30-12-2016 | di COOPI

The education is a right, also in CAR

Obo is a small town in the Haut-Mbomou region of the Central African Republic. It has been hosting Sudanese refugees who escape from the war that affects their country. The safety of children within the refugee camp is constantly at risk: the Lord Resistance Army (LRA) conflict prevents them to carry out their activities normally, especially the educational ones. Because of this persistent menace, the humanitarian situation becomes more and more difficult. COOPI has been operating since 2009 in the prefecture of Haut Mbomou with a multisectoral program to promote the rights of children and women. Here COOPI chose to maintain and strengthen its intervention in favor of the protection and improvement of access to educational services.

 

COOPI's new project

 

The new project "Support for emergency education for children and families of refugees and hosting communities of Obo, Haut-Mbomou", started in December 2016 with UNICEF's CERF funds. It deals with emergency education for the children of Obo: both the ones who belong to the host community and the south Sudanese children refugees in the region after having escaped from the war in their country. Considering the territory, the interventions that will be carried out under this project will have the long-term objective of facilitating the establishment of a peaceful cohabitation between the refugee community and the host community. The project will also carry out targeted interventions to enhance local skills and the establishment of a Community mechanism for continuous and progressive monitoring of the activities being carried out. This factor facilitates awareness of the rights of children and protection risks and contributes to the strengthening of Community self-protection.

 

The girls will be not excluded!

 

The project will encourage the effective participation of the boys and the girls: it will ensure their psychosocial well-being through the organization of socio-cultural and recreational activities and will also ensure the reporting of cases of children in need of support facilities in the city. With COOPI's intervention, all the girls will attend lessons that will be realized within the Temporary Learning and Child Protection Spaces. There will be awareness raising actions for families about children's rights to include girls in project activities. Awareness-raising actions will emphasize the importance of non-exclusion of girls from educational paths, with a aim of a better integration of the communities and a more sustainable development.