Education Cannot Wait Executive Director Yasmine Sherif
Statement on the 7-Year Anniversary of the Rohingya Crisis
NEW YORK, Aug. 25, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- Seven years ago, a
brutal campaign of violence, rape and terror against the Rohingya
people ignited in Myanmar's
Rakhine State. Villages were burned to the ground, families were
murdered, massive human rights violations were reported, and around
700,000 people – half of them children – fled their homes to seek
refuge in Bangladesh.
Today, Bangladesh's Cox's Bazar
hosts the largest refugee camp in the world with close to a million
children, women and men living in makeshift settlements. The crisis
is an abomination for humanity. And while the Government of
Bangladesh and other strategic
partners are supporting the response, the resources are severely
strained and access to essential services is scarce.
As the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted
crises within the United Nations, Education Cannot Wait (ECW),
along with its strategic donor partners, government, UN agencies
and civil society, has supported holistic education opportunities
for both Rohingya and host community children in Bangladesh since November 2017. The more than US$50 million in funding, delivered through a
consortium of partners – including government counterparts, PLAN
International, Save the Children, UNESCO, UNHCR, UNICEF and other
local partners – has reached over 325,000 girls and boys with
quality education. Over the years, the programmes have provided
learning materials for close to 190,000 children, financial support
to over 1,700 teachers, and rehabilitated over 1,400 classrooms and
temporary learning spaces.
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, fires in the refugee camp
and other pressing emergencies, the programming in Bangladesh was quickly adapted, and over
100,000 girls and boys were able to take part in remote education
programmes during the height of the pandemic.
For refugee girls like Jannat, these investments mean nutritious
school meals, integrated learning opportunities, catch-up classes,
and security and solace in a world gone mad.
We must not forget Jannat and the hundreds of thousands of
Rohingya girls like her that only yearn to learn in safety and
freedom. Our investment in their education is an investment in
peace, enlightenment and security across the region. Above all, it
is an investment in the Rohingya people's rights and other
persecuted groups that face human rights abuses and attacks the
world over.
Despite strong support from donors – as shown in this powerful
joint statement by Japan,
Norway, Sweden, Switzerland and the
United States following their visit to the refugee camps in
Cox's Bazar in May of this year – the Rohingya crisis is
fast-becoming a forgotten crisis.
The Rohingya Humanitarian Crisis Joint
Response Plan 2024 calls for a total of US$852 million in funding, including US$68 million for education. To date, only
US$287 million has been mobilized
toward the plan. More concerning still, only 12.8% has been
mobilized towards the education response, according
to OCHA's Financial Tracking Service. What we
need to realize is that our investments in education are
investments in health, food security and skills development. Taken
together with other actions, it forms a cornerstone upon which all
the other Sustainable Development Goals can be achieved.
As we commemorate seven years of persecution and attack, we must
demand that perpetrators are held accountable for human rights
violations, we must establish conditions conducive for a safe
return of the Rohingya to their native lands, and we must enforce
the rule of law and expect humanity for the people whose lives have
been ripped apart by this brutal crisis.
Join ECW and our partners in urgently mobilizing additional
resources to provide Rohingya girls and boys – and other children
caught in emergencies and protracted crises worldwide – with the
promise of a quality education. They deserve no less.
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