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Education & Training Department

News & Highlights:

RLP Awards Certificates to Refugees, Police and Immigration Officers

On 26.08.2011, RLP awarded certificates to 167 refugees who had successfully completed the English for Adults (EFA) programme.
At the same function, 32 immigration officers and 98 police officers were also awarded certificates in Refugee Law and Human Rights.
Download full report for details


 
"Ignorance is also very dangerous" (Police Instructors Training)

The overall aim of Education and Training Department is to develop capacity of the service providers involved in the protection of refugees, asylum seekers, IDPs and deportees so that they enjoy their human rights and lead dignified lives. To date, over 3,000 officials, service providers and other stakeholders have been trained on refugee law and human rights. We also offer English for adults (EFA) training programme for asylum seekers and refugees from non-English speaking countries. EFA programme encourage asylum seekers and refugees to have a common language and speak their rights, realize their potential and to freely express themselves while pursuing their status and justice.

Objective of the programmes

  1. To equip them with information and knowledge on International Law, Refugee Act 2006, human rights, the Guiding Principles on Internal Displacement, relevance policy documents refugee and relevant policy instruments so as to handle forced migrants in accordance with international human rights standards and standards set by the 1995 Constitution of Uganda
  2. To create awareness about the rights and duties of forced migrants and the roles of the Government of Uganda and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) towards the protection of refugees both during displacement and following repatriation to their countries of origin
  3. To impart skills so that stakeholders and government officials can transfer the knowledge, ideas, rules, and standards learnt into credible investigations and court practices.
  4. To reinforce attitudes and behavior change among the stakeholders and government officials so that they can maximize and effectively improve the protection of refugees and asylum seekers
  5. To ensure that stakeholders and government afford fair treatment to all forced migrants with the same standards of individual respect, and social justice that apply to the rest of Ugandans.

Target groups for the programme

Policy Makers, service providers in humanitarian agencies, government departments such as: immigration, army, police, prisons, Judges, magistrates, NGO staff, religious leaders, local government officials, district leaders, teachers, parliamentarians, researchers, asylum seekers, refugees and IDPs.

Training modules

  • Understanding Migration and Introduction to Forced Migration
  • Refugee Law and Practice
  • Internal Displacement
  • Gender and Forced Migration
  • The Refugee Child
  • Contemporary challenges in refugee protection
  • The role and functions of different institutions and Agencies dealing with Forced Migrants
  • Psychosocial issues in Forced Migration
  • Field trip to Refugee Settlements to experience the camp management system, access to justice, human security, refugee livelihoods, access to social services and community policing

To achieve its aims and objectives, the Education and Training Department implements the following programmes:



English for Adults training

The Refugee Law Project receives asylum seekers and refugees from non-English speaking countries such as Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea who are not able to express themselves in English while in Uganda and as a result, they usually do not get assistance.
 
In an attempt to address this problem, the Education and Training Department began English for Adult (EFA) programme in 2007. The classes are divided into five levels: Literacy, level 1, level 2, level 3 and level 4. English grammar is taught in literacy to level 3 and level 4 learners cover topics related to the situations of refugees and human rights. Currently, the EFA programme has grown and now registers 350 learners per term. To date, 1,989 forced migrants have benefited from the EFA programme.
The programme is in the process of developing "Speak Your Rights" curriculum and is being sponsored by Finnish Refugee Council.

Objectives

  • To provide asylum seekers and refugees with basic knowledge and skills and positive attitudes in writing, reading English and numerals based on their needs and problem solving.
  • To encourage asylum seekers and refugees to have a common language and speak their rights, realize their potential and to freely express themselves while pursuing their refugee status determination processes and basic services in Uganda
  • To encourage asylum seekers and refugees to actively participate in their personal development, live a more quality and productive life so as to contribute constructively towards local community and national development.
The EFA programme has encouraged and created confidence among learners who can now speak English with ease
 


RESPECT University

RESPECT is an abreviation for Refugee Education Sponsorship Program, Enhancing Communities Together.
Education and Training Department established partnership with the RESPECT University based in Canada to provide distance learning for post secondary education to refugee students. This was a result of high demand for continuous education by learners who completed EFA programme and others who needed to pursue their careers.
 
The offered courses are tutored by highly qualified volunteer tutors from around the world. The department therefore coordinates an online distance learning programme in various courses for refugees. Learners are assigned tutors who send a series of assignments which the students complete and then return to the tutor for comments and feedback. To date, the program has registered 0ver 200 students for International Human Rights Law, Early Childhood Development, International Relations, Small and Medium Business Enterprise, Persuasive writing, Business Administration & Office Management, Information Technology and Democracy.

Objectives:

  • To provide post-secondary education to refugees who want to continue with their studies and build career.
  • To encourage young people to raise awareness of refugees issues around the world.
  • To build bridges between non-refugee students and refugee students to share experiences, exchange information and help each other
The RESPECT University certificates are helping some students to get jobs and others are using them to access post-secondary education.
 


Community Policing

Community policing is a program which began in 2009. The RLP jointly with the police conduct community policing in the refugee hosting communities to find out the problems and to address key issues that may result into conflict. Furthermore, the programme helps in upholding the communities and to ensure that there's peaceful co-existence among the nationals and refugees staying in the same community.
RLP jointly with the police, conduct community policing in and around Kampala. At present over 960 individuals have been sensitized. The community policing programme equips forced migrants with in-depth knowledge on their basic rights and opportunities available to them under the Refugee Act 2006 to ensure their own legal protection.
 
The community policing discussions are focused on: Sensitizing the community on the Refugee Act 2006, Crime Prevention in the communities, Access to justice, Access to RLP services, Human Rights Abuse in the communities, Availability of services to People with Disability, Procedures on Refugee Status Determination, How to deal with unaccompanied minors/children and Civic Education. So far community policing has been conducted in several refugee and asylum seekers hosting communities.

Objectives

  • To ensure that the mandate of Refugee Law Project is passed on in the refugee hosting communities
  • To educate forced migrants on how to access justice and clarify the roles of government, UNHCR, NGOs, Local Council officials, police and church leaders
  • To inform the refugees on the availability of services and how and where to access them to even persons with disability
  • To educate the communities on crime preventions methods
  • To carry out civic education

The community policing programme has grown and the demand by refugee hosting communities for RLP to organize information sessions on refugee law and human rights is quite high and notably, there has been improved work-relationships between police, the RLP, refugees, hosting communities and asylum seekers.


The department has developed a proposal for training Local concils and displaced persons's leaders on refugee law and human rights.


Training stakeholders on Refugee Law and Policy

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