UNITED NATIONS GIRLS EDUCATION INITIATIVE

ZOA Refugee Care (ZOA) is a Dutch humanitarian organization working in fourteen countries worldwide.  In Thailand, ZOA supports Burmese refugees in seven refugee camps along the Thai-Burmese border.

Since 1997 ZOA's main work has been to improve sustainability and prospects of refugee education by providing support to accomodate education needs of all children in refugee camps.  Over 38,000 students and 1,600 teachers receive support in primary and secondary education.  ZOA also supports livelihood projects where participants can learn skills that can help them to earn their own income.  Gender is a cross-cutting theme in all projects: ZOA strives for equal opportunities to access education and an equal division of responsibilities amongst all people involved.

The cornerstone of ZOA's activities is building capacity of everyone involved in education along the border.  Therefore, ZOA tries to harmonize its projects with the Thai education system and seeks to cooperate with camp-based organizations and various non-governmental organizations.  To give the refugee community a real opportunity to manage their education more independently, ZOA has started to phase out of Thailand while handing its activities over to U-sa Khanae Development Foundation, a newly registered Thai NGO.

For more information, please visit: http://www.zoa.nl/worldwide