Overview

Refugees and asylum seekers are the face of the refugee crisis in Uganda and represent a group of displaced youth with specific needs and assets. Their situation urgently requires closer examination, youth and children policies addressing their needs must be devised, considering their difficult past experiences and their often insecure or instable situation in host countries, including emotional, social, and economic challenges.

Uganda hosts nearly 1.4 million refugees - the third highest in the world - and 61 percent of them are children. Most have fled terrible ongoing conflict in neighbouring South Sudan and eastern DR Congo, and more continue to arrive every day. Most refugee children live with the trauma of having witnessed or suffered forced displacement, separation from loved ones, and physical and sexual violence. Even in refuge, many continue to be vulnerable to marginalization and violence, especially gender-based violence.

Uganda’s open-door policy is recognised as one of the most progressive in the world compared to other countries and refugees have freedom of movement, the right to work, land and access to the same services as Ugandans. However, there are critical funding shortages, services are overwhelmed, and the humanitarian needs remain enormous. Huge numbers of refugee and host community children are still without access to healthcare, education, protection, and livelihoods.

Furthermore, Uganda is unique in not following a policy of refugee encampment, with most refugees residing in rural settlements alongside Ugandan citizens. We therefore believe that by engaging refugees in upholding their values, we can achieve.

With the number of refugees growing rapidly all over the world, many countries need support in expanding and strengthening their formal education systems to cope. This gives student refugees the opportunity to cover the same ground as standard-age learners, but at a faster and more intensive pace with a condensed curriculum.

Adopt a trauma-Informed Approach: Safety, trustworthiness, choice, collaboration, cultural and sensitivity, resilience and strengths based.

Be mindful of the potential trauma children may have experienced. Use a trauma-informed approach that prioritizes emotional well-being, feelings of safety and being heard. Each student should feel valued and able to make genuine choices for themselves. Challenging behaviour should be addressed by building trust between teacher and child and keeping lines of communication open. Sessions should avoid triggering topics and be cautious with certain language or discussions that may be sensitive.

We aim to understand what their beliefs are and find a way of how to empower them in their day today life in settlements.

With this activity, we opt to engage young refugees in artistic measures to guide them on understanding their directions to life to achieve their big goals and dreams regardless of the being in settlements and host communities.

We also need to know how the arts makes them feel about their values and how they could achieve them.