Our development programs

Nepal — Bhutanese Refugee Education Program

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Partner Agency: Caritas Nepal
Funding in 2009/10 financial year: USD $80,000
Start and end date OR duration: Ongoing program
Target: Bhutanese Refugee Children
Geographic location: Seven UNHCR-administered camps in Eastern Nepal
Sector focus: Refugees and Education
When established: 3 September 1989 (Caritas Nepal), Program started in 1992

The Bhutanese Refugee Education Program in Nepal provides education and vocational skills to Bhutanese students in refugee camps in Nepal.

While many refugees in the world have had to flee their countries due to conflict and violence, the ethnic Nepalis (Lhotshampas) from Bhutan were forced to leave as a result of nationalist ‘ethnic cleansing’ policies in the 1980-90s. As a result there are over 134,000 Bhutanese citizens, approximately 20% of Bhutan’s total population, living in the refugee camps in Nepal and India.

The Bhutanese Refugee Education Program works in the seven UNHCR-administered camps in Eastern Nepal providing secondary education that has been formalised by the Ministry of Education. A total of 29,566 children attend the camp schools. The program is considered one of the best refugee education programs in the world by the UN, with a higher overall pass rate than other schools in Nepal.

Refugees from the camp volunteer to take part in the program as teachers, head teachers, and non-teaching staff. The program has a particular focus on encouraging female enrolment, and as a result the ratio of female representation in secondary classes is increasing every year.

The program aims to enable refugee students to obtain recognition for their education acquired in the country of asylum to make them self-reliant in the event of a solution to their current refugee crisis.

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