Back to school, but in another country, for Togolese refugee children

With little time left before the end of the school year and exams, 1,600 Togolese refugee children went back to school on Monday in camps set up in Benin for refugees who have fled Togo’s post-election unrest. Children of all ages, from nursery school children to teenagers hoping to complete their final secondary-school exams, flopped down on mats laid out on floors of makeshift classrooms provided by the UN children’s agency UNICEF at the Lokossa refugee camp, which lies 18 km away from the Togolese border. “Education is the best means of bringing back a sense of normal life to these children,” said Philippe Duhamelle, who heads UNICEF operations in Benin. “Going back to school will help them overcome the trauma they’ve just been through.” “Some of these kids were victims of violence, or direct witnesses,” Duhamelle added. “School will help them deal with this, it will help them project into the future again.” UNICEF says that children account for close to 50 percent of the refugees in Benin, who fled Togo after a disputed presidential poll on 24 April. Among them are almost 200 separated and unaccompanied children aged between 9 and 17. Early on Monday morning, more than 1,000 children were marched into 14 classrooms built of wood and plastic sheeting at Lokossa camp, where almost 5,500 people are housed. A further 500 youngsters enrolled for class at the smaller Come camp closer to the border that shelters some 1,400 people. There, lessons took place in the entrance hall of a community centre built of brick, to the sound of the pounding of the season’s first rainstorms. Refugees have been streaming across Togo’s borders to Benin and Ghana ever since opposition supporters took to the streets to protest against the election of Faure Gnassingbe, a son of the former authoritarian head of state, at the end of April. His father, Gnassingbe Eyadema, ruled the country for 38 years until his death last February and the opposition maintains that the son's election was rigged. Diplomats have said more than 100 people were killed in the post-election violence, while the Togolese League of Human Rights puts the death toll at around 800. A total 34,416 refugees had registered in Benin and Ghana, the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) said last Friday. Of the almost 20,000 people who fled to Benin, around a third are accommodated in camps at Lokossa and Come, both run by UNHCR, while the remainder have opted to live with friends or family. A full five weeks after the controversial poll, up to 200 people have been leaving Togo daily because of continued intimidation and harassment by the security forces in areas believed to back the opposition, UN officials say. Rafick Saidi, who heads UNHCR’s Benin office, said some Togolese teenagers had returned home last week to sit the first part of their school leaver's exams. But while the girls made it back to school for the exams, many boys returned to the camps in fear after being told their names were on lists of people wanted by police, he said. UNICEF, which is appealing for US $395,000 to provide six months of schooling to children in the Benin camps, is using 53 teachers in the schools, who are also refugees from Togo. The funds cover 2,000 children in the camps as well as schooling needs for 2,000 refugee children in host communities. But there are differences between the education syllabuses in the two neighbouring countries. Ayena Arouna, a school inspector from Benin, told IRIN that the curriculum for the school-leavers “baccalaureate” exam was not quite the same in Benin as in Togo. However, he said because the school year was running late in Benin due to strikes, the Togo school-leavers would have plenty of time to catch up before exams are held in July. This was good news for 20-year-old Blandine Wakesso. “We’re really glad we can go back to school and end the year,” she told IRIN. “Whatever happens I aim to complete my studies here and pass the baccalaureate in Benin.”