Skip to main content

Blog by Margo O’Sullivan, Director of Programmes, Power Teachers Africa, Blog for INEW Member Misean Cara

 

“Ignoring the education of migrants squanders a great deal of human potential”
(Audrey Azouley, Director General UNESCO, GEM, 2019)

 

The UN General Assembly designated January 24th as the International Day of Education to celebrate the vital role education plays in fostering peace and development. Education is especially critical for children whose once peaceful lives have been disrupted by conflict and displacement. Today, 1 in every 69 people—approximately 120 million individuals—is forcibly displaced, with 40% of them under the age of 18 (UNHCR, 2024).  4). Alarmingly, more than half of all refugee children worldwide are out of school (UNHCR, 2023).

“I want to have a nice future and support my family. I want to be more in life”, shared Jose, a Venezuelan refugee participating in the Marist Brothers’ A Heart Without Borders Education Programme, supported by Misean Cara. The programme operates in La Pista migrant settlement, the largest in South America, located in Northern Colombia.

Education is key to displaced children successfully surviving the crises they have to endure and to a better life. Critical is the provision of education in a supportive environment (UNICEF, 2022). Ideally, forcibly displaced children should be educated in host countries’ schools (GPE, 2024; UNICEF, 2021, 2023). However, many students face legal challenges in accessing education due to their migration status and many host schools struggle to provide quality education to them due to lack of resources (Naylor, 2024). 61% of refugee children in Lebanon, one of the five review countries, are out of school (UNHCR, 2023). When children are able to access local schools, past trauma often negatively affects their learning outcomes (World Bank and UNHCR, 2021; UNHCR, 2021; Save the Children, 2021). Additionally, young learners frequently suffer discrimination based on their ethnicity, religion or simply being from outside the host community. To support displaced children who are unable to access local schools and/or who struggle to fit in and learn in host schools, the provision of out of school education services is critical (UNICEF, 2023).

Misean Cara, a member of the Irish Network for Education Worldwide (INEW), supports the overseas development work of Irish missionary organizations across multiple sectors, with a strong focus on education—especially for the forcibly displaced. Among the 95 education projects implemented in 2023 by 38 of Misean Cara’s member organizations in 29 countries, nearly 20% of the students reached are forcibly displaced individuals. In 2024, Misean Cara commissioned a review of these projects supporting education for displaced children (publication forthcoming). The review identified best practices across five key areas: governance and management, holistic education and pedagogy, project staff, teachers and volunteers, safety and security, and stakeholder engagement.

Here, we focus on three unique contributions that missionary organizations bring to supporting education for displaced children.

Firstly, missionary organizations provide long-term commitment and support. Globally, 76% of all refugees are hosted by developing countries (UNHCR, 2023), which often lack the resources needed to successfully integrate refugee children into their schools. This challenge is compounded by the increasingly protracted nature of crises, which now last an average of 20 years for refugees and over 10 years for internally displaced people. With each new crisis, funding for those displaced long-term significantly decreases, forcing many organizations to withdraw. Missionary organizations, however, remain steadfast when funding wanes or crises shift elsewhere.

In Yei Diocese, South Sudan—a region ranked as the most vulnerable county in the country, which itself is last among 167 countries (IOM, 2023), Retired Bishop Hillary, left in the photograph in Yei, shared with Emmanuel Kamuli, of Power Teachers Africa, one of the reviewers, right in the photograph, in September 2024: “Unlike other organizations that fly in and fly out and mostly only help those who are officially registered as refugees, the missionaries [Church Mission Society Ireland] lived among the population and understood their challenges from the inside… Yei Vocational Technical College continues to demonstrate its commitment to the community, unlike other organizations that parachute in and out to their respective operating bases outside the country.”

Similarly, in La Pista settlement in northern Colombia, home predominantly to Venezuelan refugees and internally displaced people, the Marist Brothers’ A Heart Without Borders project is one of only two education support organizations remaining. As one local community member observed, “All the others were here for only about a year or two, and then they left when funding dried up.”

Secondly, the long-term presence of missionary organizations fosters a deep understanding of the educational needs of displaced children and youth, such as focus on skills for income generation in Yei vocational college.

Tailoring section at Yei Vocational College, South Sudan. Dresses made by students are on display and every market day the students take their products to town for sale.

The long-term presence which enables well-developed local networks, facilitates successful advocacy with local schools to enrol displaced children. For example, the Three2Six project in South Africa and the A Heart Without Borders in Colombia have collectively enabled nearly 3,000 displaced students to enrol in government schools in their respective countries. The impact of these efforts is profound—Three2Six now boasts several alumni who have gone on to establish businesses, while others have enrolled in university, highlighting the transformative potential of their work (Three2Six, 2023).

Photo of Rebecca (on the left) and Bernice, Three to Six alumni.  Rebecca, who has set up a muffin business, shared how she learned a valuable resilience skill from Three2Six ‘You need to uplift yourself every day to survive and know that one day you will be fine’

Thirdly, addressing the funding challenges associated with protracted crises, missionary organizations excel in mobilizing volunteers, pro bono services, and donated materials to support their educational activities. This resourcefulness is particularly vital in sustaining the holistic focus that characterizes all reviewed missionary organization projects. For instance, the Marist Brothers’ Three2Six project in Johannesburg and A Heart Without Borders in the Santa Fe slum of Bogotá, both operate using donated facilities. A Heart Without Borders utilizes premises provided by the Dominican Sisters, while Three2Six runs in Marist schools. The project’s name reflects its innovative approach of utilizing these facilities to offer holistic educational support to displaced children between 3:00 and 6:00 PM daily, when the school’s day pupils have finished for the day and classrooms become available for use by Three2Six. (Daily Maverick, 2023).  By leveraging these and other contributions, these projects deliver significant value for money, offering educational services at much lower costs than other initiatives supporting displaced children in low- and middle-income countries.

On International Day of Education, let us focus on the critical role of education for displaced children and reflect on the contributions of missionary organizations. While they may lack the funding and recognition of larger international aid agencies, their efforts are invaluable, especially in regions where access to education is most fragile.

 

Misean Cara is a member of the Irish Network for Education Worldwide (INEW) Dr Margo O’Sullivan from Power Teachers Africa has worked as a consultant with Misean Cara. A heartfelt thank you to Margo and everybody at Misean Cara and Power Teachers Africa for this kind contribution to our blog!