UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

©Elena Duro/2011
Children having breakfast in the indigenous rural school of the Province of Salta, Argentina. The school is located at 3,500 meters high and some children have to walk several hours through the mountains to get there.

Elena Duro
Education Specialist
UNICEF Argentina

One of the most moving and motivating experiences this year was a visit to an indigenous rural school in the province of Salta, located at an altitude of 3,500 metres. There are many difficulties with regard to access in this area.

Arriving at the school after a long journey, we shared breakfast with children who had walked for hours through the mountains to get there. We spoke with teachers and principals who make daily sacrifices to provide these children with not only a quality education but also affection, comfort and shelter – this really inspired and motivated my daily work.

That school is one of 1,500 around the country participating in an educational quality self-evaluation programme. This participatory and democratic methodology, developed by UNICEF in partnership with provincial governments, instills an evaluation culture in schools (both primary and secondary) and has the main objective of increasing inclusiveness and quality of education.

Photo courtesy John Ekaju/2011
Jogi children attending a Community Based School CBS in Mazar-i-Sharif, Afghanistan.

John Ekaju
Education Specialist
UNICEF Afghanistan

I visited a Jogi community school in Mazar-i-Sharif, in northern Afghanistan with colleagues from the education section and Save the Children. This minority group is excluded from mainstream society as well as formal schools because of their cultural and linguistic background. Negative stereotypes and biases that have existed for generations have led to extreme discrimination and disadvantage.

Jogi children don’t have Afghani citizenship or birth certificates, rendering them stateless in their own country. Because of discrimination and derogatory language, they are forced not to attend regular government schools.

UNICEF, in partnership with Save the Children, initiated classes for these communities in Mazar-i-Sharif. The special classes provided an opportunity for the children to learn with a renewed sense of self-esteem and confidence. They are excited to come to their own school, where they do not face prejudice and discrimination. The young volunteer teacher we met was trained in pedagogy by UNICEF and Save the Children, thus ensuring that the classroom was interactive and the children enjoyed the learning experience.

A recent qualitative survey organized by UNICEF revealed signs of an emerging Jogi identity, with an increasing awareness about their rights and a growing, if still limited, assertiveness in denouncing the discrimination they suffer. I am excited to be part of this drive to advocate for these children, who are the hope for the future generation of this great country.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0531/Brooks
Rafah School for Girls in al-Husseineh, a neighbourhood southeast of Damascus. Syrian Arab Republic. 2008.

Siham Zakaria
Education Project Officer
UNICEF Syria

I joined the education section at UNICEF Syria three years ago because I wanted to see the positive results of education interventions reflected on children, schools and the education system as a whole.

In 2011, I was strongly reminded of these initial motivations by a school theatre project we implemented in a very poor village in Raqqa governorate, in the northeast of Syria – an area that needs a lot of support.

The theatre performances were part of hygiene promotion activities focusing on child and community participation. Conducted with Secours Islamique – France, the activities promoted awareness of hygiene and environmental issues, and aimed to enhance good behaviour among children in school and at home.

All the children in the school attended along with school staff and families from the village. Girls and boys, as well as some of the family members, participated in role playing, singing, dancing, answering quizzes and winning prizes. The children were very happy for the wonderful job they did, and I was very happy that the education programme of UNICEF, through its equity lens, targeted so many children, whoever they were and in spite of where they came from.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0590/Holtz
Central African Republic, 2008. Girls in class at a UNICEF-supported school in a camp for refugees from neighbouring Sudan, in the town of Sam Ouangja in the north-eastern province of Haute-Kotto, near the Sudan border.

Farid Boubekeur
Chief of Education
UNICEF Central African Republic

My most inspiring moment this year came when I visited the town of Berberati, in southwestern Central African Republic.

We were there to introduce indoor “solar light bottles” to one of its primary schools. These solar lights require only a disused water bottle filled with water and a small amount of bleach to prevent bacterial growth. The bottle is placed inside a hole in the roof and sealed to prevent roof leakage. Sunlight passing through the bottle refracts and disperses in all directions, generating the equivalent of a 50-watt lamp.

When the school director climbed up and installed one on the roof of the latrines, I stood back and enjoyed the smiles and excited exchanges between the students and teachers. The director promised to install these new lights in every room in the school, which until now were dimly lit even during daylight hours because of a lack of electricity in the region.

