Indonesia, Southeast Asia’s largest economy, provides temporary shelter to 13,800 registered refugees from countries including Afghanistan, Pakistan, Somalia and Myanmar. Indonesia is not a signatory to the UN’s 1951 Refugee Convention, which is why refugees and asylum seekers living in Indonesia cannot work or get an education. They are required to have an official document such as passports or ID cards. Recently, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has been informing refugees In Indonesia that they might have to stay in Indonesia for 15 – 20 years and some might never be resettled to a third country.
This situation has prompted many skilled refugees to establish informal schools to educate their children and other refugees. Everyone volunteering at these centers is a refugee and works for free. Sometimes have to spend money out of their own pockets to come to the learning centers and teach the refugee children.
As an effort to support these charitable causes, Genashtim launched an ‘Adopt a Volunteer Refugee Teacher’ campaign to raise funds for the transportation expenses of these refugee volunteers-teachers. These volunteers are asked to record a short video, introducing themselves, which is then uploaded to a website where donors can view and ‘adopt’ these volunteers to support pay their transportation expenses at US$36/month.
This noble initiative has raised the spirits of the refugee volunteers and made their job easier. “I can now come and teach at RLC (Refugee Learning Centre) without worrying about the financial side of things. I want to thank Genashtim and Mr. Thomas for helping us. It definitely means the world to me and everyone else here.” said one of the teachers when asked about the ‘Adopt a Volunteer Refugee Teacher’ campaign.
Furthermore, with the help of Genashtim team, the Refugee Learning Nest (RLN) has launched a new online curriculum for grade 4, 5 and 6 that is a step forward from the traditional education. Tablets have been donated so the students can use them to access these online resources. This saves the refugee center the cost of printing and photocopying the materials. The main benefit of this new system is its flexibility. Students can review and repeat the topics as many times as they like and any changes to be made in the courses is available at the touch of a button. Genashtim also plans to extend this new way of teaching to other learning centers if it proves efficient at RLN.
To find more about this noble cause, visit online.