Middle East

Children in crisis want education more than money, food or water

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Africa/ 24.09.2019/ Source: www.savethechildren.net.

  • Surveys from toughest places on earth reveal top priorities for children in crisis
  • School ranks far higher than immediate needs like food, water and shelter
  • But education allocated just 2% of funding in humanitarian emergencies
  • 262 million children – one in five globally – denied an education
Children overwhelmingly identify education as their top priority at times of crisis, a new report by Save the Children shows today.
Education Against the Odds provides the largest analysis of what children – rather than aid planners – say they need during humanitarian emergencies.
The report’s surprising findings reveal children are more than twice as likely to rank going to school as their top concern, compared to immediate needs like food, water, shelter or money.
Education remains chronically underfunded during emergencies, representing just two per cent of aid for countries grappling with war, disease and disaster.
Of 1,215 children surveyed in six countries, nearly one in three (29%) said education was their top priority. [1]
That was more than twice the number who identified food (12%), health (12%), or water and sanitation (12%) as their primary concern. It was three times the number who said they needed shelter (9%) or money (9%) most.
Other concerns children identified as top priorities include clothing (3%), sport and leisure activities (3%), safety (2%) and family (1%). [2]
The surveys were conducted over the last five years with children aged 5-18, during humanitarian responses across Asia, Africa and the Middle East.
Among the respondents were:
  • Children struggling to survive in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines;
  • Child refugees from Syria and Afghanistan;
  • Children living in conflict zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
  • Rohingya children in refugee camps in Bangladesh;
  • Children displaced by fighting in Ethiopia and South Sudan.

One child fighting against the odds to get an education is 10-year-old Ali from Idlib, Syria. He and his family fled their village to escape fighting. When they returned home, Ali’s school was in ruins after being hit by an airstrike. Nearly half of the schools in north west Syria are currently out of action. [3] Ali said:

«I saw my school was destroyed and broken down and it made me so sad. My friends and I, we will go back and study in it. I love my school – my wish is that it does not get bombed and destroyed again. We will rebuild it and make it better than before. I love to study. I want to become a doctor to treat people who are in need and serve my country.»

Save the Children’s analysis of UN data shows that – far from recognising children’s priorities at times of crisis – humanitarian aid for education trails far behind other sectors.

Just two per cent of funding for countries grappling with emergencies was allocated to education last year. That represents half the levels earmarked for medical care, and one tenth of the support dedicated to providing supplies of food. [4]

262 million children, one in five globally, are out of school, many of them due to sudden or protracted crises like wars, outbreaks of disease or natural disasters.

But, at current rates, the United Nations estimates 225 million children will still be out of school in 2030 due to stagnating levels of education aid globally. [5]

This week Save the Children is calling for world leaders to dramatically boost the funding available for education in emergencies through Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the first and only global fund dedicated to providing education in countries affected by crisis. [6]

In August the UK committed £90 million to the fund, and called for other wealthy governments to follow suit by dedicating more of their aid budgets to global education.

Other commitments of funding for the ECW are expected to be announced at a meeting at the UN General Assembly on Wednesday (September 25).

Save the Children’s Head of Education Policy, Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, said:

“What children have been telling us is clear and unambiguous. Even when food is scarce, water dirty and medical care almost non-existent, children still want to go to school.

“They know an education will give them the skills they need to escape a crisis. They know it protects them from child marriage, exploitation and abuse. They understand it helps them recover from trauma.

“Children want more than to simply survive. Education gives them the power to build a better future.”

NOTES TO EDITORS:

[1] A vital part of Save the Children’s work is to ask children what they need. This helps to inform our own priorities and influence the priorities of others. We reviewed data from rapid field surveys by aid workers stretching back more than a decade, encompassing the hopes and fears of more than 8,000 children in the toughest places on earth. While most surveys we analysed were records of small group discussions, quantitative data was available from six countries between 2013 and 2018, from a combined total of 1,215 children aged 5-18. A simple average was calculated across the studies.

[2] All other priorities children identified were: clothing (3%), sport and leisure activities (3%), safety (2%), family (1%), insecurity (1%), phones (1%), transportation (1%), collecting firewood (1%), and unspecified concerns (4%).

[3] Out of the 1,193 schools in north west Syria, 635 continue to be operational, 353 have been abandoned or damaged, and 205 are being used as collective shelters, according to analysis by Save the Children partner Hurras Network in August 2019.

