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Educate A Child
UNHCR has been in a strategic partnership since 2012 with the Educate A Child (EAC) programme, which has helped tens of thousands of refugee children attend schools in Africa, Asia and the Middle East.
Educate a Child is funded by the Education Above All (EAA) foundation, set up and chaired by Qatar's Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. It has become a vital supporter for UNHCR's work to extend quality primary education to refugees around the world.
The Education Above All foundation has so far pledged more than US$18 million of a programme budget of US$37 million for EAC activities in Chad, Ethiopia, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Pakistan, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Uganda and Yemen.
During the first year of the partnership, UNHCR ensured education for 176,000 of the estimated 1.2 million refugee children around the world who were out of school. The children were also provided with learning materials under the programme. The 2013 target was to keep those 176,000 children in school and enrol a further 50,000 children in primary school. The target was exceeded and more than 266,000 children are enrolled in primary school as part of this programme.
Thanks to EAC, more than 1,600 classrooms were constructed or rehabilitated in 10 countries in 2013; more than 5,000 teachers took part in training courses; over 14,000 refugee children attended school through cash grants; and textbooks and learning materials were made available, enhancing the quality of learning and teaching.
A number of corporations and foundations have also donated funds to the programme. In 2013, UNHCR received major contributions from the LEGO Foundation, the Stichting af Jochnick Foundation and Italian football club AC Milan as well as donations through UNHCR's national fund-raising partners. These have allowed UNHCR country operations to focus on some of the most vulnerable children in refugee situations and design activities to enrol and keep them in school.
