Refugee teacher seeks to "write" the wrongs

DJABAL CAMP, Chad – "I knew how to read and write, that is why I was selected to be a teacher in Djabal camp," says Aziza Souleyman Mahamet. A modest claim, but one that reflects the serious lack of trained and qualified teachers in the schools of eastern Chad's refugee camps.

Aziza, a 40-year-old mother of three, is herself a refugee from West Darfur. "The Janjaweed attacked us and an Antonov plane bombed us," she recalls. Her family walked for seven days before reaching the border with Chad, where they lived for many months through the rainy season. It was only in mid-2004 that UNHCR found them and brought them to Djabal camp. In her four years of teaching Arabic, Aziza has met many traumatized children.

"You have children who saw their parents being murdered – by gunshot or shrapnel from the bombings," she says. "These children have not forgotten the images, and it impacts a lot the way they learn and remember things. Some have dropped out of school because of it."

Thankfully, various psycho-social programs in the camp have provided counselling to many children, helping them focus better in class.

But the physical infrastructure is often missing. "Now they are learning while sitting on the sand," says Aziza. "We need tables and chairs for the children to be able to sit." There is also a huge need for more textbooks – on average, there is only one book for three pupils, which is not enough to follow classes and do homework. Basic stationary such as notepads and pens is also in demand.

In addition, the harsh weather conditions in eastern Chad, including sand storms and the rainy season, cause school buildings to deteriorate quickly. "Some parents are afraid to send their children to school because they fear the building will collapse on them," says Aziza. With no glass windows, classrooms are exposed to wind and sand storms.

Teachers are trained by UNHCR, UNICEF and NGOs, but the incentives are weak. "Teachers are not paid enough," says Aziza, who makes 25,000 CFA ($50) monthly. The schools' director earns 40,000 CFA per month, based on local rates.

Still, Aziza would not trade her job for any other. "I thank God that now I can teach children," she says with emotion. "For their future and mine, I hope to be able to return to Darfur, to study for myself and continue to teach in my village."

In the meantime, she continues to encourage parents to send their children to school so that when it is safe to return to Darfur, "they will have knowledge and education to rebuild the region."

Brad Pitt & Angelina Jolie Photo by: Chip East / Landov(2)

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are making the most of their time in New York: The high-wattage couple have packed their schedules for Wednesday, meeting with diplomatic and financial leaders to promote various causes.

The first stop of the day... The Clinton Global Initiative, where Pitt asked for support for his Make It Right program. He's partnering with billionaire Steve Bing on the project, which plans to build 150 affordable – and environmentally sustainable – homes in New Orleans' Lower Ninth Ward. Pitt and Bing have each promised to match donations pledged during the initiative up to $5 million.

"These people will not be beaten," Pitt said at the luncheon. "In the past year, we've been meeting with the community, building their trust ... We need your help."

In the afternoon... Jolie attended a press conference with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guteres, to talk about a new campaign, Nine Million, aimed at improving education for refugee children around the world.

Then in the evening... Jolie, a Goodwill Ambassador for the U.N. refugee agency, spoke at a session focused on education for children in war-torn areas such as Darfur and Iraq.

"These are the children who most need a safe place to learn, a place to heal, a place to learn reconciliation, and a place to just be children," said Jolie, who is the co-chair of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict. "Some think we should only provide emergency relief to children in conflict ... They say education is not life-saving. All of us here today would beg to differ."

The busy day of high-powered goodwill work is hardly unusual – Pitt is already working with Global Green to create environmentally friendly housing in New Orleans, while Jolie has done extensive work in her role at the United Nations.

In was also announced Tuesday that Jolie would meet with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband in New York to discuss global diplomacy.

And if that's not enough, Pitt's doing a little acting, too: He's filming Burn After Reading, which costars his pal George Clooney.

BOGOTÁ, Colombia – When he joined the Learning Circle a few months ago, 15-year-old Sterlin could hardly read and write. He was ashamed that even the youngest kids knew much more than him. "But I stuck to it for my grandmother, she has done everything for me and I want to get her out of here so she can have a better life. But first, I need to study to get a good job," he explains.

His neighborhood, an urban sprawl of plastic shacks, wooden huts and small brick houses on the foothills of the Andes, is one of the poorest in this suburb of the Colombian capital, Bogotá. Many of the people here have fled violence elsewhere in the country; many of the children grew up amid the armed conflict.

With help from UNHCR staff member Gustavo Valdivieso, Sterlin works on a computer in UNHCR's office. Sterlin’s dream is to work with computers so that he can earn enough to help his grandmother move to a better area. / UNHCR / P. Smith

Sterlin used to live in a small Afro-Colombian village on the Pacific Coast with his grandmother. The community had one teacher and his grandmother insisted that he should go to school, even though she had no money to pay the fees. It was just a few dollars a year, but still too high for many families in the rural areas.

So throughout his childhood, Sterlin studied on and off for a few weeks or months at a time, the money never stretching the whole year. "I didn't mind, because the other children were all doing the same," he says. He liked working in the fields to help his grandmother, whom he calls "mama" because she is the one who brought him up.

When Sterlin was 11, the whole village had to flee deteriorating violence between rival armed groups. He went to live with his parents in a large port city further up the coast, and remembers it as the worst time of his life: "My father did not want me around and did not want to waste money to send me to school."

One of the irregular armed groups in the city tried to recruit him and he fled again, this time to join his grandmother in Bogotá́. It took him a while to work up the courage to join the Learning Circle, one of five run with UNHCR support in this suburb to help children who have fallen behind in their schooling because of poverty, armed conflict or other problems.

Sterlin's education had been so disrupted that he had to start at 3rd Grade, roughly the level of an eight-year-old child. "I was fighting with everyone because I thought they were all laughing at me," he says. "Now I stopped because the teacher explained to me I was the eldest and should set the example. I don't want to be a violent man like my father."

The teenager has made so much progress in a few months that his teachers now hope that he can get into mainstream education soon. His dream is to become a computer engineer. "I have never used a computer," he admits, "but I want to learn." With his first salary, he wants to install a water pump in the house, to make his grandmother's life a bit easier.