Here it is the very First Issue of the Magazine edited by RESPECT REFUGEES International that includes the most important articles from the E-zines published in 2009 and the beginning of 2010.

Hope you will enjoy reading the magazine and you will share this with your friends.

We’s like to thank the Authors of this issue:

Shannon Alderman

Raja M Ali

Maria Brundin

Trish Harris

Kenneth Karest Lewela

Abby Jenkins Macedo

Paulo Muller

Laura Premoli

Mohammed Riazuddin

Suzan Salem

Linda Salim

Marc Schaeffer

Kirsty Semple

Uma Sharma

Olivia Wallace

Atuu Waonaje

Barny Whitwham

To Dowload this Issue, click here

[ http://issuu.com/enjoythemarket/docs/respect ]

RESPECT University was established to provide post-secondary instruction to refugee students under the guidance of tutors from around the world. We see this as a logical extension of the mission of RESPECT International to link refugee and non-refugee schools worldwide.

To accomplish this:

• We use experienced teachers who want to use their knowledge and experience to help teach students in refugee schools.
• Many of our tutors develop their own curriculum on a subject in one of their areas of expertise.
• RESPECT International then matches the tutor with a group of students. RESPECT facilitates the initial contact between the tutor and the students, and helps, as needed, to coordinate the learning process.
• Each class normally consists of six students.
• Teaching and learning are carried out by correspondence, using conventional postal mail services, although contact with local coordinators is maintained via email. The tutor sends a series of assignments which the students complete and then return to the teacher for comments and feedback. (Each assignment can take a month or more to be returned to the tutor because of limited postal service to areas occupied by refugees.)

If you are an experienced teacher, and are interested in volunteering to be a tutor, please complete our Tutor Information form. You will be asked for your name, contact details, qualifications and experience, subjects taught, and so on. Our coordinator will contact you, usually by email, within a week to discuss available opportunities.

If you are someone working with refugee students, and you feel your students would benefit from the educational opportunities RESPECT University can offer, complete a request form. You will be asked forcontact details, number of students, subjects of interest, and so on. Our coordinator evaluates your request and determines whether volunteers are available to meet your needs. Once that is completed, we will be in touch with the contact listed in the request.

In the future, we hope to expand the role of the University by:

• providing online courses on the web site for print out or for online study
• converting the course information and assignments from successful courses into web pages, to provide an on-line resource bank of learning materials.

If you have any questions or comments about RESPECT University, you can email our coordinator at university@respectrefugees.org.

If you do not yet wish to register as volunteer teacher or a student coordinator, but would like to be kept informed of developments of the University, please subscribe to our e-Zine.

Have you ever wondered where RESPECT International has its headquarters? Or how to become a RESPECT volunteer?

These and other important questions are answered in RESPECT’s newly published Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ). Take some time to learn more about RESPECT and its Global Letter Exchange. There is a separate FAQ with information for refugee schools and non-refugee schools.

What if your question isn’t answered? Then email it to our webmaster and he will make sure you get an answer and will add the question to the FAQ.

Country:

• Democratic Republic of the Congo

Description:

• Primary School Ase’Eci has 6 classes, but only 3 are running due to the difficulties in the country.
• The school is situated near the Uvira-Fizi road in DRC. It is bordered by Lake Tanganyika in the East, by the mountains in the West, by the Kahama village in the North and by the Pemba mountain in the South.
• Lessons are given in Swahili and French.
• A penpal programme is vital for us.

Comments:

• 66 students are interested by RESPECT International programme and would like to find a penpal.
• Our school has numerous problems. We would like you to guide us, advise us and assist us, as you can, to try and answer the needs expressed by the children in their letters. We have no support to help them.

Help this schoo or other refugee schools like it from our website: http://www.respectrefugees.org/

Respect International

The following letter was submitted to RESPECT International from the principal of the Calvary Baptist Church School in Monrovia, Liberia, seeking help to rebuild its system.

To Whom It May Concern

The Calvary Baptist Church School System was established in 1964 by a group of Mid-Baptist Missionaries from the United States of America, who two years earlier established the Calvary Baptist Church.

The purpose of establishing the school was threefold:

1. To provide kids with a strong foundation in reading, writing, and speaking.
2. To impact sound Biblical training as a basis upon which spiritual and moral foundation of kids can be built.
3. To cater to the educational needs of the Children of church members.

Liberian School System

RESPECT International continues to dedicate all the resources possible to improve the education of refugee students.  In order to help more people there is a need for more resources.  To find out ways in which you can help please visit our website.  http://www.respectrefugees.org/

Poster Contest

RESPECT (Refugee Education Sponsorship Program – Enhancing Communities Together) is hosting an international poster contest! Students from all parts of the world, Azerbaijan to Canada, Japan to Zimbabwe, will be using their creativity and artistic talent to further RESPECT’s mission of promoting awareness of refugee issues among non-refugee students.

Contest Theme

We begin the poster contest by having students worldwide brainstorm the theme. Once the theme is decided, students create drawings or paintings based on the theme. Send your suggestions to: postercontest@respectrefugees.org.

Winning Entries

Winners will be selected in several age categories among refugee and non-refugee students, as well has categories for computer generated posters. Last year’s contest had thirty participants, from China, Thailand and USA. We selected a winners in the following categories.

