How refugees are benefitting from early childhood learning

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While children in stable neighbourhoods in most parts of the country attend more defined early childhood development centres in form of preschools, refugee children in Arua are making good with child friendly spaces. Here, they come to play, sing, draw pictures and escape the sorrow at their homes but also prepare themselves for education.

Meeting Emmy Aminja for the first time will warm your heart. The chatty 12-year-old refugee from South Sudan exudes maturity beyond his age in every word he says. After fleeing war from South Sudan, he now has Rhino Camp Refugee Settlement in Omugo sub-county, Arua District to call home. His intelligence and sharp memory become even more evident as you delve deeper into conversation with the Primary Five pupil. “My mother and I came from South Sudan in 2017. I was not an orphan then but when we were on the way to Uganda, my mother was killed by soldiers. I ran through the bushes and reached the Ugandan border,” Aminja shares, with a distant look in his eyes.
At the Ugandan border, he was received by Uganda Red Cross, and through their restoring family links arrangement, Aminja was able to connect with some of his relatives; his aunt and grandmother and was transferred to Rhino Camp to join his family, with whom he stays today.
“I came to Omuga one and a half years ago and now I attend Omoyo Primary School in the same location,” he says. Aminja is one of the 36,000 children who arrive unaccompanied at the border, having been separated from their families due to conflict, and displacement making Uganda one of the countries with the most ‘alone refugee children’ in the world, according to statistics by UNHCR.

Despite the effects of the war, these refugee children deserve a decent education and thanks to child friendly spaces, they are getting a shot at early childhood development (ECD) and psycho-social support.
As instituted by World Vision, child friendly spaces are ECD centres in the camp that offer early learning to underpriviledged refugee and host children between the age of three to six with a few exceptional cases of seven to eight-year-olds, but also a haven where children up to the age of 17 come to play and learn under caregivers.
On observation, more than 60 children in Baby class are indoors seated on mats playing with dolls. Under the supervision of their teachers, the children are evidently lost in their play and interaction, their voices filling up the room. On the wall are charts with objects, numbers and alphabetical letters with other learning objects; some locally made and hang with thread across the well ventilated room.
“The programme runs everyday for three terms starting at 8am to 12:30pm. We have ECD caregivers who are trained from Teacher Training Colleges, to teach the different classes of Baby, Middle, and Top, after which, the pupils graduate to primary school,” Mariam Aseru, a child protection facilitator in charge of St. Mary’s Child-friendly space, explains.
She further notes that they try to provide the best ECD education in accordance with the learning framework provided by the National Curriculum Development Centre and are guided by the ECD policy guidelines.
“Some of the things we cover and assess include the ability of children to relate and interact in a positive way with others, knowing their environment, taking care of themselves, developing and using mathematical concepts in their day-to-day lives and language development; both English and the local language, among others. At the end of the day, the children get out with these basic competences,” she notes.
Since the service is totally free, the parents are only charged with the responsibility of feeding their children. “The community willingly organised a school feeding programme where every parent contributes a portion and the children have porridge at school,” Aseru shares.

The child friendly spaces give refugee children opportunity to interact as they learn. PHOTO BY desire mbabaali


Play
Like Aminja, another 974 children attend St. Mary’s Child-friendly space for various activities, and clubs such as peace, traditional Music, Dance and Drama clubs, among others.
While being given a tour of the place, Jennifer Neelsen, the refugee response director World Vision Uganda, described the child-friendly space as the happiest place in the world.
From the time you enter the facility, all you hear are children’s voices, laughter, dancing, and skipping of children who are spread all over the compound. The older boys playing volleyball, a bigger group being led by a caregiver fervently dancing to the music from a mobile speaker, and another group of fairly younger children dance in a circle with the caregiver’s guidance.
Some of the children are enjoying the swings and others running up and about.

Assessing the benefits
In such a place where survival is a priority, providing free ECD is a step in the right direction.
“ECD provides a foundation in preparation of children for further learning. Education is also among challenges that refugees and host communities continue to grapple with, so providing such a facility lifts some of the weight off the shoulders of these parents,” Aseru says.
“I come here everyday,” Aminja confesses adding, “I normally just play, and when I play some of the games they give us here, I forget some things that have happened to me in the past.”
He is also in the peacekeeping club, and an advocate of peace and human rights.
“I know about the things that happen in the camp. Some parents abuse the rights of children. Some of the parents tell the children that you will not go to play, while it is their right. Do not eat food, when it is their right, so that is a challenge. But children must play to exercise their bodies which is what we do at the child-friendly spaces,” he says.
Jessica Yeno, a refugee mother from South Sudan, has two biological and two foster children that go to these spaces.
When asked how the child-friendly spaces have impacted her children, she says, “The two who go to the ECD centre know how to speak English, they can write, and also read some words. Ordinarily I would not have been able to enroll them in a kindergarten,” Yeno says, adding that: “In fact, I have seen that both my biological and foster children are now stress free and can express themselves, even in front of people without fear.”
Aminja also shares that the socialisation in these spaces has helped families reconnect. “You might get new friends only to discover later that they are your relatives. I have seen children connect like that in these spaces,” he says.

Children at St Mary’s Child Centre play with their caretaker recently. The children here are introduced to early childhood education. PHOTO BY Desire Mbabaali

More about the spaces
Aseru shares that at St Marys, they mainly offer basic psychosocial support to children integrated with early childhood development for non-school-going children, from 8am to 12pm.
Other activities then commence in the afternoon from 2pm to 5:30pm. Children enroll by registration. Anyone can have their child enrolled any day.
“In addition to these activities, we also offer special attention to refugee children who are distressed. These are children who isolate themselves or are aggressive, who have undergone a lot of trauma, seen their parents being killed and those whose parents have died by other causes. We have unaccompanied children, separated children and other children at risk of violence, abuse and other risks within the camps. These are assigned to caregivers who are sometimes entrusted with their health. But at times, we do train people from around the community to monitor their movements to the child-friendly spaces,” she explains.

Maintaining the spaces
When asked how the facility is maintained, Aseru shares that World Vision supports the children and caretakers.
“This has become a home for children, especially during day time and in the evening when they move back home to their relatives. At St. Mary’s Child-Friendly space, we have 18 fulltime caregivers. We also get volunteers from the communities (15 per week) whom we train to offer services to the children,” Aseru explains.
Though their target group is children aged three to 17 years, others aged two, who have relatives to take care of them while at the facility are also accommodated.

Are they important?
Aseru believes that these spaces are important because children get psychosocial healing. “Those who have been violent learn to be humble and friendly. They also promote peaceful co-existence between host communities and the refugee community because all children are welcome and additionally, it is a place where children feel safe because there is always someone attending to them,” she says.