News

30 March 2023

1 out of every 2 Venezuelan migrants and refugees face challenges in accessing education. Over one million of them are Venezuelan migrant and refugee children under 15 years of age.
The campaign "Education without limits: I learn here or there" seeks to highlight the educational crisis experienced by children and adolescents in context of human mobility in Latin America and the Caribbean.

Panama, 29 March 2023.  As a result of poverty and high rates of violence in Latin America and the Caribbean, around 3.7 million children and adolescents are displaced or on the move in search of better opportunities and access to basic services. In this search, migrants are forced to interrupt their studies and face multiple barriers to continue their learning, whether in transit or host countries. 

In response to this problem, the Regional Education Group for Latin America and the Caribbean , made up of Save the Children UNICEF, UNESCO, Plan International and other organizations, launched the campaign "Education without limits: I learn here or there". The campaign seeks to highlight the educational crisis experienced by children and adolescents in a situation of mobility,  to promote that they access and stay in school, and to show how their access to education can positively impact a host community. 

This campaign is part of the activities carried out under the Refugee and Migrant Response Plan (RMRP), supported by the Regional Chapter of the Multi-Year Resilience Program (MYRP) of the Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Fund and is supported by the Government of Canada.

The "Education without limits: I learn here or there" campaign will have resources and tools aimed at providing children, adolescents and their families, host communities, teachers, and educational personnel with accurate information on educational pathways, resources, mechanisms, and protocols available for children and adolescents in a situation of mobility to continue learning in the region.  

Victoria Ward, Save the Children's Regional Director for Latin America, and the Caribbean, said: "The Education without limits campaign comes at a key moment when migratory movements in the region have increased exponentially.  Every day, thousands of children and adolescents are in a mobility situation, facing multiple challenges, including access to education.  With this campaign we seek to

promote access to and permanence in education as a human right for children and adolescents who migrate". 

"In Latin America and the Caribbean, one in five refugees or migrants is a child. They had to leave their schools, but when they crossed borders, many did not have the opportunity to keep learning and found themselves trapped in exclusion, poverty, and violence. The campaign we are launching today seeks to break this vicious cycle through education. The most vulnerable children fleeing their countries can contribute to the development of transit and host communities, but only if they have access to more inclusive and quality education services," said Garry Conille, UNICEF Regional Director for Latin America, and the Caribbean. 

Claudia Uribe, Director of the Regional Bureau of Education for Latin America and the Caribbean (OREALC/UNESCO Santiago) stressed that "The region must spare no effort to remove any obstacle that prevents any child in a situation of mobility from fully integrating into the national education systems in their host countries".  

"Girls and adolescents represent about 20% of the flow of female human mobility in the region, facing additional barriers to access education due to the responsibilities and roles assigned to girls and women in households, gender-based violence, child and adolescent pregnancies, and early marriages and unions are exacerbated in crisis situations, hindering their access to education, their learning processes, quality, transition and educational completion," said Debora Cobar - Regional Director of Plan International for Latin America and the Caribbean.

https://www.unesco.org/en/articles/more-37-million-migrant-children-risk-missing-out-school?hub=701