[4] International donors provided a total of more than $25 billion in humanitarian aid in 2018, according to the UN’s Financial Tracking Service (FTS). $606 million (2.41%) was allocated to education, $1.5 billion (5.98%) to health and $6 billion (23.85%) to food security,

[5] UIS data for the school year ending 2017, the latest available, shows 262 million children were out of school, or 18% globally. Estimates from UNESCO suggest 225 million children will still be out of school by 2030 without urgent action, missing a global commitment to get every child into education by that date.

[6] Since its establishment in 2017, the little-known Education Cannot Wait (ECW) fund has reached nearly 1.5 million children and young people – half of them girls – in 31 crisis-affected countries. Over the next four years, ECW needs to raise $1.9 billion to ensure 8.9 million children caught up in humanitarian emergencies get to go to school.

[7] Save the Children exists to help every child reach their full potential. In the UK and around the world, we make sure children stay safe, healthy and keep learning, so they can become who they want to be.

Source of the notice: https://www.savethechildren.net/news/children-crisis-want-education-more-money-food-or-water

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Eastern Ghouta students: It’s suicide if we leave our basements

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Ghouta/ March 19, 2018 /aljazeera

Three students explain what life is like in rebel-held besieged enclave, as they try to keep up with their studies.

It has been nearly five years since Syrian government forces imposed a siege on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta.

The past month has been one of the deadliest in the enclave, with more 1,200 civilians killed since the aerial and ground bombardment began on February 18.

As the campaign against Eastern Ghouta continues, schools and universities have either been destroyed or shut down, leaving students with few options for continuing their education.

Some have enrolled in online universities, while others have joined new, start-up medical academies to address the extreme shortage of medical staff in the area.

Three students spoke to Al Jazeera about the obstacles they face as they try to continue their education in Eastern Ghouta.

Majed Daas, 22, computer science student

Ever since 2013 [start of the siege], I began searching for a way to continue my studies, but it was difficult because of the siege and we frequently have no fuel, internet or electricity.

So I sat down with some of my friends who are older than me, have already graduated or studied computer science and I started to learn how to run computer programs and software with them.

It was tough at the beginning, very complicated, but computer science has always been my obsession. After training with my friends, I completed my high school exam and did quite well.

Before the campaign started [against Eastern Ghouta], I was going to an internet shop to study, which cost a lot – nearly $3 per session every day. The books that I had to print cost me a fortune. I earn only $150 a month and printing a book costs about $30.

Studying on my laptop was challenging too. We never have electricity so I have to pay $5 a week to get electricity for a few hours and sometimes it doesn’t work properly because of the attacks.

Two months ago, I applied at the University of the People [an American online institution] and signed up for two courses only, but I couldn’t continue because of the intense attacks. Sadly, I had to withdraw since I can’t complete the courses under these circumstances.

Our days now are horrifying; I just can’t describe it. As I am talking to [you] right now [by phone] seven air strikes have struck around me. We stay all day in basements; sometimes I go outside to use the internet to talk with friends and family.

A photo of what is left of Majed Daas’ home that was destroyed last week [Courtesy of Majed Daas]

Warplanes, helicopters, mortar attacks – everything that you can imagine is being dropped on us by Russian forces and the [Bashar al-Assad] regime. We are expecting something like [the atomic bombings of] Hiroshima and Nagasaki to happen so they can kill us all and finish us off.

We have spent the last three weeks underground sleeping, waiting, going up and down, helping to bring some water and whatever we can to women and old, sick people who are struggling to death in these tombs or so-called basements.

Bassam Yousef, 22, physiotherapy student

The crowds of injured people and the shortage of medical staff in Eastern Ghouta is what drove me to continue my studies. With Sham Medical Academy, I found what I needed and it opened many doors for me to continue my studies. The academy opened to support the liberated areas with properly trained medical staff who don’t have medical certificates.

For sure, studying in Ghouta is very different. We had class interrupted countless times because of the relentless shelling campaign these last years, especially in Jobar area, close to me.

In each of these shelling campaigns, medical checkpoints and hospitals have been drowning with patients. Where I work, we were targeted more than three times, and it affected me badly in my studies as I was conducting medical research with Sham Medical Academy.

Since three months ago, we’ve been suffering from a lack of materials and supplies, food and fuel prices have increased gradually, schools have closed after many massacres and directed attacks against them. Education has come to a halt in all of Eastern Ghouta. I want to continue my Masters in psychological sciences at the academy, but can’t because of the intense campaign against Ghouta.

