IOM Assists School Enrolment of Displaced Children in Central African Republic

IOM is facilitating the primary school enrolment of displaced children as part of its site management activities at the Lutheran Church displacement site in Bangui in the Central African Republic (CAR).

The children are registered by IOM site facilitators and subsequently referred to REMOD, a local NGO, which organized their enrolment in a primary school funded by UNICEF.

“Because of insecurity, several families sought refuge at the site in December. IOM staff promptly registered the children for primary school by the middle of the month. This meant that the children's education has not been interrupted,” said Vangulé Angele, a member of the site committee.

Since the wide-scale outbreak of violence in December 2013, approximately 25 per cent of CAR's population has been internally displaced and over half the population is in need of humanitarian assistance. The deterioration of the security situation and related displacement has exposed children in the country to numerous risks, including a lack of education.

As the site manager at the Lutheran Church site, IOM has been responsible for the registration of internally displaced persons (IDPs) there since December 2013.

IOM has been providing other humanitarian assistance to IDPs in CAR since 2013, working with local partners and the Camp Coordination and Camp Management Cluster. It has also deployed its Displacement Tracking Matrix to collect and share data on displacement to improve the humanitarian response.

Its site management and facilitation activities also include referral of protection cases, including Gender-Based Violence (GBV). Over 120 GBV cases have been assisted, working with partners from the UNFPA-led GBV sub-cluster.

IOM's programme is funded by the Office of US Foreign Disaster Assistance (OFDA) and the UN Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF).