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.

Welcome to RESPECT

The stated goals of RESPECT are:

1. To increase awareness of refugee issues among non-refugee students in participating countries.
2. To build bridges between non-refugee students and refugee students through pen-pal letter exchange.
3. To encourage students to act to raise awareness of refugee issues and to raise some funds for their refugee school.

As a teacher or student leader, your participation in RESPECT can consist of step 1, step 1 & 2, or you can work through all three steps. Perhaps you might decide to work on step one this year, step one and two next and all steps the year after that.

It is entirely up to you.

The following paragraphs will help to facilitate the progression through these steps. PLEASE feel free to ask any questions or make any comments.

REFUGEE EDUCATION

STEP ONE
BUILDING AWARENESS OF REFUGEE ISSUES
There are a great number of resources available out there to educators and laypeople free of charge for building awareness of refugee issues. We will be making some specific suggestions for you to order so you are able to receive some basic publications in a timely manner. While there are certainly others, International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) are the two biggest publishers of refugee related material to our knowledge.

A list of resources can be found on our resources page.

SPONSORSHIP PROGRAM

STEP TWO
EXCHANGE WITH A REFUGEE SCHOOL
RESPECT is developing an every-growing list of contacts with refugee and internally displaced person (IDP) schools around the world. Countries include Azerbaijan, Cameroon, Guinea, and Uganda.

We would be very happy to introduce your class to a class of refugee students of similar age and academic level by pen pal letter exchange. While we may be able to give you some choice as to country, it would be best if you will accept what letters we have on hand, the refugee students can receive their letters in a timely fashion.

It has been our experience that participating students can be quite excited to initiate a letter correspondence with a boy or girl from exotic countries.

There can be no better way to build awareness & understanding of refugee life than through letter exchange.

Over the last year, we have learned a few things that are stated below:

1. Before distributing letters it is important to discuss with the students the possibility of disturbing content. The students who wrote these letters may well mention the loss of a parent or parents, they may write about the effects of war in their country of origin and life in the camp.It is your prerogative to screen letters before handing them out to ensure that even after preparing students only the most mature students receive the most mature letters.

   Please note that while SOME letters may be quite serious, others will just write about music they like, clothes and whatnot – kids are kids.

2. Students may well want to include some kind of gift in their reply letters.
   This is not recommended. Very simple things like a bookmark, sticker, or whatnot are fine tokens but any more will make other pen pals jealous and very possibly might be stolen from the letter package by postal workers.
3. Pen pals appreciate receiving photographs, postcards, cute stationary and so on.
4. Please post your letters within about two weeks of receiving them from us.
5. The first one or two exchanges should be sent as a group to save on postage and ensure delivery at the same time. Please include 2 or 3 international reply coupons with your package, so the refugee school can reply without incurring costs. (IRCs can be bought for about $3.50 at your local post office.)

To request refugee letters, please fill out the non-Refugee School Registration Form online. Include the number of students, grade level, range of ages you are willing to accept etc.. Please note that we will be sending you ORIGINAL copies of letters. If you do not post replies to those letters, none will be posted and those refugee children will be disappointed. (We recommend the teacher take care that each student receives a reply. This is easy if all students are in one class. If you are just having some interested students write, you can photocopy each letter, distribute the photocopies writing each student’s name on their original and then hand-over the original letter after the reply had been handed-in.)

ENHANCING COMMUNITIES TOGETHER

STEP THREE
FUNDRAISING FOR YOUR REFUGEE SCHOOL
Building awareness of world issues through videos and discussion and growing a personal connection between students here and refugee students there through letter exchange leads rather naturally to a desire to do something to help.

As stated before, if fundraising is not something you as a teacher or student leader are interested in facilitating this year – that is fine. You can only do what you are comfortable doing.

If you decide fundraising for your refugee school would be a good way for your students to feel like they are doing good for their neighbors far away, we have a few suggestions:

1. A bake sale – organize a bake sale either at student’s home or at school to raise funds.
2. A talent/variety show – plan a talent/variety show at school to invite everyone to come out to support the cause -large funds can be raised this way.
3. A garage sale – organize a garage sale either at home or at school – you can ask for donation of items from family and teachers.
4. A pancake breakfast – organize a pancake breakfast at school.
5. Collection jars
6. Raffle Funds can be anywhere from $10 to $1000.

Ten dollars may buy a small gift for your school – a poster for example, or it may pay for the postage for a number of used posters already around your school but not in use. With larger quantities of funds raised, you can send more stuff. We recommend you focus on sending larger quantities of used materials than to send one or two new things.

Recommended items include:
Used microscopes & slides, used school posters, quality student science projects, transistor radio, solar powered calculator, international reply coupons, and so on! Of course, there are many ideas about what kinds of items to send.

We would recommend you send items a whole class or a whole school could share, instead of pencils and whatnot that need to be distributed to specific students.

** RESPECT one day would like to try to send used textbooks and science equipment no longer in use in our schools to refugee schools abroad. Currently, this costs more than we can easily afford. If you have any ideas as to how we might practically accomplish this goal, or your school has a large quantity of items that could be donated in the future, please contact us.

