The Right to Education for Refugees
The share of total aid allocated for education in humanitarian crises has risen by nearly a full percentage point since last year. But in a world confronting the largest refugee crisis since World War II, ensuring education for children fleeing from conflict, though necessary to ensure long-term peace, is still woefully insufficient.
LONDON – From Fawaz’s home in a makeshift refugee camp just across the border from Syria, where he lives with his now-displaced family, one danger has been traded for another. “There are no schools. There is no education. My children have no toys. They play only with mud,” he says. “Our life was better in Syria.”
The children’s mother, Muna, shudders as she tells of encounters with snakes, rats, and mosquitoes. “We left Syria because of war,” she says. “Our family lost everything, but I am most upset because my children have lost their future.”
Fawaz and Muna’s story is not unique. Their pain is shared by almost every refugee family that once called Syria home – families that take to the seas and deserts in search of opportunity in the form of an education for their children.