their overall work and within that, concern for the youth and adolescents is an
even smaller part of that small part; whereas our focus is only on that part, which
is terribly neglected. (personal communication, April 14, 2005)
Educational work for youth, she stresses, must start from day one,
because it is fundamental to everything else. Youth empowerment and
education enables NGOs to meet the minimum standard of utilizing community
participation to rebuild.
A good argument for early intervention in education for youth and adolescents is
that youth are such terrific resources. They are the best potential human
resource in the camp; they have more energy, more spirit, rebellion (this can
often be a problem) but as a resource, they need to be put to work for the wellbeing
of the community. It is just a waste not to put education at the beginning.
(personal communication, April 14, 2005)
Avery highlights that throughout a conflict there are multiple partners
involved. Each actor has a part to play in efforts to stabilize the situation and
every organization must work together to provide not only the life-saving tools
needed, but also the life-sustaining.
Conclusion
The importance of adolescent involvement and leadership in refugee, IDP and
reconstruction efforts has gained more international attention in the last several
years than ever before. This is due in part to the increased awareness of
education overall such as that which is outlined in the Millennium Development
Goals. Furthermore, the evidence of inaction such as that which was gruesomely
demonstrated in the violent acts performed by young militants such as the
Interhamwe militia in Rwanda, and the dramatic rise of child soldiers globally,
articulates the need for educational opportunities for youth. In places where
education goals have been realized, youth play a key role in the development of
the community. For example, in Sierra Leone teenagers were trained in
carpentry, tailoring, baking and confidence-building skills, which gave them an
alternative to combat and the diamond mines (Sessan, et al., 2004).
In the politics of education the content of refugee and IDP curriculum is
often determined by the motives of the donors. In some cases, funding will be
given to meet the education requirements of the home country. In others,
training is shaped to meet a specific need of the donor such as the construction
program in Azerbaijan. Among the international NGO representatives
interviewed for this paper, however, there is a consensus that education should
not be either entirely vocational or entirely literacy and numeracy based, but that
the skills taught must be applicable to the environment. Prior to investing time,
energy and valuable funding into an education project, significant research must
be conducted to define the needs of the community and ensure the viability of
the skills. This training should be fluid enough to adjust to shifting demands of
the population to avoid market saturation. Yet the goal of education should
never be to simply meet the ever-expanding needs of multinational corporations
but to inspire belief in a peaceful future and each individual’s potential for a
quality life.
Notes
1. Figure 3 was provided by the Women’s Commission “Global Survey on
Education in Emergencies.” The data was compiled from more than 500 projects
in 113 countries supported by 160 organizations and governments.
2. The International Labour Organization said the following in regard to a
universal minimum legal working age:
To achieve the effective abolition of child labour, governments should fix and
enforce a minimum age or ages at which children can enter into different kinds
of work. Within limits, these ages may vary according to national social and
economic circumstances. The general minimum age for admission to
employment should not be less than the age of completion of compulsory
schooling and never be less than 15 years. But developing countries may make
certain exceptions to this, and a minimum age of 14 years may be applied where
the economy and educational facilities are insufficiently developed. Sometimes,
light work may be performed by children two years younger than the general
minimum age. (Effective Abolition of Child Labour, n.d.)
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