Where?

We aim to work with children and young people who are refugees or displaced within their own country. Initially, we want to work with Rohingya refugees who fled for their lives from their homes in neighbouring Myanmar in 2017. There are over a million Rohingya refugees living in this region, generously hosted by the Government of Bangladesh. This is where Magnus and Kasha wanted to start this work.

If we can raise enough funds, we aim to take this initiative further afield, including Lebanon (hosting Syrian refugees), Uganda (refugees from neighbouring countries), Mozambique (internally displaced people in the Northern province of Cabo Delgado). We are also interested to learn more about working in South America where millions of refugees and economic migrants fled Venezuela, while migration across Central America is a serious challenge.

The problem

In refugee camps and temporary settlements there are almost never facilities, dedicated land or equipment, appropriate clothing or trainers and mentors that can dedicate their time to teaching physical skills, sport and other activities over a sustained period.

There is extensive evidence pointing to the physical and psychological benefits of physical activity and organised play, games and outdoor activities such as gardening.

Young people are often stuck for years, or decades in displacement, facing enormous risks of exploitation, abuse, trafficking, despondency and despair.  These conditions can erode hope and leave young people vulnerable to negative outcomes including addiction, radicalisation, abuse, trafficking and crime. 

Our action:

·       Introduce organised games, sport, gardening, play and meaningful physical activities into camps and temporary settlement for refugees, internally displaced people and migrants.  

·       Train teachers and mentors from within the community

·       Engage with communities that host the refugees or displaced people.  Building social cohesion between host and migrant communities is critical to avoid tension and conflict.  We aim to raise sufficient funds to support similar activities in both communities and, where possible, promote play, games and competition between both host and refugee / migrant communities.  

·       Ensure sustained funding by generating a people-powered movement of monthly donations from enthusiasts of the outdoor world and sports from safer, more stable countries.

·       Connect kids across borders through letters, stories and correspondence; share development of their sports and development of their physical environment.  Kids in secondary schools in developed or middle income countries can communicate with their peers in refugee and displaced camps about their lives, interests, sports and aspirations. Both sides learn so much about each others’ lives, hopes and challenges.

·       Organise competition and contests; use social media to share sporting events and developments with peer groups around the world. 

Background

Forced from their homes, stuck in a life without organised play, games, sports or positive interaction with the local environment, children and young people in displacement miss out on so much that childhood and youth has to offer.  

These are the faceless, nameless many, stuck between the cracks of our world.  There are over 110 million people living in displacement – refugees make up around a third (36.4 million people) while those internally displaced, still within the frontiers of their home country total around 62.5 million people (source: UNHCR)

Displacement means leaving your home where you enjoyed some degree of normality, protection and stability – to meagre scraps of marginal land often denuded and polluted, often with inadequate water, sanitation, electricity and other basic services.  Children and especially adolescents are very lucky if they have regular access to school.  Many young people are forced into child labour; for girls this can include commercial sex, depending how desperate the family is to survive.  Girls suffer disproportionally as they are often expected to provide sexual favours in return for services. 

KLF will engage directly with communities we can reach.  It must start with identifying then training the teachers from within the displaced community itself.  These trainers will be more than teachers as they will be guides, mentors and enable liaison with community and religious leaders.  From within the community they will be living and breathing the experience of displacement. 

We will identify candidates and invest a minimum of one year training in physical education theory and pedagogy, and, where appropriate and separate to the PE, gardening and ecological regeneration practice and theory.  We will ensure that each candidate is fully versed and trained in Prevention of Sexual Exploitation and Abuse (PSEA) and Child Protection principles, laws and norms.  We will uphold a Zero-Tolerance policy for any staff proven to have broken any of these regulations.

During and after training we will mobilise practice and play with children and young adults, observe the trainees and re-select, drop, hire new, as we learn more about their capacities.

The process must be continuous and long term – not based on short term funding cycles. 

We will collaborate with local higher education faculties, local civil society and young people who are interested.