Irish teachers answer call to provide online education for children in refugee camps

Founded just over a year ago, Strong Gens is helping to provide access to education in refugee camps including this one in Greece — and dozens of Irish people have volunteered to teach them online. 

Dozens of Irish teachers have answered the call to volunteer their time to provide access to education for children in refugee camps across the world.

Teachers globally are being asked to volunteer with Strong Gens, an initiative aimed at providing access to education for children in refugee camps in a number of countries around the world.

Founded by Sophia Wilmot-Josife in February 2020, Strong Gens is already involved in a school build in one country, and is now hoping to use online teaching to provide education for even more children.

13m child refugees

Worldwide, nearly 31m children have been forcibly displaced at the end of 2018, according to Unicef, including some 13m child refugees.

Carlow teacher Gary O’Keeffe became involved in Strong Gens after spotting a social media post from a former colleague seeking teachers to volunteer their time.

Gary O'Keeffe, who teaches a special class for children with autism at primary level, is helping to recruit teachers in Ireland for Strong Gens.

He contacted the organisation and, after an interview with the founder, he was keen to help out even further.

Gary is now heading up recruitment in Ireland for Strong Gens and is in the process of interviewing volunteers and getting them set up in their new role.

100-plus Irish volunteers

His recent social media posts seeking volunteers received a huge reaction and more than 100 teachers are in contact with him about the possibility of volunteering with Strong Gens.

Almost 30 have already completed the application process.

Gary teaches a special class for children with autism at primary school level and, although he had never taught refugee children, he was keen to help out.

He said his desire to volunteer comes from a firm belief that all children deserve equal access to education.

“What’s so unique about what Strong Gens seeks to do is to empower children to dream and become agents of change in their own futures,” he said.

It was the children themselves who were in the refugee camp that demanded change.

“They raised their voices and said we need help, this is our dream for a chance at a future outside the walls of this camp, and it is these young activists, stronger generations that continue to lead their campaign,” he added.

Online classes

Strong Gens are seeking volunteers from anywhere in the world who are willing to commit a minimum of one hour per week to teach online.

“There was a very big response from Irish teachers which was great to see,” said Gary.

“The majority of people who got in touch with me were Irish people, from varying backgrounds.

“There were primary teachers, post-primary teachers, Tefl [teaching English as a foreign language] teachers, SNAs [special needs assistants], 
and even people who were not involved in educational settings who contacted me with a willingness to get involved and try to help.” 

 So far, almost 30 Irish teachers have either completed the application process and received their induction training and are ready to start volunteering or they are in the process of completing it.

You can find more about the organisation on the Strong Gems website or over at @strong_gens on Instagram.