Refugee Education Sponsorship Programme – Enhancing Communities Together

RESPECT (see http://www.respectrefugees.org) is a growing institution that aims both to deliver educational opportunities and at raising awareness of refugees’ desperate need for higher education in the global south.

It was started in 2001 by a school teacher, Marc Shaeffer, who had been inspired by the work done at Winnipeg Refugee Education Network (WREN see http://www.web.net/~wren/facts.html) He contacted the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), which introduced him to partner organizations and thereafter he created a network of contact with many refugee communities and NGOs working in the field. Though still few in number, now RESPECT associates and affiliates extend to the four corners of the globe, including, Canada, the US, Ghana, Guinea, Nigeria, India and Japan.

At first, he simply wanted to get used school materials to children in refugee camps, but later the vision grew to creating a network that would connect schools around the world with refugee schools, thus enhancing world awareness towards issues of refugees. The Global Letter Exchange (http://respectrefugees.org/ezine/2006/ezine20060616_letter.shtml) has become a network of friends who listen to each other, help each other by providing moral support and advice. The letter exchange has had a good resonance in many schools in the US, Canada and Japan.

Recognizing that the aspirations of refugees for higher education were not being met, RESPECT University (RU) was born to introduce refugees to post-secondary education and to help them combat the barriers that stand between them and their universal right to education. It still is not an ‘accredited’ institution, but is operating on the basis that it is better for refugees to be studying and remaining idle and hopeless. Hopefully, as it develops, some accreditation can be arranged in each country.

Now based solely on volunteer work, RU depends on linking refugees, who have obtained their high school diplomas, with tutors teaching through online or offline correspondence. Country coordinators and/or course coordinators enroll them in RU classes to pursue their studies at university level. RU now has a total of 14 tutors from different countries of excellent teaching skills and qualifications. They prepare their own courses tailored to the needs of the target group of students. They deliver their materials with the aid of country coordinators or course coordinators to the refugees using the infrastructure of partner NGOs or whatever means available on site at refugee camps.

A course is usually one year with some 10 assignments each that the students have to accomplish before being awarded a certificate of completion. Courses cover various fields of knowledge, but concentrate mainly on the needs of students and the ability of making practical use of the scientific material being taught. Among the courses offered are social psychology, accounting principles, community development, democracy, conflict resolution and improving written communication skills in English. All educational tools whether primary or secondary are included in the package sent by the tutor in care of the course coordinator who is in physical contact with the refugees and usually responsible for delivering assignments and feedback between the tutor and his/her students. Most of these tutors are either teachers at university level or have the expertise and the knowledge to build a curriculum and deliver it to a group of students. Among those tutors, there are Kenneth Donahue, a PhD student at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and instructor of international relations, Elizabeth Radziszewski, an assistant professor of political science at the University of Illinois and Ashok Pillai, a senior employee in the Indian government who is the source of motivation and boost to RESPECT International in general and the RU in particular.

A team of volunteers is responsible for spreading the word on RESPECT, its goals, achievements, and projects to as many interested and qualified people as possible. Some are working on creating country profiles to help adapt RESPECT to specificities of each country.

There is work to be done on a study of the required infrastructure. Universities are also being approached with suggestions of cooperation, awareness and fund raising events. The work of this group is complementary to that of tutors, whose aim is to increasing the availability of free-of-cost higher educational courses through RESPECT.