This simple, low-cost technology will allow UNICEF to illuminate 50 new schools in 2012, saving money and helping to limit global warming. Education officials and the local press recognized that, in addition to influencing educational policy and capacity, UNICEF delivers practical solutions for improving the well-being of students and the larger community.

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UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

Tizie Maphalala
Education Specialist
UNICEF Ethiopia

© Wossen Mulatu/2011
Ethiopia, 2011. Neima, 13, at the Children’s Race, Addis Ababa Stadium.

It was overcast and rather chilly on Saturday, 26 November, the day of the Children’s Race at the Addis Ababa Stadium. The stadium was alive with excitement; it was a day for children to enjoy themselves.

The final event of the day was a 200-metre race for girls and boys with disabilities. The last two runners were the ones that caught my attention. The second last was a child in a wheelchair, whose teacher was pushing him toward the finish line. The last one was a girl with one leg balancing on a crutch and hopping steadily – with a caregiver/teacher just a few metres away to give support.

About 20 metres from the finish line, she hesitated and stopped, exhausted and seemingly ready to give up. The crowd wasn’t sure how to react. I shouted, “Go girl, go!” but in my head I prayed that she would not give up. After hesitating for a few moments, she managed to regain her composure and hop steadily towards the finish line. With the crowd cheering her on, and children clapping and dancing, the girl won the race.

Afterwards, she told us, “To tell the truth I was scared at the beginning. I was not completely sure that I could do this… But the crowd gave me moral support. There was clapping and shouting to encourage me to continue and finish the race. It makes me believe that if one tries, disability cannot stop one from accomplishing what he or she wants.”

I was filled with pride that I was part of the UNICEF team that gave these children an opportunity to feel “ordinary,” and also be accorded the opportunity of doing what other children do.

Dr. Vijitha M. Eyango
Chief of Education
UNICEF Cameroon

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2032/Sweeting
Cameroon, 2009. Teacher assists a student with her reading assignment at the public school in Perma Village, North Region.

Dembo is a multi-grade school hosting a significant number of refugees from the Central African Republic. The first time I went three was in November 2010, where I witnessed first-hand the resilience of a determined school principal and teacher and the local population as they hosted the refugee children sharing their precious school space.

Visualize a school comprised of one multi-grade classroom with only two teachers (one of whom also served as school principal) divided into six discrete classes. The refugee students accounted for almost 40 per cent of the students enrolled. Instead of seeing anger, frustration and resentment – as one might expect when a poor and vulnerable local population is forced to share their small cramped school, materials and teachers with refugee students – I saw harmony, community engagement and resilience.

Fast-forward to April this year, when we launched the Cameroon chapter of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative in this very school – our “School of Hope” – which now boasted new classrooms and a water station.

My most inspirational moment was watching the Minister of Education, U.S. ambassador, and UNICEF Representative walking towards the podium amid that same sea of faces I’d seen the previous year. Faces of resilience had been transformed to faces of joy and hope for a better future. The journey wasn’t easy but the result made it all so worthwhile.

Louise Mvono
Chief Basic Education and Gender Equality
UNICEF Zimbabwe

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0403/Pirozzi
Zimbabwe, 2006. Students at a UNICEF-supported primary school in rural Murambinda Growth Point in the eastern Manicaland Province.

“This is the first time in my life that I have a full set of textbooks.” – Hearing this from orphans and other children in Zimbabwe has provided me with great inspiration, courage and faith in what I can do for children who cannot even afford to hope.

Through the Education Transition Fund, a $50 million project for development partners to support the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and partners provided more than 21 million textbooks and stationary to all primary and secondary school children.

Now working in Sudan, I received a message from a former colleague: “Today was a great day – the start of distribution of secondary school books. The Prime Minister spoke of how children with absolutely nothing, not even shoes, now have a full set of textbooks! The Education Minister specifically mentioned you, thanking you in absentia for the amazing work you did and for having started such an amazing programme.” This is one of my most precious memories. For me, working for UNICEF is fulfilling professionally but also personalally; it provides me with the opportunity to help the voiceless. I feel so thankful to UNICEF, its mandate, vision and credibility that provided me with the opportunity to contribute to such amazing results. Together we contributed to ensuring that primary and secondary school children in Zimbabwe will have access to textbooks for the next 3 to5 years.

Amina H. Ibrahim
Education Specialist
UNICEF Kenya

© UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0146/Furrer
Kenya, 2004. Children work in groups during an exercise, in class at Kihumbuini Primary School in Kangemi, a neighbourhood in Nairobi.

