The Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS) just signed an agreement with the United Nations refugee agency for a program benefiting refugees or displaced people in Africa. The JRS is a Catholic organization with an international presence in 50 countries the world over. Its main mission is to serve and advocate for forcibly displaced people who require assistance in many areas, including health and education. JRS learning centers are known to provide excellent support to their students.
With the agreement between the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and the JRS, stateless persons in African countries will now be allowed to enroll in on-site and online courses in the pursuit of higher education.
Easier access to education
The UNHCR initiated an education program in 2012 with the objective of improving the access to higher education of displaced individuals within five years. The strategy also includes increasing access to distance education and adding to the number of scholarships available to them from universities. It is now working with JRS for its educational programs for displaced persons in Africa.
Volker Türk, the Director of International Protection for the Office of the UNHCR emphasized that education is a universal right and is a continuum. The UNHCR’s priority is providing access to education from the primary to the secondary and through college and graduate school. Its current priority is higher education for those who want to better themselves despite limitations imposed by their social condition.
Higher learning
Displaced persons in Malawi, Kenya, and Jordan are enrolled in diploma programs with a Jesuit-run university in Denver, Colorado. The Regis University offers certificate courses for refugees in these countries. The current agreement includes online access as well as onsite classes.
Other universities run by Jesuits will follow suit. And this agreement sees other countries becoming future beneficiaries, including Chad where initial assessments are already underway. Other countries where the Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins initiative operates are now included in the potential list of beneficiaries with the expansion of the agreement. The Jesuit Commons: Higher Education at the Margins is a partner agency.
A form of healing
Fr. Peter Balleis S.J., the International Director of the Jesuit Refugee Service, said that those who are living on the margins of society, including refugees, need to be given the chance to nourish themselves intellectually. In this way, they will have the opportunity to become tomorrow’s leaders as they rebuild their communities.
Future plans
This agreement is a strengthening of the partnership of the UNHCR with religious organizations. This concrete move serves as a follow-up to the December 2012 discussion on refugee protection in Geneva, Switzerland. The dialogue was led by Antonio Guterres, the Higher Commissioner. The Geneva meeting was participated in by religious leaders. The main aim of the dialogue is to discuss and enact humanitarian initiatives for refugees and stateless individuals around the world.
Programs for the benefit of refugees are expected see wider horizons. Other plans include multi-lingual distance education. The UNHCR-JRS initiative will also work on developing curricula for skill building within the refugee communities.
Photo Credit: UNHCR in Kenya
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