The UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East provides – under the most difficult of circumstances – quality and inclusive education that enables refugees to live dignified, productive lives. But chronic underfunding is constraining its ability to fulfill its mission.
EAST JERUSALEM – For nearly 75 years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has been delivering education to refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Beyond enabling refugees to continue learning, UNRWA provides them with a safe haven – a place where they can escape the conflict, violence, and deepening economic crises that shape their everyday reality. But our ability to meet refugee children’s needs is being increasingly constrained, for a tragically simple reason: lack of money.
The only UN agency running a full-fledged school system, UNRWA offers students a chance to reach their potential. Since 1950, more than two million refugees have graduated from UNRWA schools, which, in the 1960s, were among the first schools in the Middle East to achieve gender parity. And we continue to play a vital role in the region’s education system: some 550,000 Palestinian children currently learn in more than 700 UNRWA-run schools.
Refugees are often perceived as a burden. But UNRWA graduates have gone on to make invaluable contributions to their communities and economies, becoming teachers, doctors, engineers, and scientists. One alumnus controlled a drone helicopter that skimmed the surface of Mars. Moreover, every year, our vocational and training centers provide 8,000 young people with the skills they need to become sought after in the labor market.
EAST JERUSALEM – For nearly 75 years, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East has been delivering education to refugees in Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Gaza, and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. Beyond enabling refugees to continue learning, UNRWA provides them with a safe haven – a place where they can escape the conflict, violence, and deepening economic crises that shape their everyday reality. But our ability to meet refugee children’s needs is being increasingly constrained, for a tragically simple reason: lack of money.
The only UN agency running a full-fledged school system, UNRWA offers students a chance to reach their potential. Since 1950, more than two million refugees have graduated from UNRWA schools, which, in the 1960s, were among the first schools in the Middle East to achieve gender parity. And we continue to play a vital role in the region’s education system: some 550,000 Palestinian children currently learn in more than 700 UNRWA-run schools.
Refugees are often perceived as a burden. But UNRWA graduates have gone on to make invaluable contributions to their communities and economies, becoming teachers, doctors, engineers, and scientists. One alumnus controlled a drone helicopter that skimmed the surface of Mars. Moreover, every year, our vocational and training centers provide 8,000 young people with the skills they need to become sought after in the labor market.