Jesuit Refugee Service | Investing in education for refugees

Investing in education for refugees

During a private audience in 2015 granted to JRS representatives to mark our 35th anniversary, Pope Francis handed us a gentle but insistent challenge: “To give a child a seat at a school is the finest gift you can give.” JRS responded with the Global Education Initiative (GEI), a campaign to increase the scale and impact of its education projects for young refugees.

JRS launched the Global Education Initiative (GEI) with two stated aims: to increase the total number of people in our education programmes from the then figure of 150,000 to 250,000 by 2020; and to focus those programmes in three areas: out-of-school children and youth (especially girls,children with special needs, and refugees who have missed out on secondary education); teacher training; and postsecondary education and training.

To meet these goals, JRS hopes to raise USD 35 million.

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Malawi: JRS holds Naweza Conference to empower girls
Dzaleka, 4 September 2018 - The first ever Naweza Girls Conference held at Dzaleka Refugee camp last month is part of the Naweza project, a partnership between the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) and the Fidel Götz Foundation that aims to empower refugee girls.
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Syria: War cannot destroy his dreams
Kafroun, 30 August 2018 – Farid* has dreams of a better future and forgetting the harsh realities of his daily life. An enthusiastic 13-year-old, he loves to go to school every morning and then to the Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) Kafroun Centre in the afternoon.
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Thailand: Refugee graduation ceremony and beyond
Bangkok, 22 August 2018 - Danh’s story is not about what society can do to help persons who are differently abled, but rather, what persons who are differently abled can do and give back to the society.
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South Africa: Giving up is not an option
Johannesburg & Pretoria, 3 August 2018 – Last month, JRS South Africa celebrated the graduation of 221 refugees and asylum seekers from the Arrupe Women’s Skill Centre and Pretoria Skill Centre.
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Uganda: I will get there
Adjumani, 20 July 2018 – “My aim is not satisfying myself with knowledge but having a knowledge that is going to be beneficial for others,” says Vumilia Ameshinda reflecting on his future.
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Myanmar: Providing love and learning through education
Myitkyina, 13 July 2018 – Roi San, a 24-year old woman, is serving as a volunteer teacher at a Catholic school in the town of Myitkyina in Myanmar’s Kachin State. She began teaching in this school two years ago after graduating from a JRS-supported teacher training course.
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Uganda: I want to stay in school (Part II)
Adjumani, 31 May 2018 - A few years ago, there were no secondary schools for refugees in Pagirinya and, although Uganda’s progressive refugee regime allows refugee children to attend any school anywhere in the country, most refugee parents could not afford the tuition fees.
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Uganda: I want to stay in school (Part I)
Adjumani, 28 May 2018 – A group of about 60 mostly young men and a handful of girls are crowded in a makeshift classroom, their attention fixed to the front of the room. The classroom consists of a weather-beaten tarpaulin tent supported by thin wooden beams.
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South Sudan: A Refugee Mother, Wife, Teacher, and Student
Washington D.C., 13 May 2018 – JRS/USA Communications Coordinator, Rashidah McCoy, shares a story of a refugee mother she met while in South Sudan who teaches the students of Yambio by day and raises her family at night.
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Myanmar: Children as agents of peace
Loikow, 10 May 2018 – Myanmar has been a battleground for decades. A long civil war has displaced more than 640,000 people within Myanmar. In Kayah State, the war has internally displaced more than 34,000 persons and close to 12,000 refugees remain in two camps in the Mae Hong Son province of Thailand bordering Myanmar.
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