The theme for this year is “Home”, reflecting the work of UNHCR in trying to help refugees find new homes – in their native countries or abroad. The theme also highlights the increasing difficulties in doing just that, in a world where many armed conflicts have escalated in recent years.

Several different events will be held around the world to bring attention to World Refugee Day, and UNHCR encourages everyone to get involved.

Follow UNHCR on Twitter, or read more about their work on Flickr where updates are posted regularly.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Picture: Millennium International Documentary Film Festival

Tomorrow, June 12, marks the start of the second Millennium International Documentary Film Festival in Brussels. This week-long festival, supported by the United Nations, will show films that deal with different aspects of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

One of the festival’s main aims is to show the realities – the real lives of real people – behind the eight MDGs. Some of the topics that will be addressed are the Congolese civil war, a Polynesian community dealing with the effects of climate change, and the harsh working conditions of the Kenyan flower industry. Several different documentaries will be shown between 12-18 June, and there will also be panel discussions, special events and live performances.

For more information, please refer to the Millennium International Documentary Film Festival official homepage or the UNDP homepage.

Source: UNDP.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Mobile phones are transforming health care in many developing countries, reports BBC.

The use of mobile phones worldwide is becoming more and more widespread each day, which makes it an ideal tool for health workers gathering vital information. Using an application called EpiSurveyor, critical data collection concerning, for example, vaccines and HIV rates, has now been made faster and more efficient. The application has been used successfully in several projects, for examle in a malaria study in Nigeria.

Read more here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

The project is based around a free text message service, where young people can send their comments and thoughts via sms on the topic that is debated live on the radio show. The text messages are sent directly to the UNICEF Nepal website. There is a high access to the radio in Nepal, and an increasing amount of people are using mobile phones, so UNICEF and partners seem convinced that this project comes at an ideal time. The project will also generate interesting information on the opinions and interests of young people around the country – and hopefully, and perhaps most importantly, give many of them of a greater chance of being involved in the public debate.

Read more here.

Source: UNICEF.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Bangladesh has become something of a success story when it comes to primary education enrolment. The net enrolment rate has now risen to almost 91%, compared to only 60% in 1990, according to BBC.

The amount of girls who are attending school is also increasing, as well as the number of female teachers. This means that Bangladesh is doing very well when it comes to achieving the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. However, some challenges still remain – for example, making sure more teachers are trained and qualified, focusing on giving children from ethnic minorities access to education, improving the quality of teaching, and providing better sanitation in schools.

Read more here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Yesterday Mr Kalaimani Supramaniam, Asias ENO coordinator and Mr Balu Perumal, Coordinator – Forest and Biodiversity Programme for the Global Environment Centre visited MKFC Stockholm College.

Kalaimani and Balu are in Sweden for a conference in Uppsala, and we are very glad that they found the time to visit us and tell about their incredible mangrove plantings in Malaysia and other work that they are doing.

We also discussed on how we can work more closely together and start with different eLearning programmes in Malaysia.

Tree planting activities Malaysia from ENO picassa photo album.

On April 1, a Right to Education Act (RTE) came into effect in India, giving all children between the ages of 6 and 14 the right to free, compulsory education. For many young girls, however, many difficulties still remain when it comes to schooling, reports TIME Magazine.

Girls often have to take care of siblings or help with different chores around the house, and since the RTE gives no protection from child labor it is likely that this problem will remain. Another problematic issue is the fact that as much as 46% of public schools in India lack toilets for girls, which means there’s often a reluctance to send girls to school. The RTE is an ambitious plan, however, and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recognizes that it’s not enough to simply pass a law. He is quoted in TIME Magazine, saying: “What we have done is prepare a framework to get quality education. It is for the entire community to contribute and participate in this national endeavor”.

Read more here.

Source: TIME Magazine.

Written by Fanny Johansson

In many rural and tribal areas of India, literacy rates are low and newspapers are thus not widespread, nor are internet connections and private television. However, mobile phone usage is high – and growing – and a new project called CGnet (Chhattisgarh Net Voice) in the central state of Chhattisgarh, is taking advantage of this, bringing people news using mobile phones. It is described by its founders as “an attempt to cater to people who are on the wrong side of the digital divide”.

This is how it works: the mobile phones work as a platform for sharing information among citizens. Citizen journalist, or “reporters”, can call a number to upload their own news story, a text message is sent out to everyone who has signed up for the service, and people can then call the same number to listen to the whole news item. The response, says CGnet’s founders, has been overwhelmingly positive, as it gives people an opportunity to discuss and share news that are important to them in a way that has not been possible before.

Read more here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Mr. Babar is MKFC teacher training student. He is working as teacher in Faisal Public School Multan, Pakistan.

Health and cleanliness is an important theme of MKFC teacher training course where students learn to practice this approach in their authentic learning environment.

During his project Mr. Babar arranged a Polio vaccination camp in his school and made an interview with vaccinator, parents and school principal to show the challenges and awareness regarding health, cleanliness and vaccination. During the interview the vaccinator described that how it was difficult in the beginning to convince people about vaccination.

Initially, people believed that this vaccination is a source for family planning and sterilization but later they realized after having awareness about its benefits that vaccine prevents them to suffer from many epidemics. She said that for a single vaccinator, its difficult to cover such huge area to go every single home. She recommended that it would have been better if people could arrange this kind of camps where many children could meet and have vaccine together. One of the mothers in her interview showed her satisfaction about the importance of health and cleanliness education in the school with formal learning. She said that schoolteachers make every child to learn to wash their hands with soap before having every meal.

We believe that these kinds of camps not only provide the possibility to give vaccines to the children but a great source of awareness regarding different diseases. They provide a common platform to children, parents, health personals and schoolteachers to think, learn, care and share their experiences.

227 million people worldwide have been able to move out of slum areas to better living conditions since 2000, according to a new report from UN Habitat.

This positive development means that the Millennium Development target of improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers before 2015 has been surpassed. In countries such as China and India, extensive improvements of slum areas have already begun – but a lot remains to be done, not least because the “absolute number” of slum dwellers has actually increased by 100 million people since 2000, largely due to migration from the countryside to larger cities. In fact, a majority of the world’s population (around 51%) now live in urban areas – in sub-Saharan Africa, 62% of the urban population still live in slums.

The full report can be found here.

Source: UN Habitat.

Written by Fanny Johansson