For 20 years, terre des hommes switzerland has been supporting children and young people in the Sahrawi refugee camps in the Algerian desert, some of whom lack the most basic necessities. Last summer, the Manor department store chain collected old school backpacks as part of the "Back to School" campaign for the benefit of Sahrawi school children. Now 1347 school bags have reached children and young people who can use them very well.
In the summer of 2017, the Swiss department store chain Manor launched a special campaign in collaboration with terre des hommes schweiz: as part of its "Back to School" campaign, Manor asked its customers throughout the country to hand in school bags that were no longer needed in its stores. In 64 Manor branches, 1347 backpacks were collected in this way. These have now reached the school children in the Sahrawi refugee camps, who are very happy about the school bags.
terre des hommes schweiz would like to take this opportunity to thank all donors of school backpacks and Manor. Many thanks!
Schools without school material
The school bags are very welcome by the children: The Sahrawi government has established a state in exile in the camps with a well-functioning school system. Young Sahraouis in general have a good education and a high literacy rate. Because all Sahrawi refugee children attend school. But they often lack the simplest school materials.
Completely dependent on the outside
The people in these camps are 100 percent dependent on international aid supplies. In recent years, these have steadily shrunk as the funds flow into other, more recent conflict regions. The situation in the camps is particularly hard for the young Sahrouis.
A conflict on standby
For more than 40 years, some 165,000 Sahrawis have been living in these refugee camps. At that time, Morocco annexed their homeland, the Western Sahara. Thousands of people fled to the desert of Algeria, where they settled in five camps. terre des hommes schweiz has been supporting youth work in the camps for 20 years.
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