Strengthening access to safe and gender-responsive education for refugee and host community learners in Terego District — through school safety audits, education needs assessments, and community sensitisation in partnership with War Child Canada and funded by Global Affairs Canada.
A school that is not safe is not a school — it is a place where children learn to be afraid. For girls in displacement contexts, the safety of the school environment is one of the most powerful determinants of whether they enrol, whether they stay, and whether what happens inside the classroom contributes to their development or compounds the vulnerabilities they already carry. Schools that lack adequate sanitation facilities, that have no systems for reporting and responding to harassment or violence, and that have never been assessed for the specific risks they pose to girls cannot claim to offer gender-responsive education no matter what curriculum they teach.
The GFS-funded education component implemented in partnership with War Child Canada addresses this foundational challenge. Working across Awa Primary School, Emmanuel Primary School, and Omugo Girls' Secondary School in Terego District, the project conducted education needs assessments to establish a clear baseline of what schools required, and school safety audits to identify the specific risks and gaps that prevented schools from being genuinely safe and inclusive environments for all learners — particularly girls.
Community sensitisation ran alongside the school-level work, recognising that a safe school surrounded by a community that does not value girls' education will still struggle to retain female learners. By engaging parents, community leaders, and local structures around the importance of education access and school safety, the project built the community foundation that school-level improvements alone cannot create. Together these three approaches — assessment, safety auditing, and community engagement — reached 220 refugee learners and 83 learners from host communities.
School safety audits were conducted across Awa Primary School, Emmanuel Primary School, and Omugo Girls' Secondary School to identify the specific risks, gaps, and vulnerabilities that prevented schools from being genuinely safe environments for all learners. The audits assessed physical infrastructure, reporting and response systems for violence and harassment, sanitation facilities, and the overall school environment experienced by girls — generating evidence to guide targeted improvements that make schools safer and more inclusive.
Education needs assessments were conducted to establish a clear, evidence-based understanding of what each school required to deliver quality, gender-responsive education. Assessments covered learning materials, teacher capacity, classroom conditions, enrolment and retention patterns, and the specific barriers facing girls and other vulnerable learners. The findings directly shaped the design and priorities of subsequent interventions, ensuring that support was targeted where it was most needed rather than based on assumptions.
Community sensitisation activities engaged parents, community leaders, and local structures around the importance of education access and school safety — particularly for girls. The sensitisation work addressed the social norms and economic pressures that contribute to girls' dropout, built community awareness of the value of gender-responsive education, and created the supportive community environment that school-level improvements depend on to be effective. These activities complemented the school safety and assessment work by addressing the demand side of girls' education alongside the supply side.
The project directly reached 220 refugee learners and 83 learners from host communities across the three schools in Terego District. By working in both refugee and host community schools, the project addressed the education access gap on both sides of the refugee-host divide — recognising that quality, safe, gender-responsive education is a right for all children in the area, not only those with refugee status. The inclusion of host community learners also supports the social cohesion goals embedded throughout YSAT's broader GFS programming.
Refugee learners reached through school safety and education activities
Host community learners reached across the three project schools
Schools assessed and supported in Terego District
Total learners reached — refugee and host community combined