16 June 2016

Burundian President, Pierre Nkurunziza.

Some of the camps have reached full capacity and cannot accommodate a significant influx of more refugees from Burundi in which 60 per cent of the refugees are under 18 years of age.

Acting Deputy Country Director, Programmes at Plan International Tanzania, Ms Gwynneth Wong, said this in Dar es Salaam during the screening of the film ‘My New Home’ that was filmed in Nyarugusu camp and photography exhibition to commemorate the day.

“We encourage the international humanitarian community to provide additional funds especially in education where currently 40 per cent of school aged children are not attending classes due to lack of classrooms,” she noted.

Ms Wong further said Plan International has enrolled over 4,700 children refugees in informal education, recreational activities and counselling offered in Child Friendly Spaces (CFSs) in Nduta and Mtendeli camps.

Expounding further, she said they are heavily underfunded with resources overstretched, still more children require safe and friendly learning environment. All agencies are encouraged to involve children more in the design, implementation and monitoring of humanitarian assistance.

This year’s theme: “Conflicts and crises in Africa: Protecting the rights of all children” is particularly timely to show the impact of these different crises on children’s lives on the continent.

The day of the African Child is commemorated on June 16 in honour of uprisings in Soweto in 1976. A total of 135,454 Burundian refugees recorded in the country since April 2015, 132,729 are new arrivals and 2,725 births.

The total number of all Burundian refugees in North-West Tanzania is 138,429. UNHCR Representative in Tanzania, Ms Chansa Kapaya, said the conflicts in Burundi brought to a stark and grim reality of the impact of displacement on children and the need for the international community to mobilise resources to support the very urgent needs of refugee children.