A refugee is a person who "owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his nationality, and is unable to or, owing to such fear, is unwilling to avail himself of the protection of that country…

 Education is a basic human right and has been recognized as such since the 1948 adoption of the Universal Declaration on Human Rights.

Having left their country and sometimes traumatised by the bad experience they encountered before fleeing, but also anxious about their future, refugees deserve a special protection, due to the vulnerability they are exposed to as they are living out of their own country and in most cases with no financial means to respond to their needs.

UNHCR is providing protection for thousands of refugees from Darfur and the later have been settled in the twelve camps of Eastern Chad.

 Their protection and well being is ensured by this institution with the help of different other partners who are actively involved in delivering basic services such as health , education, water and sanitation to mention only but a few.

 Education, being a section I am involved in is also one of the bigger challenges in delivering appropriate service to this vulnerable group.

 Promoting girls’ education, giving choices to the youth and preventing them from being lured into militia movements, ensuring a safe learning environment etc are the mainstream challenges we are called to face and we are deeply involved.

 But most of all, Education is a tool which prevents early marriage and child recruitment into militia.

This is not all, education gives hope to the refugees, after all, refugee is only a status, and we acknowledge how anxious they are about going back home and our wish is that they return home empowered to compete with available opportunities.

 We are citizens of the world. Our intervention in ensuring appropriate protection for Darfurian refugees is therefore summarised in three words: Education, Education and Education.

 To make the world a better place…

Thanks to United Nations’ High Commission for Refugees.