From 1990 to2006, less than five girls from all ten girls’ secondary schools in the North Eastern Province of Kenya qualified to join university. The equity gap was severe in both secondary and higher education for women from nomadic communities. UNICEF and its partners came up with a girls’ scholarship program which increased the number of girls attending university and give them confidence and aspirations for the future. The scholarship program addressed the decades-long gap in higher education for girls and women in the nomadic communities.

The success of this program led to the birth of Northern Kenya Education Trust (NoKET) – a program that institutionalized scholarships for nomadic children. Launched in November 2011, NoKET is scaling up advocacy efforts and lobbying to reduce disparities in secondary education. Lessons and technical knowledge from Kenya were also shared with the UNICEF office in Somalia, where a similar girls’ scholarship program was developed in Somaliland and Puntland.

I feel blessed, proud and humbled to be part of UNICEF family and experience the birth of NoKET, a program that will changes the lives of many excluded girls for many more years to come!

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© UNICEF/HQ08-0467/Holtz
UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador Mia Farrow greets students at Betoko Primary School in the conflict-affected northern town of Paoua, near the CAR-Chad border.

KAGA BANDORO-KABO, Central African Republic, 27 June 2008 – On a recent visit to the northern regions of CAR, UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador witnessed first-hand how schools have begun to reopen, improving the lives of children affected by conflict here.

Since 2003, armed groups have fought each other in the north, resulting in the displacement of nearly 300,000 people. Some families have fled to neighbouring countries, but the majority have fled into the bush to escape the continuous clashes on the main roads. In the bush, thousands of families live in harsh conditions, struggling to survive.

Last year, UNICEF and the Italian non-governmental organization COOPI worked together to help reopen 104 schools in north-western CAR, allowing more than 32,000 primary students to enrol. About 60 per cent of the schools are located in the bush, serving families too afraid to move back to their villages.

‘Against all odds’

On her visit, Ms. Farrow went to the Benah 2 primary school in the bush close to the border of Chad, as well as the Zando school along the Kaga Bandoro-Kabo axis in north-eastern CAR.

At Benah 2, she encountered 300 children eagerly scribbling away on blackboards. Many of them were out of school for two years or more before their communities linked up with UNICEF and COOPI.

At a health post in the Begoua District of Bangui, CAR’s capital, Mia Farrow holds a three-month-old baby who is waiting to be vaccinated against polio.

UNICEF has supported the training of 300 parent-teachers in this region, where most teaching staff fled during the height of hostilities in 2003 and 2004. Students are now being taught with the national curriculum so that when peace returns, they children can be reintegrated into the general state-run school system.

“This is inspiring,” said Ms. Farrow. “Against all odds, parents have come together to try to educate their children.”

Ms. Farrow noted that the odds are stacked against the children of CAR. Living in the bush means being exposed to diseases and snake bites, and most families have no access to health care. Food is scarce, so families live on wild fruits and the little they can grow in their temporary environment. Water sources are usually rivers or streams where waterborne diseases flourish.

Rebuilding roads and communities

During Ms. Farrow’s visit to the Kaga Bandoro-Kabo axis, she witnessed the rebuilding of the axis road to facilitate much-needed travel and trade. UNICEF and its partners are also rebuilding wells along the axis, and seven schools have been established or reopened with the assistance of the agency.

One of these, the Zando school, was set up by villagers who began returning from the bush during 2007. UNICEF supported the initiative with school kits for the children, teacher training for parents, and plastic sheeting to serve as a roof for the temporary school structure.

Zandi, 10, has joined Class 1 since he has never been to school. “I like reading and I like poetry and I think it’s important to go to school,” he said Zandi while fiddling with his blue UNICEF school bag. “I used to live in the bush with my family. It was difficult. Now I’m happy to go to school.”

School is improving children’s lives

In an emergency setting, a school is more than just a school. It provides an entry point for humanitarian and government organizations to protect children against rights violations, diseases and malnutrition.

Mia Farrow takes notes during a visit to a ‘bush’ school in the north-western CAR province of Ouham-Pendé.
More than 135 children are currently enrolled in Zando school. With more and more families returning to rebuild their lives in the villages they fled, the school community is preparing to build a solid structure with more classrooms.

Ms. Farrow was encouraged by the progress she witnessed in CAR. “I thought a year ago that it was hopeless, but with the coming of the humanitarian community things have improved tremendously,” she said.