We know that education is everyone’s right. This right has been consecrated in many international documents and conventions, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child. However, according to current data from the UN Agency for Education, Science and Culture (UNESCO), 750 million young people and adults do not know how to read or write, and about four million refugee children and young people are out of school, having their right to education violated before our very eyes.
The forced displacement of people across borders between countries, mainly caused by natural disasters and humanitarian crises, has contributed to greatly exacerbate the problem of school dropout. This contributes to countries failing to achieve gender equality and break the cycle of poverty, which has left millions of children, young people and adults on the margins of our society. Especially since, of the 82.4 million refugees around the world, half are children, according to data from the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR).
For Anderson Santiago, manager of Education in Emergency at the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), “families, communities, states and organizations must ensure that this universal right can be guaranteed beyond the challenges that arise”.
The UN has included quality education as its fourth Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). This is because the Organization understands that education does, in fact, play a role in combating poverty and that it is fundamental to guaranteeing the protection of the environment, peace and combating social and gender inequalities.
In addition to providing opportunities for intellectual learning, the educational environment also provides learning related to human development, that is, the development of behavioral skills. Education acts in a holistic way in the formation of an individual, as expressed by Dr. Júlio Santos, coordinator of the Center for Global Education and Cooperation of ESEPF and member of INEE: “Education works in the humanization of people”.
Education in Humanitarian Missions
Today, January 24, the day proclaimed by the General Assembly of the United Nations as the International Day of Education, we will take the opportunity to present the performance, in the field of education, of the Fraternity – International Humanitarian Federation (FIHF) through its affiliate, Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM).
At the Roraima Humanitarian Mission, the Fraternity – Humanitarian (FIHF) developed important projects offering educational practices for children, young people and adults.
Through art – education, the institution seeks to create safe learning environments that promote insertion, participation and creativity through non-formal educational practices that involve: practical activities with numbers and shapes, storytelling, reading, drawing and painting, music, body language, crafts and environmental education, among others.
The development of activities in this field is based on the standards established by the Interinstitutional Network for Education in Emergencies (INEE), in accordance with the Manual Minimum Requirements for Education (RME), which refers to quality learning opportunities for any age group in crisis and emergency situations.
Education in Emergency Situations, developed by the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM), is based on three lines of action, interconnected based on transversal themes: Education Oriented to Overcoming Trauma, caused by moments of crisis and catastrophes; Community-Based Education, based on the active participation of affected communities and Education for a Culture of Peace, focused on strengthening and preparing teenagers and young people to rebuild their life plans.
Children’s psychosocial well-being and their ability to study in a safe environment are considered essential for quality learning in the context of emergencies and humanitarian crises.
In this line of building a welcoming environment, through synergy between all, the members of the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) who worked at the Angola Mission developed various activities in the field of education, involving children, young people and educators from Casa da Criança Santa Isabel (Children’s House of Saint Isabel), professors from Escola Esperança (Hope School) and students from the Psychology course at Jean Piaget University.
On this topic, Anderson Santiago reinforces: “(…) That is why education in emergency and aimed at overcoming trauma works far beyond curricular content. Assists in the reintegration of the individual’s unity; unity represented by thinking, feeling and will; unity in the rhythms of life and its development. It uses art-education – music, painting, games, crafts and many other expressions -, also to nurture fundamental values and principles in the constitution of any individual, at any time or place on the planet.
Training of humanitarian workers to work in Education
Faced with the pressing scientific evolution in the educational area to act in emergency situations, the humanitarian workers of the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) continuously participate in training, recycling and in experiences that significantly impact the educational activity of migrants and refugees.
In Education in Emergency Situations, Emergency Pedagogy, which adopts principles of Waldorf pedagogy, provides humanitarian workers who work in educational tasks with tools and techniques such as, for example, the use of artistic resources and body expression, which help children, refugee teenagers and adults to deal with extreme situations, avoiding sequels of experienced traumas.
Emergency Pedagogy was applied to refugees in Pacaraima and Boa Vista, in the Roraima Humanitarian mission, in partnership with Aliança pela Infância (Alliance for Childhood), in Carmo da Cachoeira, Minas Gerais. In this experience, through recreational activities and collaborative games, used to balance emotions and feelings, the volunteer workers were trained and experienced pedagogical tools that help children and young people who go through traumatic situations. Among them, we highlight the following: the verse, the tale, dynamics to improve communication, attention and concentration and watercolor workshops.
In addition to Advanced Training courses in Emergency Pedagogy, training on Minimum Education Requirements (RME), Education in Emergencies and Humanitarian Responses, the Fraternity – Humanitarian Missions (FIHM) held, more recently, three training meetings on education aimed at overcoming trauma, in Luanda, Angola.
Education for refugee youth and adults
The Indigenous Cultural and Training Centre (CCFI), idealized by the Fraternity –Humanitarian (FIHF), is the result of a partnership between the institution and the Welcoming Operation. At CCFI, the institution coordinates training and cultural activities that contribute to self-development, autonomy and digital and social inclusion of Venezuelan migrants in the labor market and society in general, enabling them to rebuild their lives and succeed in the search for a new generation of employment and income, on the occasion of its process of interiorization to other Brazilian states.
Imer, humanitarian worker of the Roraima Humanitarian Mission, shares that, for him, “education is a fundamental piece for the development of any society. And, in a migratory context, this is even more important when it comes to migrant indigenous people arriving in a country where the official language is different from the second language they practice… and in the case of adults, especially those we serve here at the Indigenous Cultural and Training Centre, training is impregnated with education, in the sense not only of the technical content, but of the socioeconomic reality of the host country, of the host community. It is necessary that this training brings elements for coexistence and integration in the new context, in the new territory”.
Imer emphasizes that “working with young people and adults, who in many cases did not have opportunities, in the country of origin, to be able to access a teaching and learning space, becomes a fundamental tool because, from there, so much development takes place, capabilities they already have… as well as new knowledge they are offered to be able to adapt and, from there, be able to have a projection, a life perspective, a plan that can be traced individually or collectively”.
Valuing and redefining education is a priority
It is essential that the rights of migrants are guaranteed, especially those of children and young people. This also includes the right to education. Quality education fosters cognitive development and well-being and offers everyone a pure sense of hope.
Humanitarian service and the sense of being a humanitarian worker help to broaden and give a new meaning to education. As Bernd Ruf, considered the father of Emergency Pedagogy and also author of the book Destroços e Traumas (Wreckage and Trauma), “where there is danger grows what also saves”.
