Afghan refugees include many school-aged children

By September 9, 2021

Afghanistan (MNN) — The U.S. and other countries have ended evacuation efforts in Afghanistan. Thousands fled the Taliban’s rule over the country.

Anne Hamming of Tent Schools International says up to half of these refugees may be “school-aged children from zero to 17. While they’re on the move, of course, they are missing school. And God willing, once they find a safe place (not under immediate threat, shelter from the elements, food, and access to basic medical care) their children are again likely not to have access to school.”

Tent School’s work

Without schooling, the situation won’t get any better for these children. That’s why Tent Schools international works with refugee students in places like Lebanon, where they have started a mobile school on a truck. Learn more here.

In the U.S., they provide refurbished laptops for students in resettled families. Hamming says, “The pandemic showed us all just how essential having a device in the home was for children to learn.”

And most resettled families don’t have 400 dollars to spend on a laptop. Hamming says, “The resettlement agencies work with them to make sure they have reliable internet access. And then we grant them a laptop or a desktop.”

Hamming says adults in the families can benefit greatly from these computers as well. “Many of these families are taking vocational training or language training, so it really gets used by the entire family.”

You can join this work to provide computers to refugees in Jesus’s name. Donate to Tent Schools here. Plus, you can supply used laptops to be refurbished. Tent Schools works with Comprenew, a refurbishing company in West Michigan, but you can donate no matter where you live in the U.S. Learn more here.

 

 

Header photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, Public Domain. 


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