• Non-refugee 6-9 years-old
• Non-refugee 10-11 years-old
• Non-refugee 12-13 years-old
• Non-refugee 14-18 years-old

As in years past, this year we are looking forward to selecting winners from among entries sent in by refugee students.

You can view last year’s contest winners at http://respectrefugees.org/ecards/index09.shtml.

For all the information on this contest please click here.

Ghana has the largest refugee and asylum seeker population of any country in west Africa with over 31,000.  Many of these refugees are from Liberia and are staying in the Buduburam settlement near Accra.  This camp has existed for over twenty years and hosts 40,000 refugees from the Liberian civil war.  In 2008 the governments of both Ghana and Liberia along with UNHCR reinitiated a voluntary repartiation program to allow Liberians to return to their counrty of origin.  Half the Liberian refugee population in Ghana were offered the chance to return to Liberia and the UNHCR has helped thousands to return by air whilst many more are returning of their own accord.

25,000 people living in the camp are formar Liberian child soldiers.  Children who from as young as nine were taught to hate and kill one another but who now live together in the camp.

Part of allowing these children to recover from their traumatic experiences in education.  This lets them know that they have not been forgotten and gives them some hope for a brighter future.  RESPECT International is dedicated to providing free education to as many refugee students in Ghana as possible.

To find out how you can help please visit our website.

An affiliate of Respect International Respect Ghana acts as a bridge between the refugee population in Ghana and the international community.

A dedicated team of volunteers works to raise awareness of refugee issues in Ghana. They are always working to build new ideas for raising awareness and linking refugee students with non-refugee students. They have a number of plans for the future towards these ends and readily collaborate with any organisation that is working for human rights and refugee issues.

RESPECT Ghana: Working for durable solutions

• Resettlement: RESPECT Ghana believes that this option needs to be explored fully to allow refugees to settle permenantly in a third country if they are unable to return to their country of origin or integrate sucessfully in their country of asylum.  This is a unique way for developed countries to help protect and support refugees who in turn have opportunities to contribute in other ways to their new communities.
• Repatriation: The descision to return to their country of origin must be taken by the refugees themselves and any return must be safe and dignified for the refugees and their families.
• Local Integration: The aggreement of a host country for the refugees to remain their permenantly.   There need to be opportunities for refugees to earn a living and become self-reliant in their host countries.   They need to be full members of the community without discrimination but also allowed to keep their own cultural identity.

RESPECT Ghana also actively pursues and supports innovatinve project schemes by refugees themselves.

How You Can Help

The first step is to recognise that refugees are not a threat but that they themselves are threatened.  They are ordinary people who need protection.

• You and members of your community can encourage the government to addopt policies at home and abroad which help refugees find peace and safety.
• You can support financially through donations and by providing International Reply Coupons for Our Global Letter Exchange Programs.

• Your ideas and information as well as proposals for projects or educational materials for refugees will be an incredible resource for the Refugee Communities we serve.

• Individuals and organization willing to partner with RESPECT Ghana and help make its dreams and plans become a reality, please do not hesitate. Kindly contact the Country Coordinator or the International coordinator.

• Country Coordinator
• RESPECT Ghana
• c/o FOBET
• Ayifli Fred Kodzo
• PO Box TA84,
• Ghana-Accra
• Tel – (233) 20-8160450
• ghana@respectrefugees.org

Respect Ghana

To learn more about our Global Letter Exchange click here.

The Mike Immaculate Group of Schools, consisting of nursery, primary, secondary schools and a computer college in Nigeria’s capital Lagos want to enter into a partnership with RESPECT International.

“I want to partner with your reputable organisation because I want a group of organisations encouraging communication between young people across the world,” says proprietor Ademola Ogunyebi.

The group of schools educates 36 refugee students and approximately 280 non-refugee students. Through school projects and RESPECTs Letter Exchange Program and student exchanges the group of schools aim to raise awareness and educate refugees. They also wish to get awareness on some of the schools’ educative projects.

In Nigeria education is free but not compulsory. There, a formal education consists of six years of primary school, three years of junior secondary school and three years of senior secondary school, in addition to four years of university or college education.

According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), there are approximately 11,800 refugees in Nigeria mostly from Chad, Liberia, the Republic of Congo and Sudan. Half live in refugee camps and half are urban refugees.

Please visit our website.
Or for our ezine click here.

Artists for Humanity will celebrate its 10th anniversary from December 19 to 25, 2009.

Begun December 19, 1999, in Kinshasa the capital of the Democratic Republic Congo by Amisi Mutambala, the Artists for Humanity initiative (ArtHum) mainly worked in the eastern part of the country with a regionally integrated vision.

Conferences, debates, concerts and cultural and arts-based displays on education, peace, human rights, HIV/AIDS will all take place over seven days in Uvira and Fizi territories (South Kivu province in DR Congo) as part of the anniversary celebrations.

Rewards of recognition will be given to actors both local and international who have distinguished themselves as ArtHum volunteers and work with communities in disaster.

Non-profit associations, foundations, enterprises, state institutions, religious structures as well as individuals who are interested are invited to join the event.

For further information, contact Amisi Mutambala at:

• Dieudonné AMISI MUTAMBALA
• Director & Founder
• Artists for Humanity, ArtHum
• Telephone: +243810343785; +25779979121
• Email: arthum_direction@yahoo.fr

Please visit our website.
Or for our ezine click here.