"What subject you prefer?" asked the man. "I myself prefer Arabic," replies one student. "Do you know where Japan is?" asked the man. "Yes. I know," a student raises her hand to answer. "It's a very distant country," replies another student, with a smile. "That's right. The sun rises from there," replies the man, with a mixed look of pity and happiness. "Keep on studying. Education is the hope," the man addressed the pupils, aged 10 and below. Then the young pupils sang a song praising their guest, the Japanese Ambassador to Egypt Kaoru Ishikawa. The above is not a scene from a TV serial or a film. This dialogue took place last week at one of the refugee schools in Egypt, called the Nile African School in eastern Cairo's Ain Shams neighbourhood, at an event celebrating the implementation of the Project for the Improvement of Primary Schools for Refugees. Cairo hosts around 38,000 refugees from Sudan, Iraq, Somalia and other countries that have experienced serious internal and external conflicts. There are some schools for refugee children run by volunteer groups. These schools face various financial and technical hardships, such as lack of space, trained educational professionals, adequate desks, chairs and other tools. Japanese people have a strong conviction that education is the basis of both human life and nation building, because simply learning how to read, write and do basic calculations can change lives drastically. If people do not have chances to acquire such basic skills, they can miss opportunities to improve their lives. For this reason, the Japanese government decided to extend a grant amounting to $20,817 for the project to improve the refugee schools. Based on its field research, the Catholic Relief Services (CRS) chose four refugee schools in Cairo ��" African Hope, Nile African, St. Luanga and St. Andrews ��" and provided them with supplies to improve the educational environment. "Education is one of the most important pillars of Japanese assistance, because we have a strong conviction that education is the foundation of human life," said Ambassador Ishikawa. "With the NGOs, we have extended our humble hands in solidarity to improve schools all over Egypt," he added. The grant is extended under the Japanese government's Assistance Scheme for Grassroots and Human Security Projects. This scheme was launched in Egypt in 1994, and 128 projects totalling over $5 million had been implemented by the end of March 2010. "Every child has the right to receive an education, as the United Nations Convention on the Right of the Children says. Refugee children must not be excluded. I'm convinced that acquiring knowledge will give them hope, and hope is the mightiest engine for building a better future," said the Japanese diplomat. For over 50 years, the CRS has worked with local partners to provide food, healthcare, education and income-generating programmes to poor Egyptians. It was founded in 1943 by the Catholic bishops of the US to serve World War II survivors in Europe. Their current programmes focus on helping refugees, providing villages with clean water and sanitation, encouraging democracy, and giving loans to women to develop small home-based businesses. "CRS continues to collaborate with the Embassy of Japan and other donors to engage their support in improving the infrastructure of the refugee schools in Cairo, to serve the largest number of schools and pupils as possible," Jason Belenzer, the country representative of CRS, said. "Their needs are ever growing. I would also like to see if we could find donors that would be willing to provide funding and/or provide in-kind donations of computers for the schools," he told The Egyptian Gazette. The headmaster of the Nile African School is Dak Otor, who came to Egypt from Sudan as a refugee in 2001. He felt a responsibility for the children refugees in Egypt so he established the Nile African School four years ago. "I rent two apartments as an African educational centre to help young refugees here, especially children who have a lot of spare time when their parents are at work," said Dak. "The school at first did not have enough chairs and desks, and the bathroom situation was bad. In a word, the school was at zero," he told this newspaper. Dak made contact with the CRS, which was able to facilitate the Japanese grant and implement the project. They offered the school chairs, fans, repair of its bathrooms, and school supplies. According to Dak, there are 150 Sudanese, Kenyan and Ethiopian students and there are 12 Sudanese teachers. As their stay in Egypt is temporary, they study the Sudanese curricula. The school works for two periods during the day, one in the morning for primary school and in the evening for elementary and secondary school. "Our future depends on the improvement of our country, Sudan. God only knows when we can return back, but I feel as a teacher that I should complete my mission towards citizens of my country and other refugees from the neighbouring countries, that they should complete their education to be better citizens when they grow up," he said. Daisuke Yamasaki, the second secretary in Economic Section at Japan's Embassy for two years and the co-ordinator of the project, considers the refugee's problems in two ways. "First, we should tackle the problems that produce new refugees, but it takes a long time to resolve conflicts and simply discussing conflict resolution is not enough to improve the situation. We must not ignore the existence of refugees who suffer a very poor quality of life. We should extend our hands to them," he told The Gazette. "I think refugees in Egypt face difficulties just as those in other parts of the world do. On the other hand, it is fortunate for them that there are many NGOs that actively support them," added Yamasaki, who served for two years co-ordinating around 12 projects, which include the upgrade of schools, improving accessibility to healthcare services and establishing a vocational training centre. "This project is the first one in the field of the support for refugees, so we are happy to co-operate with those NGOs to improve the situation."
