Refugee Girls Deserve an Education

“ A generation without education is doomed. We need assurance, we need to be heard and to participate, we need a future. We have a right to education and we want to go to school.”

-Betty, 17 a displaced girl, northern Uganda

When dealing with young female refugees, those who are stateless have more “important” concerns therefore the need for education for young women is often forgotten. If education were considered a major priority, the refugees would be able to tackle other issues leading to a better and brighter future. Even if young girl refugees are provided an education, there are still so many obstacles that they must overcome and in the end the marginal benefit of getting an education doesn’t out weigh the marginal costs for many. Many young girls, in nations where statelessness is common, do not have role models to follow and ask for guidance. Something needs to be done to improve education for refugee girls to help them succeed and become independent. “If given a voice, girls can make a positive impact on the lives of their families, their communities and our world” (Girl Up). Many of these young girls have gone through struggles that most people never endure in a lifetime, yet they continue to do for others instead of for themselves. It is time that they are able to choose for themselves by receiving an education. “Educate a man and you educate an individual; educate a woman and you educate a nation”(Help Us Help Ourselves).

Young girls who suffer as refugees go through struggles that many of us couldn’t even imagine, these struggles make gaining an education even harder. When one thinks of war they almost never think of young girls being involved, but in reality they may experience the most negative affects of war. Often thought of as invisible in wars, girls are often the number one targets. More than 140 million girls live in states that have armed conflicts going on. Even when the girls try to escape the war, it is almost impossible for them to do so; they must face dangers such as hunger, death, landmines, gunfire, trafficking, rape and armed forces. In the past decade over six million children were injured due to armed conflict, over one million have become orphans and over two million were killed. It is hard to find statistics of how just how many women are affected by violence; young girls suffer every day from trafficking, female genital mutilation, exploitation, early marriage and sexual violence. In most areas, government officials and rebel soldiers of the war cause sexual violence. In fact, sexual violence is used as a tactic of war. Sexual violence is proven to cause fear, intimidation, horror, humiliation and demoralization in areas of war. It is easiest to attack young girls; they pose no threat to the soldiers, they are not armed and sexual violence leaves a life long impact on these young victims.

Other young girls, instead of being terrorized by rape, are actually recruited into the war. It has been estimated that between 1990 and 2003 girls were used as a part of armed forces in 55 countries; today there are at least 300,000 children soldiers and one out of every three is a girl. These children do not just sign up for war to “help a cause”, some are kidnaped and forced into war as young as the age of 5. They are not able to have a choice and are forced to fight on the front lines, they are sent ahead to determine contaminated areas, they serve as sex slaves, and are human mules. These young girls suffer from pregnancy, miscarriage, abortion, HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases. Girls become pregnant from rape while fleeing or fighting in war. Their babies become known as “enfants du mauvais souvenir”, “children of bad memories”, “devil’s children” or “children of shame”. Girl soldiers become girl mothers and they are then forced to continue fighting in the war with infants on their backs.

Another threat these young girls face is trafficking. “Trafficking of human being is believed to be the third largest source of money for organized crime, after arms and drugs. Experts estimate that globally at least 1.8 million children, primarily young girls, are exploited in the sex industry each year. Annual profits from human trafficking have been estimated at five to seven billion dollars” (Refugee Girls p.18). Young girls are the number one victims for trafficking. They often times are locked up, threatened and beaten; young women have no bargaining power, are not paid, are cheap to maintain and can easily be manipulated which is why they are so easily pulled into this terrible business.

Girls who do escape the troubles of war and trafficking still are not completely safe once they reach refugee camps. Young girls are still often victims of sexual violence; it was shocking to find that even UN peacekeepers have been found guilty of this crime. “In response to queries regarding allegations of sexual abuse by UN peacekeeping operations, the UN secretariat received 105 reports of allegations, 45 percent involving sex with minors and 15 percent involving rape or sexual assault” (Refuge Girls p. 14). The camps that they live in also have very poor conditions; the camps were designed to be temporary living conditions but the average time per person spent at refugee camps is usually 17 years. Frequently the camps run out of supplies and the young girls are forced to go outside of the camp to find new ones. Finding firewood, the main mean for cooking, is usually a job for young girls and can prove to be a daunting task since firewood is often scarce to find outside of the camp. “Men and boys do not leave the camps to collect firewood as they might be killed; women and girls are ‘only raped’” (Refugee Girls p. 24).

Sexual violence, trafficking, armed force recruitments, and the harm faced at refugee camps are all factors that affect the availability of education for young women. Education is actually a target in many countries and is not viewed as a priority. In some regions teachers have been shot or decapitated for teaching girls, parents have been threatened to not send their daughters to school, schools have been burned to the ground, acid has been thrown in the faces of young school girls, and many girl students have died. Children also don’t have access to primary school areas in their many regions. Even if the schools are there they sometimes have as many as 100 students in one classroom making them severely overcrowded. Just finding a way to school can also be a safety issue. Girls while walking to school are still vulnerable to sexual violence. The majority of teachers in the schools are male and they “at times abuse their sexual favors in exchange for grades or basic school items” (Refugee Girls p. 26). School is too expensive for many girls to attend; even the small costs of school supplies are too much.

