THAM HIN REFUGEE CAMP, Thailand (UNHCR) – In Thailand refugee toddlers get a pre-school headstart on education and teenagers learn vital computer skills. In Azerbaijan refugee children have new playgrounds and learn to swim. In Uganda, thousands of refugee children are getting text books for the first time.

The unifying reason in these countries, together with help provided in Kenya, Liberia and Chad, is the funds raised through the ninemillion programme to help children driven from their homes by conflict and violence. The progamme is about to grow – with a goal of enhancing education for nine million children by 2010.

UN High Commissioner for Refugee António Guterres and UNHCR Goodwill Ambassador Angelina Jolie joined former US President Bill Clinton at the September 26-28 meeting of the third annual summit of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, issuing a call to raise US$220 million for refugee education. The CGI aims to inspire commitments of help from its members.

The UNHCR programme is aimed at providing Education (Plus) – education beyond the existing schooling now offered by UNHCR – to nine million refugee children by 2010. Education (Plus) will provide resources to develop a child's full potential, with an emphasis on girls' participation and additional activities like life-skills training, sport programs, disease prevention and access to technology.

Started in 2006, ninemillion has so far raised over US$ 2 million. These funds are already allocated to education and sport programmes in Thailand, Azerbaijan and Uganda. New projects are on the way.

The efforts of ninemillion are shifting towards improving education in three conflict zones around the world – Colombia, Iraq's neighbours and Sudan's Darfur region with its spillover into Chad. The potential benefits can be seen in places where extra UNHCR education assistance has already been provided.

Growing up in a refugee camp in Thailand, Aye Hla's first three children didn't have a chance to study beyond Grade Six. But she has higher hopes for her youngest son, Lweh Say, whom she cuddles in her lap on the floor of a new nursery school.

"I hope he can be an educated person, and this is a good start," she says, gesturing around the large airy thatched building built and equipped with funds from the UNHCR-led ninemillion initiative. Thanks to the money raised for education and sports, refugee toddlers in Thailand are getting a pre-school head start, and refugee teenagers are learning vital computer skills.

In Azerbaijan, children of refugees and internally displaced people have learned to swim and to make healthy choices in life. New playgrounds have given 30,000 children a safe and fun place to play. In Uganda, thousands of refugee children are getting their own textbooks and school supplies for the first time, and teachers are getting real blackboards for desperately ill-equipped classrooms.

The conflict that Lweh Say's ethnic Karen parents fled in Myanmar has been simmering for nearly six decades. But in Tham Hin refugee camp along the Thai-Myanmar border, his family is getting a chance for a brighter future: They are among thousands being considered for resettlement to the United States.

"The headstart he's getting here will help him when we get to America," says Aye Hla, referring to the nursery school's "play and learning space", which supports creative learning through special toys.

At a new computer centre that complements the normal curriculum for older children, ninemillion supplied the electricity to run the computers, and lessons are limited to 20 minutes each because there are so few computers.

Even so, enthusiastic students whizz through the basic English needed to follow the lessons and have learned to type. Some are even mastering Microsoft's Powerpoint presentations. "I know my future will be good if I get a computer education," says a confident 15-year-old girl named Naw Say Paw. "I know the computer is used all over the world."

These serious issues of education were discussed when Guterres and Jolie attended the deliberations of the CGI in New York, hoping to draw commitments of assistance from the influential participants.