[hr-education] A school where displacement, not discipline, is the biggest problem

[***Moderator's note: The new article below from UNHCR, the UN refugee
angency, may be of interest to list members.***]


QUIBDO, Colombia, July 21 (UNHCR) – At first sight, Pedro Grau School
looks like any other educational establishment. Students play football
during recess, bells announce the start of classes, and lunch hour brings
the usual high decibel levels. But Pedro Grau is located in the department
of Chocó, on the Atrató River in the jungle of north-western Colombia.
Chocó is the poorest and one of the most isolated regions in the country.
It is also a key route for smuggling.

In the past three years, the area has witnessed some of the fiercest
fighting in the 40-year struggle between irregular armed groups and
Colombia's military that has marred the lives of millions of Colombians.
Too often, children are the innocent victims. More than one million
Colombian children have had to flee their homes with their families; some
300,000 of these displaced children do not have access to the national
education system.

Fully 93 percent of the 587 students at Pedro Grau School are internally
displaced. The school opened three years ago in the La Gloria
neighbourhood of Quibdo, where many of the internally displaced from the
Atrató River towns have settled. UNHCR contributed financially to its
construction and is now taking an active part, along with the diocese and
other UN agencies, in the running of the school.

Through its Pedagogy and Protection Project, the refugee agency is helping
to train teachers in how to deal with the special problems of displaced
children, most of whom have suffered tremendous psychological trauma and
knew little but violence, death and displacement before arriving here.

"The reality that these children have lived through became very concrete
for us during the training," says Yesenia Cordoba, one of the 80 teachers
at Pedro Grau who have benefited from the programme. "Sometimes their pain
manifests itself through tears, while others are full of rage and they
become aggressive toward their classmates."

Evernis Rumania Caisedo vividly remembers the attack on the church in the
town of Bellavista, a four-hour boat ride from Quibdo, which killed 117
civilians, many of them children, in May 2002.

"We were in our house and started to go to the church because we thought
we would find security and salvation there," the 17-year-old student says
in an even tone, "but the paramilitaries made us turn back. At that very
moment we heard the explosion that would kill so many people."

She remembers people running and screaming along the flooded streets of
the town – the Atrató River, as frequently happens, had overflowed its
banks – and hiding in a house with her family until they could walk to the
dock, waving a white flag. The family escaped aboard one of the wooden
piraguas that normally ply the river with goods and passengers. Though
short, the trip downriver was hard, with injured people moaning and
everyone forced to row with their hands.

Sister Janet Moreno, the school's principal, says the effects of trauma
such as that experienced by Evernis can manifest themselves at the most
unexpected moments.

"We have seen students run out of biology classes because seeing designs
of the human body reminded them of the violence they witnessed. In many
cases, the drawings brought back memories of decapitated family members,
or recollections of how they had found themselves running holding an arm
or a hand belonging to a parent."

The UN refugee agency developed its Pedagogic and Protection Project to
help teachers address the needs of children like Evernis. This year alone,
1,200 teachers have been trained across Colombia under the programme,
which is run by Corporacion Opcion Legal, a Colombian non-governmental
organisation. Since its inception five years ago, some 4,000 teachers have
benefited from the training. With so many displaced children, the project
is considered a key part of UNHCR's work in Colombia.

"In keeping with our mandate, we want schools to be a place of safety,"
says Luisa Cremonese, Head of Programme for UNHCR in Colombia. "The aim is
to create schools that welcome and protect displaced children."

In Quibdo, the project has grown beyond all expectations and is helping an
increasing number of students. In addition to the Pedro Grau High School,
there are 10 primary schools in the town with 450 students, each run by
the Catholic diocese with help from international organizations and the
Colombian government. Little by little, displaced children are being
helped back to a normal life.

"The first year the school existed, we had 117 students and everyone,
absolutely everyone, was carrying weapons," Sister Morena remembers. "They
have a great mistrust of the adult world, and being armed gives them a
sense of protection."

Since then, the school has been running a programme to exchange weapons –
knifes, nail cutters, scissors, plastic guns – for a book, a pencil or a
toy.

Leide Martinez de Diego, 17, is one of the few students at Pedro Grau who
was not forced to leave her home because of the fighting. A resident of
Quibdo, she has learned more about the internally displaced than most
Colombians.

"Society discriminates against the internally displaced, perhaps because
society does not know how to deal with them," she said. "People think they
have come to kill or steal. In school we have been taught that the
displaced are not to be blamed, that they are normal persons like we are."

By Eduardo Cue
In Quibdo, Colombia



======== Global Human Rights Education listserv ========
Send mail intended for the list to <hr-education@hrea.org>.
Archives of the list can be found at:
http://www.hrea.org/lists/hr-education/markup/maillist.php
If you have problems (un)subscribing, contact <owner-hr-education@hrea.org>.
**You are welcome to reprint, copy, archive, quote or re-post this item,
but please retain the original and listserv source.