CONTEXT OF THE PROJECT 

Many children suffer from trauma from experiences in their home country or through the challenging migration experience. Often this trauma is compounded by the stress of their legal status and lack of opportunities in Malaysia. MSRI Education Programme gives refugee children an avenue to socialise and experience a sense of normalcy to help them deal with trauma. Additionally, MSRI provides counselling services in the school in addition to the Sahabat Healthcare Centre Counsellors. MSRI is the only organisation providing comprehensive services to refugees and asylum seekers from Middle East, African and Central Asian communities in Malaysia.

Our services are specifically tailored to meet their specific needs from counsellors/doctors with refugee-health expertise to interpreters, emergency assistance and case management. MSRI also has a strong family (rather than individual) focus, with emphasis on Child Protection and ongoing work on sexual and gender based violence (SGBV). MSRI is able to provide holistic responses in a way that local community schools are not able to, as well as access to results-based educational outcomes. 

PROGRAMME OVERVIEW

MSRI’s Sahabat School has been growing over the last 10 years since the school opened in 2010. Enrolments has increased from 14 students in 2010 to 550 students in 2020. The number of students in the waiting list for this school year is 150 students.

The Sahabat School provides Preschool, Primary, Secondary and IGCSE education. This proposal aims to increase access of children, adults and vulnerable minors to improved education. The funding will allow MSRI to secure up to 150 spaces in secondary school for the next 3 years.

i) Secondary Education

The Sahabat Secondary Education Programme has been successfully providing equal opportunity for teen refugee boys and girls to access education for the past 6 years. A total of 115 secondary students are currently enrolled in the programme with an almost equal division of boys and girls. For the past 6 years, the Sahabat School’s Secondary Education has been supported by Credit Suisse, however this funding has ended in 2019 (6 years) and the secondary education is at risk of closing down in 2020.

ii) Unaccompanied Minors

By adding two more teachers to our team MSRI will also be able to formalise a tailored academic program for UAMs and the adult English program that are currently lacking and without sustainable funding. Formalising this program will improve the quality of the tuition by ensuring a consistent curriculum with proper assessment and better integration with the main school program. It will also mean we can secure tuition for up to 30 UAMs per day.

iii) Adult English Programme

The adult English program currently operates only with volunteers, which makes it subject to certain instability due to availability of volunteers and volunteer turnover, as well as lack of funding for materials. The demand for adult English classes continues to grow and MSRI is unable to meet this need without adequate funding. Adult English education opportunities are very limited to refugee and asylum-seeker communities.  

TARGET POPULATION

Sahabat Education Programme is catered to refugee beneficiaries from the Middle East, Africa and Central Asia. As of January 2020, 450 students from 14 different nationalities, which include Afghanistan, Syria, Pakistan, Iraq, Iran and Palestine followed by Somalia and Yemen. 

Specific target population for the Secondary Education Programme are:

• Over 123 secondary school students, 21 IGCSE students and around 18 Unaccompanied Minors.
• The families of our refugee students - their children are in a safe space at a reduced risk of arrest and detention, as opposed to being outside or working.
• More than 80 adults will improve their communication skills and improve their access to income generating opportunities.
• Up to 8 teachers and up to 100 students will benefit from teacher training and workshops on topics of relevance such as child safety or other targeted training.
• Up to 8 skilled members of the refugee community and their families will benefit directly from the work opportunities made available by this project as our teachers are professionals from the refugee population themselves.  

OBJECTIVES

The overall objective of MSRI’s Sahabat Secondary Education Programme is to provide a high standard of education in a safe space, leading to other education and vocational opportunities while taking into consideration children and families’ wellbeing. The overall objective of MSRI’s adult English education program is to provide functional English skills which allow refugees and asylum-seekers to communicate effectively.

The specific objectives include:

• To improve access to secondary educaEon, as well as opportuniEes for higher educaEon
• To improve access to English language educaEon for adults, leading to beFer employment
• To improve teacher and student capacity through lesson acEviEes and skill building workshops 
  

IMPLEMENTATION

The Sahabat Secondary Education Programme is located at Ampang Point providing easy access for students to commute to and from school. Majority of our target beneficiaries live within the Ampang/Gombak area.

i) Secondary Education

• Sahabat Education Programme offers schooling to students from early childhood education to secondary levels.
• The school follows the Malaysian school calendar and offers two semesters from January-May and June - November, with students sitting exams at the mid and end of each semester.
• The school uses the International School syllabus and teaches core subjects of Mathematics, English, Social Studies, Science; Health and Sports.
• The school operates in 2 daily schooling sessions (morning sessions and afternoon sessions). 
  

ii) Unaccompanied Minors

In addition to the general Sahabat Education Programme, the organisation also provides an education programme especially for unaccompanied minors – those aged below 18 who arrived in Malaysia unaccompanied by their family or guardians. Within this programme, classes for English and Mathematics are divided into 2 levels. The programme equips UAMs with functional English in preparation for them to enter the Sahabat Education Programme. We currently serve 18 UAMs from sister NGO, Suka Society.  

iii) Adult Education Programme

To help increase employability, MSRI has established the Adult Education Programme, which provides English classes for adult refugees and asylum seekers in order to help them adapt and communicate better during their stay in Malaysia. There are currently 81 adults enrolled in the MSRI Adult Education Programme. The programme was run with the valuable assistance of dedicated volunteer teachers. However due to the volunteers being unable to serve us any longer, we temporarily halted some classes. We are looking for new dedicated volunteers. 

THE ISSUES ADDRESSED IN THIS PROJECT:

The issues addressed in this project are the barriers refugees face in accessing education, tertiary education, and better opportunities for income generation. Access to Secondary Education is important to prevent negative social activities while giving the child a better chance for a better life. 

1. Child Marriages
2. Child Labour 
3. Risk of Sexual and Gender-based Violence
4. Exposure to Criminal Activities
5. Low value of secondary education
6. Mental health and family violence
7. Lack of English and vocational skills and access to income generating opportunities

PROPOSED BUDGET  

The costs mentioned above are for the operation of the project for the duration of one year. MSRI is proposing The Funder to contractually support the programme for the duration of three (3) years, totaling the amount requested to RM 603,870.00 (3 years).  

Jazakum Lahu khayran for your kind support and consideration