In August 2021, the Taliban came to power in Afghanistan as U.S. and NATO forces withdrew from the country, leading to an influx of 3.6 million refugees fleeing the country. 60,000 Afghan refugees were hosted in Qatar before their transition to the United States. At the Innovation Development Directorate in the Education Above All (EAA) Foundation, we were determined to support the learning continuity of Afghan refugees in Qatar. Therefore, we visited the Afghan Refugees in their compounds to understand more about their needs.
There were several things we noticed:
- They were bored and not engaged in their learning.
- They spoke no to very English even though they are moving to the U.S.
- They knew nothing about where they were going.
- They were not receiving any support to process their feelings causing an increase of violence in the compounds.
Ultimately, this led to the creation of the Afghan Emergency Education Package.
Education Above All Foundation works mainly towards United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which is quality education for the most marginalized groups and areas around the world. Within 2 months, Education Above All (EAA) Foundation developed a 3-month emergency education program in Dari and Pashto for continuous learning for Afghan children between the ages of 4-16. The package builds on EAA’s award-winning Internet Free Education Resource Bank (IFERB) and is technology-free, low-resource requiring and engaging. The package was developed in Dari and Pashto keeping in mind the language need for Afghan children. While creating the packages, we sought the help of Afghan girls who supported in translating the content as well as recording instructions in Dari and Pashto for our volunteers to use.
The package consists of several innovate models such as Survival English, which includes flashcards and learning packages to help Afghan Refugees learn basic English. Host Country focused on resources to help children understand and assimilate their host country better. The Socio-Emotional Learning Package, co-developed with Amal Alliance, includes the award-winning Colors of Kindness program that equips children with the tools and exercises to positively cope with the new changes and healthily manage their emotions. The Life Skills Package includes resources to help children develop essential skills such as maintaining good health, budgeting, goal setting, resolving conflicts respectfully, etc.
These resources have been used with 750 Afghan Refugees in Ft. Bliss in their camps and in Camp Atterbury in Indiana. HP and M-Alliance printed the Survival English packages and distributed them, a representative stated that “these are really useful and fun activities which will help refugee kids, especially those who don’t know English”. In addition, the resources are currently being implemented 20,000 Afghan Refugees in the GCC. Modules such as ‘Know Your Host Country’ and ‘Survival English’ were strongly endorsed by Global EiE Clusters and implemented by the US Department of Defense in camps hosting Afghan refugee children.
In 2022, following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at EAA, we used the same principles to create the Ukrainian Emergency Education Package so that Ukrainian refugee children can access uninterrupted learning that is relevant and holistic. The resources are aimed at supporting Ukrainian Refugees integrate into other societies and to foster intercultural understanding between the two communities.
These resources were used by Positive Education Institute (PEI) in Poland with 11,857 students to support Ukrainian refugees engage in project-based learning in a safe school environment and also learned Polish, under the supervision of both Ukrainian and Polish Teachers. They implemented EAA’s integration and academic learning packages to facilitate intercultural understanding and curricular catch-up for Ukrainian refugee children enrolled in 100 Polish schools. In addition, PEI disseminated EAA’s Support Package [Bedtime Stories and Activity Book] to Ukrainian mothers to help them productively engage their children during their free time.
Currently, we are working towards supporting Palestinian children in continuing their learning and providing them with initial SEL support. The EAA Foundation immediately deployed 40 games, a collection of low-resource requiring games which include themes of literacy, numeracy, socio-emotional learning, and the world around us and are condensed on a single sheet of paper, requiring minimum printing. In addition to the 40 games, we have also curated additional learning resources in Arabic from IFERB, to provide Palestinian children with the opportunity to engage in play-based learning. Similarly, we curated a list of storybooks that are culturally sensitive to the Palestinian context from our collection of stories.
Conflicts, natural disasters, and epidemics derail the lives of children. Without access to education, they risk losing their futures. Education is consistently cited as top priority for parents and children in crises, yet it is often the first service lost and last restored during emergencies. Education in emergencies requires quick response and attention to the immediate needs of the learners in crisis situations.
Award Nominator
I love this project. It has a clear goal and a clear mechanism to get to that goal. And it has has a clear impact at least in terms of better educating displaced child populations. Moreover, the efficacy of these OER were measured (often missing in the open field).
Award Reviewer