Contact Information

• RESPECT INTERNATIONAL
• • 935 WARSAW AVENUE
  • WINNIPEG  MB   R3M 1B9
  • CANADA
• +1 204 284 1919
• Email: respect@respectrefugees.org

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.

by Raja M Ali

Everybody accepts that life can be unfair. But maybe it is not.

At the surface level, Atuu Waonaje’s life is an embodiment of injustice, cruelty and unfairness. He was born poor in an impoverished country and became a refugee at 15 years of age. Still a teenager, he lost his parents, had no possessions and was forced to take care of not only himself but also his brother.

How can fate be more unjust to a person? But looking deeper, we realize that while nature took many things away from Atuu, it also gave him gifts — such as compassion, drive and the confidence to make something out of nothing — which few of us can claim.

Turmoil, calamities and injustice didn’t bog down Atuu and while still in a refugee camp in Tanzania, he started CELA, the Centre for Youth Development and Adult Education, which was so successful that it won him the Women’s Refugee Commission Voice of Courage Award in 2007.

CELA, however, is an old story and Atuu is not resting on his laurels. He has recently started a new project called One Book Project (OBP).

Atuu observed that:

• There is neither a resource centre nor a library in his city, Fizi Territory (in the Democratic Republic of Congo), which means a large number of students have no access to information except what they learn at school;
• Young guys have not much to do after school. They generally do not have a habit of reading for pleasure or information and most even don’t know how to use a dictionary;
• People have books which are unused.

Ordinary people would have looked at the situation and done nothing but Atuu started OBP which collects books from various individuals and then puts them in a resource centre/library for use by locals. The main aims of the project are:

• Promoting a reading culture among community members who have lost that culture due to the war. Maybe starting a reading week.
• Empowering villagers with skills through books and connecting them with the world.
• Increasing literacy.

Atuu has already managed to collects a small number of books but for his project to achieve these aims, he needs your help. You can reach him by email.

Yaounde RESPECT Club

• Since January 2005, a group of 8 urban Burundese refugees ages 13 to 18 years has correspond with the Bourg Madame High School Solidarity Club in the South West of France.

• The members of the Club come from several high schools in the city of Yaounde.

Ayifli Fred Kodzo

As the Country Coordinator for RESPECT Ghana I believe that issues of refugees everywhere need our urgent attention but should we always wait to see our brothers and sisters, mothers and children become refugees before we start showing our love and concern? Are we as a people and global citizens well informed about issues of refugees and on the rights entitled to refugees for international protection under the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol? How about the rights of refugees, enshrined in the 1948 Declaration of Human Rights which gives the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution?.

The fundamental truth is that whether we like it or not, we are all global citizens and in today’s globalized world, we cannot escape the fact that actions taken in the Europe and North America, Asia and all over the world do have reverberations in Ghana, and in a similar vein, war in Africa affects Europe and North America as well. We can no longer afford to ignore our common humanity or focus our vision narrowly on our own interests, our own people or our own problems. This is the true meaning of globalization. The world’s problems, and the world’s successes, today belong to all of us. We are responsible for each other, and we must RESPECT one another.

This essentially is the motivation behind my duty as the Country Coordinator for RESPECT Ghana, I see this role as an opportunity to also reach out and promote the goals of human rights and world peace. I am optimistic that with my team members and with your help and ideas we can raise awareness about refugee issues through our ever widening networks and affiliations. There is an urgent need to make the world a better place devoid of wars, disputes and terrorist attacks. Please do not hesitate but subscribe with us and let us push our vision forward with your wonderful ideas and solutions to make the world a better place for all.

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/

Adjei Alex has been coordinating various activities for RESPECT Guinea. Recently, he was appointed as Principal for Nelson Mandela International School.

He has shown tremendous enthusiasm in working with RESPECT International. He hopes that RESPECT will start receiving more letters for the students of his school.

RESPECT recently received a package containing letters from refugees students in Liberia. Once they are sorted, the letters will be sent to non-refugee students to be answered.

by Maria Brundin

Sports can change lives – that is the main idea of Africa Change International (ACI), a Ghana-based non-governmental organization (NGO) working to improve the life of children through sports.

By offering children the opportunity to play sports, such as athletics, basketball, hockey and swimming, ACI’s aim is to keep children from dropping out of school.

Its training requires the children to attend school and teaches them about health. This not only raises the educational level but also gives children the opportunity to get scholarships for higher education and skills required to earn them a livelihood.

Peter Osei, Executive Director of ACI, talks about the many advantages of sports. Being an active participant develops children’s self-esteem and activates them, preventing them from roaming the streets.

“[Sports] will make them spend less time in sedentary pursuits such as violence, crime and other the social vices,” Mr. Osei says.

For the moment, 400 children aged 10 to11 are participating in the ACI programs. The children attend school in the morning, come to the ACI’s computer laboratory for the ICT Training and take their sports classes in the afternoon.

Sports have the ability to unite people, regardless of race, language and politics. They teach participants respect and teamwork. They are also one of the few arenas where everyone plays on equal terms. Where skills, not background, determine success.

In the future ACI hopes to build an extensive sports academy and recruit children who are underprivileged or living on the streets. ACI also wishes to expand beyond the borders of Ghana to other African countries.

ACI looks “to employ training skills in sports, computer literacy and education to espouse equity in social policies that address livelihood opportunities for socially excluded children and young people.

“We want to help them succeed in future even without the existence of ACI.”

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/