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Clinton Global Initiative: A virtuous Circle to combat vicious cycle of violence

News Stories, 25 September 2007

© UNHCR/P.Smith
Sterlin's teacher Julia presides over the local Learning Circle, a UNHCR initiative to help displaced children catch up in school.

BOGOTA, Colombia, September 25 (UNHCR) – In the Bogota suburb of Altos de Cazucá, a small one-storey house painted by children offers a few touches of colour in the otherwise grim shantytown landscape.

Inside, the classroom walls are covered with drawings, some childish and pretty, others showing evidence of the violence the children have witnessed: burnt houses, men with guns, bleeding bodies.

This is one of five Learning Circles, all run with UNHCR support, in this Bogota neighbourhood, where a high percentage of the population arrived fleeing from violence.

The Learning Circles are already full and there is growing demand; teachers like Julia Ribera are determined that no child should be turned away unless there is another option. "Education is the right of every child," she says.

But armed conflict, forced displacement and poverty all contrive to deprive thousands of children of this right and the Ministry of Education estimates that up to half a million young Colombians under the age of 16 are out of school. The Learning Circles aim to provide an educational net for these youngsters who, for one reason or another, have fallen through the national school system.

"Many children come here because they arrived in the city in the middle of the school year and there is no space for them in normal schools. Unless we take them in, they'll lose a whole year and may never go back to school," Julia explains.

At any given time she has between 35 and 45 students, most of them under 16 although there is no upper age limit. The children are divided into three smaller circles according to ability, and she moves between cramped rooms supervising their activities.

"The biggest challenge is the high turnover," she says. "There's usually at least one new pupil every week." Many of the children are traumatized when they arrive, some have seen a parent die or been caught up in armed fighting. Most have just lost their homes and are new in the city.

"That's why we start every day with a relaxation exercise," Julia says, adding that the curriculum includes a lot of Arts. "There is no point trying to teach children when they are still scared and hurt," she explains. The pupils also eat breakfast and lunch at the school, the only food many of them will get all day.

Children such as 15-year-old Sterlin need remedial teaching to be brought up to the standards of mainstream education. "It's amazing how much he has changed, the youngest children look up to him as a role model now," Julia says of the boy.

She admits that her job can be very hard at times, especially because of the terrible life stories some of the children bring. "But no other work would bring me the same satisfaction," she concludes.

UNHCR's support for the Learning Circles in Colombia is another sign of its promotion of education for refugee children through direct aid or campaigns such as the internet-based ninemillion.

The refugee agency hopes to raise US$220 million for refugee education. Its goal of enhancing education for all refugee children by 2010 will be promoted at the September 26-28 meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative in New York.

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Colombia: Life in the Barrios

After more than forty years of internal armed conflict, Colombia has one of the largest populations of internally displaced persons (IDPs) in the world. Well over two million people have been forced to flee their homes; many of them have left remote rural areas to take refuge in the relative safety of the cities.

Displaced families often end up living in slum areas on the outskirts of the big cities, where they lack even the most basic services. Just outside Bogota, tens of thousands of displaced people live in the shantytowns of Altos de Cazuca and Altos de Florida, with little access to health, education or decent housing. Security is a problem too, with irregular armed groups and gangs controlling the shantytowns, often targeting young people.

UNHCR is working with the authorities in ten locations across Colombia to ensure that the rights of internally displaced people are fully respected – including the rights to basic services, health and education, as well as security.

Colombia: Life in the Barrios

Indigenous people in Colombia

There are about a million indigenous people in Colombia. They belong to 80 different groups and make up one of the world's most diverse indigenous heritages. But the internal armed conflict is taking its toll on them.

Like many Colombians, indigenous people often have no choice but to flee their lands to escape violence. Forced displacement is especially tragic for them because they have extremely strong links to their ancestral lands. Often their economic, social and cultural survival depends on keeping these links alive.

According to Colombia's national indigenous association ONIC, 18 of the smaller groups are at risk of disappearing. UNHCR is working with them to support their struggle to stay on their territories or to rebuild their lives when they are forced to flee.

UNHCR also assists indigenous refugees in neighbouring countries like Panama, Ecuador, Venezuela and Brazil. UNHCR is developing a regional strategy to better address the specific needs of indigenous people during exile.

Indigenous people in Colombia

Panama's Hidden Refugees

Colombia's armed conflict has forced millions of people to flee their homes, including hundreds of thousands who have sought refuge in other countries in the region.

Along the border with Colombia, Panama's Darien region is a thick and inhospitable jungle accessible only by boat. Yet many Colombians have taken refuge here after fleeing the irregular armed groups who control large parts of jungle territory on the other side of the border.

Many of the families sheltering in the Darien are from Colombia's ethnic minorities – indigenous or Afro-Colombians – who have been particularly badly hit by the conflict and forcibly displaced in large numbers. In recent years, there has also been an increase in the numbers of Colombians arriving in the capital, Panama City.

There are an estimated 12,500 Colombians of concern to UNHCR in Panama, but many prefer not to make themselves known to authorities and remain in hiding. This "hidden population" is one of the biggest challenges facing UNHCR not only in Panama but also in Ecuador and Venezuela.

Panama's Hidden Refugees

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