AFRICA/CHAD - Thousands of displaced children in the Central African Republic left without education

Monday, 26 May 2014

N'djamena (Agenzia Fides) - About 40,900 children and thousands of other young people displaced due to the violence in the Central African Republic (CAR) are stranded in transit camps in southern Chad without being able to attend school, with few or no training and work opportunities, left with no hope for the future. They wander through the camps without doing anything. Some schools have been improvised by teachers, like the one in the camp of Doyaba where 3,200 children are registered for primary and pre-primary classes.
There are instead no initiatives regarding secondary school students. Some of the 4000 displaced children have been placed in schools that already existed, but still no child has received any form of schooling.
According to the United Nations Agency for Refugees, between 2013 and 2014, approximately 97 000 refugees and returnees have left the Central African Republic to seek shelter in Chad. The situation in the various camps is really desperate. Many children and adolescents in Doyaba said they have witnessed terrible atrocities such as those of family members burnt alive and beheaded. In Doyaba 17,100 mostly young people, are looking for something to do. Teachers try to help children with little educational material distributed by the Ministry of Education in Chad, as well as notebooks, mats and blackboards delivered by UNICEF, which is currently engaged in the construction of 12 temporary classrooms in Doyaba and another 24 in Danamadja, in order to also accommodate the population of the neighboring camp in Goré. (AP) (Agenzia Fides 26/05/2014)


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