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.
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.
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.
To celebrate the inauguration of the new Online United Nations Volunteer (UNV) site on December 5, 2008, AshokPillai, RESPECT University coordinator, was invited to participate through video conference as an online volunteer of RESPECT University at UNV, India, New Delhi.
The UNV headquarters are in Bonn, Germany, and held here the conference was attended by local online volunteers and officials. The event provided an opportunity to highlight the value of online volunteers. Ashok informed the audience of RESPECT International’s programs and the opportunities it creates for both refugee students and their online volunteer tutors, both of whom gain immense satisfaction from the experience.
“RESPECT University may be about post-secondary education to refugees and IDPs, but it also formed a bridge which brought people on both sides of the fence closer. RESPECT University is a virtual institution yet it holds out hope for a better tomorrow for the less privileged.
Those present seemed to appreciate the work of online volunteers associated with RESPECT University and its work and achievements may be documented in an effort to inspire others to join online volunteering.” MohammedRiazuddin
“Even Einstein was a refugee, and the difference between success and failure is determination.”
This is a quotation from BilombeleAsukulu: a refugee originally from Democratic Republic of Congo who fled to Nyarugusu Refugee Camp in the United Republic of Tanzania in 1996. Whilst living in the camp he was struck by the hopeless situation the youths of the camp found themselves in. After escaping violence in Congo they now had no education and no way to build a future for themselves.
What little that could be done for them was done. Holding classes under a tree with no blackboard or materials. Some of the youths gave up, some returned to Congo to join the militias whilst a few remained in education. Seeking to bring hope to the young people he started NECH: New Educational Center for Hope.
He made contact with RESPECT International in 2003 via the Internet. This contact enabled him to use RESPECTs experience and resources to affect change in his community. Some of the activities now available in the camp are letter exchange programs, RESPECT University programs, HIV/AIDS campaigns, human rights campaigns, peace and reconciliation education, conflict resolution education, orphans education sponsorship and unmarried mother support.
Currently, there are 130 children in NECH, with funding for materials coming from fees paid by students, founding members contributions and donations. In the future Bilombele hope to continue building on what he has started and provide more resources, including books, to aid the children’s learning.
To find out more about the work RESPECT is doing please click here.
Kakuma Refugee Camp, Kenya, serves people who have been forcibly displaced from their home countries due to war or persecution from countries such as Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda, Rwanda, Somalia andSudan. It is administered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and, according to their current statistics, the camp population stands at just under 50,000 refugees.
Produced by journalists from each of the countries of origin is the independant news magazine KANERE, or the Kakuma News Reflector. The magazine was started to create a more open vision of society within the refugee camp and a platform for fair public debate on refugee affairs. The magazine contents include:
a letter from the editor introducing the contents
Arts
Community and Culture
Education
Health
Peace and Security
Human Rights
News Updates
Also, international contributers add to the online magazine. A print version of this is distrubuted within the camp.
The opportunity for communication that this magazine provides in invaluable to the refugees. Once they are admitted to the camp they cannot move freely around the country but must apply for a permit. The refugees now have a voice and readerc can learn what life in a refugee camp is really like from the people who live there day in day out.
Located in Kampala, Uganda, the RESPECT University students are urban refugees whose countries of origin include Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Somalia, and Burundi. Due to wars and genocides in the surrounding countries Uganda has witnessed an influx of refugees. Many of these people go straight to the capital Kampala while others move there from the refugee camps seeking more opportunities and better living conditions.
One of the problems the refugees face is that they don’t speak English. This hinders their day to day existence as they cannot communicate what they want. It also impacts their futures because they cannot study at English speaking universities, apply for jobs or testify in court against the people responsible for violence and discrimination against them. Also without regular paid work they cannot afford to pay for medical care or education.
This is where the RESPECT Functional Adult Literacy Program comes in. It offers refugees free adult literacy courses. This enables the students to improve their lives and the lives of their families.
The Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) at Refugee Law Project (RLP) is currently coordinating the following courses with RESPECT University: Early Childhood Development, International Human Rights (English), International Human Rights (French), International Relations, Business Administration, Small and Medium Business, Persuasive Writing, and Information Technology. A total of 62 students are enrolled in these courses.
The program started with the placement of a small notice inviting people who were interested to fill out registration forms. At this stage there were no tutors and so subjects that would be taught were yet to be decided upon. Therefore, the students were asked what they would be interested in learning, after which RESPECT University coordinator, AshokPillai, connected them with tutors. Interest in the program was far greater than initially anticipated.
Many students were keen to learn English. This would enable them to continue their education in English speaking universities or relocate to English-speaking countries. Some wanted to be able t read newspapers of listen to news broadcasts to keep up to date with world affair and the situations in their own countries. Others wanted to become English teachers or work as interpreters. Some simply wanted to make their daily lives in Kampala easier by improved communication.
The aim of RESPECT International’s adult literacy program is to make adults functionally literate. The initial Functional Adult Literacy (FAL) programme provided three two-hour classes weekly: English, Entrepreneurship and Literacy. Class sizes ranged from 7 to 17, with a total weekly attendance of about 40. Held in a classroom which doubled as a waiting room for Legal Aid and Counselling clients with only a blackboard and chalk and 11 Functional Adult Literacy workbooks, it was a start.
The Program is Growing
Within a year they had 329 students enrolled. They established a four level program and a multi-level women’s program with three full time volunteer teachers. Moses Mugume, an intern from Makerere, assists Winnifred Agabo, the head of department of the FAL programme, with her research and training duties. David Bukenye is a full-time volunteer who supports the department by photocopying and assembling much of the education and training material, as well as taking care of photocopying for other Refugee Law Project (LAW) departments and the newest member, Rita Nammembwa. Gabriel Mugaruka has been assisting with teaching on a part-time basis. David and Gabriel are both refugees.
NtawangwanaboseCélestinBuyore (or Célestin for short) is a teacher and a RESPECT International volunteer originally from the Republic of Rwanda, now living in Nairobi, Kenya and working at Saint Kizito-Kabiria. In Rwanda, 1994, between 800,000 and one million people were killed and it is estimated that some 500,000 people were tortured and murdered in a period of only 100 days.
“All of my relations died in the war,” Célestin said. “My mother and brothers were most likely killed in 1996 by the soldiers of the Front Patriotic of Rwanda (FPRInkotanyi) who are leading there now.”
Having survived the war Célestin now teaches at a school without funds. The school relies on small donations from the parents and the teacher work for free. The students there are proud to be getting an education and be part of RESPECTs letter exchange program. Many of the students are refugees who have lived in abject poverty. The letter exchange program provides them with an escape for a while as they learn about the lives of students from the United States and Canada.
“Due to poverty, the students are physically weak and many have experienced famine in their homes. They don’t have lunches. They get to school on foot and some are unaccompanied and orphans,” Célestin said. Taking part in the letter exchange program helps the students recover from the events of their past and look forward to a brighter future.
Learning and education acts as a starting point for people to be able to help themselves out of poverty, in turn leading to a more peaceful society through increased prosperity. Jenkins Macedo held a book drive to supply educational materials, books and used computers to give people access to the education they want.
Mutual Inspiration
Linda St. Germain, a student at Worcester State College, United States, involved the student council in the book drive, taking the opportunity to benefit not only the African students but the students of her own college.
Another school to get involved was the Fanning Learning Center in Worcester: an alternative to mainstream school for students with difficult home lives. Theresa Venuti, a teacher at Fanning, encouraged her students to each bring books from home. The feeling of helping other people helped the students at Fanning to believe they can get over their fears and have hope in their own futures. The hope is that the students at Fanning will choose careers human service as a result of the first step taken here.
Further Information
For more information on the book drive click here.
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