UNHCR and Government embark on sensitisation in schools
The UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) in Zambia, in conjunction with the Office of the Commissioner for Refugees, has today started an ambitious sensitization programme at selected schools in Zambia’s high-density areas.
Today, UNHCR staff and those from the Office of the Commissioner for Refugees conducted the sensitisation session at Regina Pacis Catholic School in Lusaka’s Chawama township.
The school senitisations, a brain-child of the UNHCR Representative in Zambia – Ms Laura Lo Castro – are being conducted in the context of World Refugee Day (WRD), which falls on 20 June every year. The WRD will be commemorated under the local theme: Together in Respect for Diversity, Peace, and Prosperity.
The UNHCR-organised sensitisations come against a backdrop of recent xenophobic occurrences experienced in Lusaka’s high-density areas. While the sensitizations will be multi-faceted, UNHCR has recognised that talking to pupils in compound schools directly about refugees, will inculcate a culture of respecting foreigners in these future leaders.
So far, five schools – church, private and public run- are being targeted in Lusaka, with a possibility of extending to more schools soon.
As part of it’s corporate social responsibility, UNHCR, working with it’s partner Action Africa Help Zambia, will be distributing clothes to the pupils, just after the sensitization sessions.
Furthermore, UNHCR, as part of it’s wider sensitisation programme, intends to conduct a prize-giving competition for schools. The idea is to have the poem/drawing competition and prizes presented to the winners in each grade.
At Regina Pacis Catholic School, the pupils were treated to a drama group, a film on refugees and presentation by UNHCR, the Office of the Commissioner for Refugees and a refugee student. UNHCR answered several questions from the pupils. There was joy when the pupils received clothes after the sensitisation.
The sensitisations in schools will also be conducted by UNCR’s field offices in Solwezi and Kaoma.