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UN:
TENS OF THOUSANDS OF IRAQI REFUGEE CHILDREN KICK OFF SCHOOL YEAR IN SYRIA
- UN: 13/9/2007 (MaximsNews.com, U.N.) |
UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com@
U.N./
- 13 September 2007 –
As the new school year kicked off this week in
Syria, tens of thousands of Iraqi refugee children have started classes there
with help from United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).
Since
early this year, Syria has been preparing to accommodate 100,000 Iraqi students
in its schools during the 2007-2008 academic year, up from some 33,000 last
year. UNHCR estimates that 1.4 million Iraqis – 250,000 of them of school age
– who have fled the violence in their homeland are currently living in Syria.
Laurens
Jolles, the agency’s representative in Syria, said the Iraqi children there
are the future of their country. “Many have already missed out on a
considerable amount of their education, both in Iraq and as refugees in Syria.
It is one of our top priorities to support the Ministry of Education to
accommodate the tens of thousands of Iraqi children who want to enrol in
schools.”
UNHCR
has several plans – such as transportation to other schools with space,
temporary classrooms and providing extra funding to pay teachers’ salaries for
school with double-shift systems – in place to aid schools overwhelmed by
applications from Iraqi children.
With the
support of the Syrian Red Crescent, UNHCR has distributed school uniforms to
more than 11,000 school children in the past two weeks, and aims to supply
another 9,000 more in the coming months.
“My
dream in life is to be a doctor,” said 16-year-old Nada, who is attending
school for the first time in two years. “I find it really hard to study in
Syria – my whole life is disrupted. Although I wish I could return to my life
in Iraq, I am grateful that I have the opportunity to study again.”
She
graduated as one of the top 10 students in the Baghdad region in June 2005, but
her family fled to Syria after the murders of three of her uncles and the
kidnapping of another.
In July,
UNHCR and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) issued a joint appeal for $129
million to support the education of Iraqi refugees in the region, and they have
also established an Emergency Education Taskforce to tackle the issues
preventing Iraqi refugees from receiving schooling. By the end of this year,
UNHCR expects to have given more than $20 million to the Syrian Ministry of
Education, with that figure to increase in 2008.
Labels: United
Nations, U.N.,
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