Making a difference

By LUWITA HANA RANDHAWA , TheStar
educate@thestar.com.my

Seizing opportunities: Maria (left), Htain Lin and Pan Ei (right) have gained pivotal skills such as cooking and learning a new language.

 

HELP University in collaboration with the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has set up a pioneering educational and vocational project for young refugees in Malaysia.

Known as Project Self-Help, the aim was to provide educational opportunities for refugees in Malaysia aged 15 to 24 by offering courses in marketable skills at the varsity.

A total of 174 students from the project have successfully graduated in English courses and either Information Technology (IT) or Culinary Arts courses.

Among them was fifteen-year-old Pakistani Maria Ayub who studied English for six months and IT for five weeks.

“Before this, I could not speak English at all and now I can speak it well,” she said, adding that she was thankful for the opportunity given.

Hnin Pan Ei, 20, and Htain Lin, 16, are siblings from Myanmar who have been refugees here since 2008.

Having studied English and Culinary Arts, Pan Ei really enjoyed learning how to make cakes and pizzas.

“I feel like I can do whatever I want and continue my studies with confidence,” she said.

Htain Lin has made many new friends and likes Malaysia because “the weather’s good and the people are friendly and warm.”

He hopes to be able to study Engineering one day.

Malaysia is home to 95,000 refugees and asylum-seekers under the UNHCR.

Project Self-Help, which started last September, seeks to eventually benefit 20,000 of them who are of high school or college-going age.

“We are giving them an opportunity to gain skills and competency that they can bring with them when they are relocated to a new country.

“Regardless of whether it’s Australia or the United States, they can then gain employment and make a living,” said the project’s director Adam Chan.

UNHCR representative Alan Vernon feels that giving them an education is akin to providing them a strong foundation for a better future.

“The reality is that for young refugees who have to leave their homes, their education is stopped or delayed,” said Vernon.

“It’s very important that we try to create opportunities for them to study and I think that’s what we have here with Project Self-Help.

“We have a model of a good programme that teaches valuable skills to these young people,” he said.

Students of Project Self-Help’s Phase Three are currently attending classes and Phase Four is due to commence shortly.

Given the success of the project’s first two phases, HELP University and UNHCR are looking into other educational opportunities for the refugees.

“The students loved it and a lot of them don’t want to leave.

So now, we are trying to see what more we can do for them,” said Chan.