We have been living in the basement for the last few weeks. We hardly have any food supplies and water. There are roughly 200 people in each basement. The continuous attacks have prevented us from leaving it for hours sometimes; it’s quite stinky and humid.

Bassam Yousef helps a patient at a medical checkpoint in Eastern Ghouta [Courtesy of Bassam Yousef]

Can you imagine the amount of people held in a small place, breathing heavily and struggling with lung illnesses and other diseases? We are being hit right now as we speak [over the phone]. We will be hit by regime forces until we die or they force us to leave the city.

Mohammed Nizar Arbash, 22, computer science student

When the siege hit the city, we weren’t able to go out or get any supplies. I couldn’t find any way to study so I started working on some computer programs for video editing and was developing these skills with help from friends. I learned how to do many things like app programming.

I worked during this time with the civil defence team, helping them with video editing in their media office, which helped me to develop my computer knowledge.

By the beginning of 2016, I enrolled at the virtual University of the People in computer science. It was [a] hard decision to make as I couldn’t give up working, which my family and I depend on in order to survive and I had to pay the university’s expenses as well. [The university charges an assessment fee of $100 per course.]

Before studying at the virtual university, I studied computer science for two years in Eastern Ghouta, which was supported by the temporary government of the opposition, but my certificate wasn’t recognised by international universities because the university didn’t belong to the regime.

Mohammed Nizar Arbash says ‘the virtual option has been the best solution’ for obtaining an education in Eastern Ghouta [Courtesy of Mohammed Nizar Arbash]

The certificate that I received was practically useless and I had to start from scratch all over again. To complete my studies and get a masters degree, I registered in the virtual university as I knew I would otherwise face difficulties in continuing my higher studies.

But this semester I withdrew from all of my courses because of the ongoing extermination war that we are under now.

These days I go out to bring water for people, bring some batteries to light the shelter or go out to find a medic or anything the elderly urgently need. It’s suicide every time we leave our basements, but if we don’t leave it for some time we’ll suffocate from the bad smell. It’s more like prisons that we’re living in, stuck under the shelling of Assad’s forces and its allies.

Fuente: https://www.aljazeera.com/news/middleeast/2018/03/eastern-ghouta-students-suicide-leave-basements-education-180317160631282.html

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Turkey launches ground operation in Syria

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Asia / Turkía / 28 de agosto de 2016 / Por: Mehmet Yılmaz Istambul

Although Turkish army claims to be fighting ISIS to legitimize the invasion, its real objective is to stop the advance of Kurdish militia, the only progressive force on the ground.

In a critical development in the Syrian civil war, the Turkish army and allies began a ground incursion towards the Syrian border city of Jarablus on the morning of August 24. Turkish artillery and jets, supported by US military advisers, warplanes and drones, started pounding ISIS targets at around 4 a.m. local time. This was followed by a land operation at 11 a.m. by Turkish special forces and tanks, as well as 1,500 Syrian radical Islamist fighters. These fighters, according to BBC Turkish, were brought a few days ago from Idlib by Turkish officers and grouped on the Turkish side of the border.

As of the writing of this piece, invading forces are advancing surprisingly rapidly, conquering village after village, and have already captured Jarablus as of at around 7 p.m. local time with only one casualty. Indeed, Kurdish sources argue that this is a mock fight, as ISIS is evacuating its troops from Jarablus, which has become a burden for it after the loss of Manbij.

Although the Turkish army is now vowing to «completely wipe out» ISIS, the real aim of the operation is to preempt an attack by the Kurdish militia towards Jarablus. Following recent victories against ISIS, culminating in the liberation of Manbij on August 12, the Kurdish YPG (Peoples’ Defense Units) and allies control a very large part of northern Syria, with the exception of the swathe of land between Jarablus and Marea. The US wanted them to march on ISIS’ main base in Raqqa, however, Kurds announced the establishment of military councils to liberate Jarablus and Al-Bab, so as to unite their cantons in the north.

Turkey vs ISIS?

Despite all its rhetoric, the Turkish government does not really see ISIS as an enemy. ISIS has controlled Jarablus since July 2013, and so far, it had never occurred to Turkey to launch an operation. On the contrary, Turkey perceived ISIS as a bulwark against the Kurdish militia. Numerous regional and Western journalists have indicated that Turkey is supplying arms and materials to ISIS, and buying crude oil from the group to be processed in state refineries. Turkey also supports other radical Islamist groups part of the so-called Army of Conquest, which are now in control of the Idlib province and southern Aleppo. The ground forces that now march on Jarablus hail from these radical Islamists, such as Sham Legion and Noureddin Zenki Movement, which decapitated a child on video last month, although they are described as “Free Syrian Army” -the existence of which is disputed by many.

