It’s been well over a year since the onset of the novel coronavirus and we’re yet to find any cure for the disease that has devastated millions of lives across the globe. At a point when many countries are still struggling to contain the pandemic and save their citizens from contracting the disease, the already troubled refugee population continues to be the most vulnerable part of our society. With extremely limited access to health care, high-density populations in the camps and disease-prone living conditions, the refugee situation is a major cause of concern in the wake of COVID-19. One out of every three refugees resides inside a refugee camp. Most of the smaller camps continue to thrive without any dedicated hospitals and even fewer have access to intensive-care equipment like ventilators. Things can take a turn for the worst in conflict-affected, developing host countries who are finding it hard to provide essential medical facilities for even their own national population. Under these conditions, medical officials have repeatedly advised everyone to follow precautionary measures, as they are the only way to prevent the disease for now. These preventative measures like social distancing, hygiene and isolation require an immense educational and awareness drive, especially for the refugee population, most of whom lack basic understanding of the virus and its effects. Proactive responses and awareness campaigns regarding the pandemic could be a great way to get refugee communities on board and ensure they do not get left behind. Apart from distressing health conditions and lack of medical attention, the COVID-19 outbreak has devastated refugee educational programs like schools, colleges, vocational and technical training centers. This has further increased the inequalities in education that affect refugee students and learners. UN-spearheaded welfare programs mostly fund these educational programs but the pandemic has made a significant dent on the global finances with many strong economies plunging into historic recessions. Decreased revenue might prompt countries to cut expenditures on refugee programs and donations to UN-run initiatives for the displaced. Not only will the economic conditions have an impact on welfare programs but will also affect the refugee population directly in the form of job cuts and downsizing further incapacitating their ability to afford fees, books, uniforms, and technology required for distance learning. According to UNHCR, there are currently 7.1 million refugee children and only less than half of them attend schools of some kind. Their enrollment is likely to be affected immensely because of the preventative closures of educational institutes by host countries in a bid to contain the virus outbreak. While most of the nations have launched remote education programs, it’s not possible for all of the developing countries to implement this strategy completely for every student.If educational initiatives for refugees don’t get greater support, many hard-won, steady enrollments in schools, colleges, technical and vocational centers could start moving backwards. This reversal could be permanent in many cases, endangering the efforts to ensure that education remains inclusive for everyone. For ending the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that we don’t leave anyone behind. Especially not those among us who are at their most vulnerable.

COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the refugee populations around the world. 

COVID-19's effect on the refugee population

Education is a safe haven for refugee children and schools are their first line of defense against abuse, forced labor and sexual or gender-based violence. It is an ongoing process of acquiring knowledge, awareness and skills essential to equip a refugee with the ability to participate in the society as equals. Right to education is one of the fundamental components of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is the most basic tool that can be employed to uplift the conditions that the marginalized, displaced migrants are living in and empower them with the opportunity to flourish and learn. Sustainable peace for global society, countries, communities and finally the individuals is only possible through inclusive educational initiatives like Hope Sustains Life. Every year, thousands of families escape from their home countries to take asylum in different nation states around the globe. This keeps on happening to a community as a result of constant religious, racial, ethnic or political persecution and human rights abuses against which their native countries fail to protect them. Among these families, around 3.5 million refugees are children of school-going age and only half of them actually go to school. These extremely low enrollment numbers and subsequently the lower literacy rate among refugee communities is a result of the fact that many of the primary-aged migrants get uprooted from their homes during their starting years in school while older school-goers get displaced while pursuing tertiary education. These kids most likely have an extremely difficult time in continuing their education again in a land foreign to them. Another one of the chief reasons behind these distressing statistics is the lack of educational resources altogether for refugee children especially in many developing host countries. Even in the developed world like the EU and USA, many refugee communities do not have access to specialized programs for higher learning. According to UNHCR, documentation also plays a huge factor in keeping the enrollment rates low. A more realistic approach is required when assessing the educational credentials and conditions of refugees because many of them flee homes in a state of chaos, leaving behind essential documents like course certificates and IDs. Host country institutes barring them from joining classes, appearing to sit for exams, refusing to recognize their certifications from countries of origin or leaving them out of other opportunities also contribute enormously to the lack of refugee education. The changes in syllabus, language, modes of instruction and the overall culture, are some of the biggest barriers in education that refugees face. In such an environment, our non-profit organization helps to build more schools for the refugee children in an effort to increase the accessibility and quality of education, enhance the enrollment retention rates, innovate new approaches to teaching and expand the infrastructure for education. This quality of education is pivotal to keeping children in the classroom and continuing their progress to higher classes. Without keeping these things in check, forced education is of no use to children especially if they are practically not learning anything at all.

Currently many refugees lack a proper education. Our nonprofit is trying to combat this by building schools.

 Explaining Refugee's Lack of Education

Hope Sustains Life&nbsp;is helping inspire hope in refugees while building a sustainable, not-for-profit platform that supports, funds and oversees quality education for the displaced. All you’d see is a host of different articles displaying cheerful quotes if you searched us up and that is because our initiative started small, built itself from scratch with cash and check. But that doesn’t mean we were alone in this. Our website helped us expand beyond the local confines and enabled us to receive earnest donations from the global community at large. During this process of expansion to gather attention worldwide, the Bits of Good team stood side by side with us in creating a great website for our organization. The Bits of Good team is an ensemble of hardworking artists and web engineers who are making an effort to develop practical applications for real-world problems we face every day. They offer mentorship at various levels, employing the skillsets of their own diverse workers and other well-integrated club community members. This team of engineers, designers, artists and marketers seek to integrate various technological approaches, platforms and skills together in order to empower nonprofits and distribute the power of technology to everyone working for social good. Bits of Good builds practical and powerful web products, applications that help bridge the distances between local nonprofits and students across the strata. It also enhances the relationships between these organizations and students who want to become a part of social good using skills in technological background for creating meaningful impact. They have been monumental in facilitating us to set our website up. Their contributions in helping us will enable them to become an integral part of doing something great and making lives better for hundreds of refugees in learning and attending schools. As of now, millions of refugees across the globe don’t have the means to get an education or access to quality schools, colleges or skills-training centers. These children who have been uprooted from their homes, dragged through war to foreign unknown lands deserve the same opportunities as we do. Being born amid persecution and violence wasn’t a choice they made for themselves so they should be able to live, learn and go to schools as our equals no matter where they are. This is their basic right as a human being. Leaving behind livelihoods, jobs and businesses and migrating to a different land isn’t easy. Refugee communities have very limited means of earning money due to documentation issues, host country policies and work permits. Due to these restrictions, most of the refugees stay unemployed or resort to odd jobs and daily wage gigs as laborers. The meagre income from these sources doesn’t allow them to put their children through schools, afford their books, uniform or the essential means to keep them going to schools every day. This is where we step in to bridge the gap between the refugees and access to quality education by helping local organizations build schools; buy necessary supplies, open new and inclusive opportunities for them to excel in the fields they want to be in.

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