Andaman Sea Crisis: Migrant assistant & protection in shelters project

The Rohingya people in Myanmar have been subject to decades of persecution and violence within their state. This report focuses specifically on a group of 225 Rohingya who were granted conditional asylum in Thailand in 2015. Within shelters of Southern Thailand, Save the Children assisted 80 Rohingya children and 70 Rohingya adults through the provision of Child Friendly Spaces (CFS), Education in Emergencies (EiE), legal assistance, positive parenting training and advocacy for child protection.

In order to determine the current and future learning needs of Rohingya children in Southern Thailand, a literacy and numeracy diagnostic assessment was undertaken in February 2016. They found that Rohingya children only had limited access to schooling in the past. After accessing the Education in Emergencies education classes in the shelters for 5 months, the majority (64%) of the Rohingya children and youth, can identify at least five letters in Rohingyalish; 36% remain illiterate in all languages assessed. Fewer where able to read in their mother tongue. This makes it incredibly difficult for Rohingya children to invest in their education, even if they are very interested in doing so.

Save the Children’s recommendation include:

• Granting all children access to educational services while detained
• Provide simple mother-tongue multilingual education approaches
• Support Social Emotional Learning approaches in shelters to relieve past trauma