So Turkey simply wants to replace one radical Islamist group, unable to stop the Kurdish forces, with others under its direct control. It is not an operation against “terrorists”, but simply a maneuver to block the advance of the most progressive force in Syria, the Kurdish militia.

Indeed, Syrian Kurdish leader Saleh Muslim wrote on his Twitter account, “Turkey is now in the Syrian quagmire, and will be defeated like ISIS.” In response, Turkish Foreign Minister threatened that Kurds have to abandon Manbij and retreat to the east of Euphrates, or else “face our ‘hammer-like’ response.”

Holy union against the Kurds

In fact, not only Turkey but the major forces involved in Syria seem to have turned their back on the Kurds following their latest gains.

US Vice President Joe Biden arrived in Turkey on Wednesday, and stated that the US supports Turkey’s position, demanding Kurdish forces to abandon Manbij. So far US warplanes had backed the Kurdish militia, the only force capable of stopping ISIS on the ground. Yet the US is also aware that the Kurdish advance risks alienating its NATO ally, Turkey. In fact, after the failed coup of July 15 against the Turkish government, the Turkish president Erdoğan had implied that US could be behind the coup, and the relations between the two countries had soured. It may be argued that the US has now decided to allow Turkey to invade Jarablus before the Kurds, to prevent a further Turkish pivot towards Iran and Russia (and also to check the power of the Kurds).

Even before the failed coup attempt, Turkey had started to cozy up to Russia and Iran, apologizing for downing a Russian plane in November 2015. Right after the coup attempt surfaced, Iranian diplomats called Erdoğan to announce their full support, even as their American and European colleagues waited to see which side would prevail. The seasoned Iranian diplomats are cognizant that Assad’s ground forces are exhausted — as can be seen in Hasakah or Aleppo — and that they eventually need to strike a deal with Turkey, one of the main backers of radical Islamists in Syria. Iran and Turkey also share a common animosity against the rising influence of Syrian Kurds, which could encourage their own Kurdish subjects. On the other hand, some journalists suggest that Russia does not want Assad to fully prevail against the Islamist opposition, since the continuity of a low-intensity conflict would indeed give Russians the perfect pretext to maintain their military presence in Syria—just like in the Caucasus region. As a result, Russia and Iran may have given the green light to a limited Turkish incursion, even though they have officially stated their concerns over Turkey’s ground operation.

There was intense shuttle diplomacy between Turkey, Iran and Russia in recent weeks, during which the Turkish government implied that it could now accept a transition with Assad. This was followed by Syrian air and land forces’ attacks (which failed bitterly) on the Kurdish-controlled town of Hasakah, the first major regime assault against the Kurds since the beginning of the conflict. Meanwhile, ISIS organized a suicide attack in the town of Gaziantep in Turkey, killing 54 people in a Kurdish wedding ceremony. Turkish intelligence knew the plans for such an attack, yet did not take any action to prevent it.

Erdoğan’s nationalist bloc

The war against the Kurds also serves Erdoğan’s domestic policy purposes. Despite the extensive purge in the state apparatus following the coup attempt, Erdoğan has implied that he still does not have full confidence in some sectors of the general staff and the national intelligence service. Precisely for this reason, Erdoğan chose to improve his relations with the bourgeois opposition (center-left CHP and ultra-nationalist MHP), virtually creating a nationalist bloc which culminated in a demonstration attended by one million people in Istanbul. Many ‘opposition’ MPs, far from criticizing the state of emergency declared by Erdoğan, instead employ his arguments accusing the coup-plotters of every problem in Turkey.

As such, a military maneuver towards the Syrian Kurdish provinces is also an effective way for Erdoğan to bolster this nationalist bloc within Turkey, and pave the way for the constitutional transition to an authoritarian presidential system. Unsurprisingly, CHP and MHP leaders expressed their full support of the military invasion.

However, although Turkey thinks that it can easily have its way, a direct military involvement in the Syrian civil war brings huge risks. There is already a strong presence of radical Islamist groups on the Turkish side of the border. The invasion of Syrian Kurdistan will further fuel the anger of Turkey’s Kurds towards the state. As such, the road seems to be opened for an escalation of inter-ethnic tension and conflict within Turkey as well.

Fuente: http://www.leftvoice.org/Turkey-launches-ground-operation-in-Syria

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