Refugee children battle for education in Tanzania


Teenager Irahoze Diello is quietly confident about today’s maths test. Even without books, shoes, a safe place to study or a morning meal, he has worked hard to prepare for this moment. He just hopes the rain will hold off long enough for him to complete it.

“When it rains everything gets wet,” says Irahoze, 14, who fled Burundi and now studies beneath the trees in Tanzania’s Nduta refugee camp. “When it’s windy, the branches fall and when the sun is strong it’s too hot. Sometimes we have to stop classes.”

He is one of about 200 refugee children who attend Furaha Primary School, where a lack of funding means classes are held in the open air. Benches and blackboards are dotted among the trees, creating makeshift classrooms. For every three boys who attend, there is just one girl, and with little food to eat at home many pupils struggle to concentrate.

Source : http://www.unhcr.org/news/stories/2018/1/5a37ac6d4/refugee-children-battle-education-tanzania.html