US$1m committed to CAR refugee children, youth in Chad
The fund will provide some 7,800 CAR refugee children and children in host communities with the safety, protection and opportunities of quality learning environments.
CAPE TOWN, May 4 (ANA) – Education Cannot Wait (ECW) has announced a US$1-million grant to respond to the situation of refugee children and youth in Chad who fled violence in the Central African Republic (CAR).
In a statement issued on Tuesday, the ECW said the fund will provide some 7,800 CAR refugee children and children in host communities with the safety, protection and opportunities of quality learning environments.
ECW was established during the World Humanitarian Summit in 2016 by international humanitarian and development aid actors, along with public and private donors, to help reposition education as a priority on the humanitarian agenda.
Violence associated with the December 2020 elections in the CAR has forcibly displaced more than 200,000 people within and outside the country, including another 2,000 who recently fled into Chad.
Out of the 117,000 CAR refugees who fled their country amid the post-electoral violence, Chad hosts close to 11,000. This brings the total number of refugees from the CAR in Chad to close to 105,000 people, according to the organisation.
Among the newly arrived refugees registered by the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Chad, more than 3,000 school-aged children have been settled in two refugee camps and three host villages.
An additional 4,000 refugee children and youth were already living in the refugee camps in the host villages of Beakoro, Don and Bekan, in the South Province of Chad.
“Innocent children and youth are fleeing unspeakable horrors. We hear reports of pillaging, extortion and other violent acts at the hands of rebel groups. Families must flee in the night, wading through rivers with few personal belongings,” said ECW director Yasmine Sherif.
“Their situation poses severe protection issues for girls and boys. Without the safety that quality learning environments provide, girls are at risk of sexual exploitation, early child marriage, child labour, boys are at risk of recruitment by armed groups.”
She urged world leaders to step up to fund the education in emergency response in CAR, Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon and other countries affected by this ongoing crisis.
– African News Agency (ANA); Editing by Yaron Blecher