Bangladesh have created video lessons using the spoken Rohingya language so the children can actually understand what is being taught. Pictures and cartoons bring subjects to life, enhancing learning and making classes fun. The children tell us the videos are their favourite part about school. 

These videos enable 7,500 Rohingya children in our learning centres, who would otherwise be cut off from education, to learn. This vital education helps children learn the skills they need, builds their confidence, and develops their ability to think critically and express themselves. It improves their chances of earning an income when they grow up, and opens up more opportunities to escape the cycle of poverty. ​

World Children's Day: Why today?

20th November marks the anniversary of the date when the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration of the Rights of the Child in 1959. On the same date in 1989 the UN General Assembly adopted the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

What’s it got to do with Children on the Edge?

As a child rights organisation, we are guided by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and we adopt a rights based approach throughout all our work. 

​According to the CRC, every child has the right to be free and to thrive. However, children in marginalised communities often face abuse, exploitation, exclusion, neglect, and even death. We work to support these children, living in some of the toughest situations and ensure that where we work, everyone in the child’s environment is aware of and committed to respecting the universal rights enshrined in the CRC. 

How do we do this? 

We include and listen to children and make sure they have a say in the planning and evaluation of our projects, this can be through child councils, child rights clubs, children’s parliaments or through child-led video platforms. 
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We encourage them to know their worth, understand their rights, and to be active agents in shaping their own futures. We resource children to express themselves and have a voice, enabling them to take ownership in creative ways. We also take steps to ensure they can claim rights for themselves.

INCLUDING CHILDREN THROUGH DIGITAL EDUCATION IN BANGLADESH
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The digital programme also helps the children to connect with other children beyond the confines of the crowded camps where they live. Through 'Moja Kids’, our online video platform, children across all our classrooms in Bangladesh have the opportunity to create their own video newsletters with stories, crafts, news and games. These are shared across the programme, and the children delight in both creating and watching the video content, hearing all the stories and relating to children in different places and situations. 

Moja Kids videos are filmed in the 'green room'

Teachers also use the video lessons to help the children experience and learn about the world around them. They are forbidden from leaving the crowded camp, and many children have only known life in Kutupalong.  From natural wonders to wildlife and culture; translated and colourful visual video content is giving the children the chance to see and experience so many aspects of the world that they previously had no idea even existed. 

​We are grateful to COHRP and Jewish World Watch  for generously co-funding our digital programme in Bangladesh last year.​

MEET​ JAHAN TARA

Jahan Tara is 11 years old and lives in Kutupalong refugee camp with her family. They fled Myanmar in 2017 when the army attacked their village and burned their houses. Until then, Jahan Tara lived a happy life, her parents were farmers and her father owned a betel (popular herb) shop in Keriprang. 

Soon after Jahan Tara arrived in Kutupalong, she joined one of our learning centres. She loves to learn, works hard, and especially benefits from the digital lessons. Through watching videos, she is able to understand more and practise the things she has learnt, by herself. She particularly enjoys crafting and learning how to make new things and loves to decorate her classroom with what she creates. 

With the help of Moja Kids (video newsletters), Jahan Tara  is able to learn from her classmates and hear their opinions on different topics. She loves to share her new knowledge and encourage her friends to learn. 

She loves attending the learning centre and says she is never late to class! She explains how the curriculum text books provided in the camp are hard to understand because they are written in a language she doesn't know how to read, but through the digital programme she and her classmates are finally able to understand their lessons. 

"We don't like books much as they are difficult and time consuming to understand,
​but we can easily learn things through the videos and remember the visuals. 
​We like the videos more than books!" ​- Jahan Tara​

Jahan Tara has big ambitions and hopes to be a teacher when she is older. She told us she wants to return to Myanmar to teach the children of her country. ​