Social standards by their peers, their family and the community often affect girls choices to stay in school. Two social standards that extremely affect a girl’s choice to stay in school are marriage and pregnancy. “Responsibilities in the home, social attitudes towards girls’ education and widespread practice of early marriage all act as barriers to girls receiving an education… Female secondary school providers all cited marriage as the greatest obstacle to achieving their career goals” (Starting from Scratch p. 12). Even though pregnancy is so common in many of these countries, once some of these young girls have children they have new responsibilities and education no longer becomes a priority. Social pressures on these girls discourage them from coming back into the school systems. “When a girl has given birth, if she comes back to school the other students call her ‘mama’. This is like bullying for them and often, because of this, girls are embarrassed to come back” (Starting from Scratch p. 12). Pregnancy and early marriage kept girls from staying in school, and 25 percent of all dropouts were caused by early pregnancy. A survey conducted by the UN in 2004 found that girls in southern-Sudan war areas were more likely to die in pregnancy and in childbirth than to finish primary school. Experts found though that each additional year of a mother’s schooling cuts infant morality rates by five to ten percent. “In Africa, children of mothers who received five years of primary education were 40 percent more likely to live beyond the age of five.” (Refugee Girls, p. 29) Girls in these nations marry or have children on average between the age of 14 and 18, girls who marry young and have kids may never know what it feels like to be independent which is why schooling is so essential.

Not only the social standards of their peers affect their choice to stay in school, but so do the standards of their parents. Parents often had the fear that if they send their daughters to school their daughters would be “spolit”. They felt that a girl’s role was to take care of the household and to do this one must first mature at home. “When a young girl is educated, she wants to have a say in who she marries and if the parents are not the ones making the choice, this can mean that they do not get the highest dowry possible for her” (Starting from Scratch, p. 12). Many families also do not have enough money to support their family so they use their daughters and barter of their bodies to survive; education is absolutely not an option in this case. Girls commonly between the ages of 14 and 18 were involved in this practice; in a study the youngest girl found in this practice was only five years old. Families used any way of making money to help themselves survive. Many girls knew that this was a violation of their human rights, but they had no option to stand up for themselves and be independent. Many parents also felt that marriage was the solution to end their poverty or at least end it for the time being. Child marriage is not only a consequence of poverty though; it is a principal cause of poverty. Many parents also do not see the benefit of keeping their children in school. They do not realize the end outcome and how it could impact their daughter’s life. In many of these countries, the sad truth is that these children could get the same jobs that they would be offered after they finish schooling without going through any education whatsoever. This is a major factor why girls do not see the benefit in going to school in these nations.

In these countries women teachers are at high demand; if girls completed their schooling they could receive these positions. So many of the teachers in these regions are males who sexually abuse their students. Young schoolgirls do not want to attend school if such things are happening and they have no role models and no women influences to look up to. If the schools found and hired more women teachers the girls at these schools would be able to see an example of what they could work towards. The problem is, there isn’t exactly an abundance of qualified women teachers in this region. It is extremely hard to find female teachers in many of these nations, in Liberia the adult female literacy rate is only 24% and only 27% of girls who enroll in grade one end up completing grade five. With statisticis like these, how are schools supposed to find decent teachers? So many of these young children have no idea what else is out there in the world, what other opportunities there are, so they are simply satisfied with what is at hand. These young students have so much potential yet because they do not have role models or influences they do not know where to begin with their new independence. The presence of female teachers has made improvements in the number of girls enrolled in school, the number staying in school and the number succeeding after schooling.

Today organization such as the UN are promoting programs like “Girl Up” to try and get young girls around the world to support the push for education for other young women. If communities and parents are educated about the necessity for education this may change many viewpoints. The advantages and opportunities of education should be promoted to young girls, encouraging them to stay in school. If schools in these countries allowed young girls to bring their children to class and provided a day care system of some sort, girls who have children would be able to continue their education. Countries should have teachers sign codes of conduct to help prevent young girls from being sexual victims of their own teachers. Perhaps if food was supplied at schools in these nations girls would not have a reason to drop out to supply their families. By publicizing success stories of girls and women in the media on a local community, national and international level girls around the globe will be able to see the impact of education. School systems could follow up with young girls that drop out of school to try and encourage them to return. In the article Help Us Help Ourselves it gives step-by-step solutions of how to fix education systems and encourage young girls to become active and stay in school. How can we as individuals encourage the education of youth, especially girls in other nations? The best way to help this situation is to be informed. The process of setting up schools and effective education systems is not going to happen over-night. This process will take time. One can further research this topic by looking at specific countries and how refugee girls are affected there. The UN has a very advanced help group in these countries to try and develop education systems. I am particularly interested in the Girl Up program sponsored by the UN. I find it extremely interesting how it is not only trying to help girls in these stateless areas, but how it is trying to inform the youth in the United States to try and take action. I feel as if this is the best step forward, showing our youth how others live with similarities and differences makes our world seem like a smaller, connected place. Everyone should have the right to an education, and the right to go to school.

Works Cited

| Girl Up | United Nations Foundation | Uniting Girls to Change the World. Web. 06 Sept. 2011. .

"Help Us Help Ourselves: Education in the Conflict to Post-conflict Transition in Liberia." UNHCR. Women's Refugee Commission, Mar. 2006. Web. 6 Sept. 2011.

"Living in Limbo: Burma's Youth in Thailand See Few Opportunities to Use Education and Vocational Skills." UNHCR. Women's Refugee Commission, Oct. 2008. Web. 6 Sept. 2011.

"Refugee Girls- The Invisible Faces of War." UNHRC. Women's Refugee Commission, May 2009. Web. 6 Sept. 2011.

"Starting from Scratch: The Challenges of Including Youth in Rebuilding Southern Sudan." UNHCR. Women's Refugee Commission, Sept. 2010. Web. 6 Sept. 2011.