This archive report was first published on 14 July 2020.
On July 14, 2020, the UK Government announced Ksh 155 million in emergency support for the salaries of 1,304 teachers in Kenya who are educating children in refugee-hosting communities.
The funds will support teachers in Dadaab, Kakuma, and Kalobeyi, allowing them to continue providing education to vulnerable children during the COVID-19 pandemic.
At a high-level virtual summit hosted by the UK, Angelina Jolie, Special Envoy for the UN Refugee Agency UNHCR, emphasized the importance of education in protecting the futures of the world's most vulnerable children.
"For millions of children and youth, schools are a lifeline of opportunity as well as a shield. Classrooms offer protection — or at least a reprieve — from violence, exploitation and other difficult circumstances," Angelina Jolie said.
"Without urgent practical assistance, some of the children left without schooling worldwide due to the coronavirus may never set foot in a classroom again. We must find ways to try to ensure access to continuity of education for young people across the world," she added.
Teachers in Dadaab have been broadcasting programmes on the community radio station, Radio Gargaar, since the lockdown, and have been conducting lessons, reading stories and sharing health messages following social distancing and disinfecting protocols.
"I am part of the 3% of refugee youth who have access to tertiary education. As a refugee, I needed a skill that would give me control and would put me in a position to be useful and helpful in case there is need, whether it be another war or a pandemic like we have now," said Bahati Ernestine Hategekimana, a Rwandan-born refugee living in Kenya and currently studying to be a nurse on a UNHCR scholarship.
