Schoolsupplies for refugee children in India, 2500 Euro
The Kashmiri Pandits are
the indigenous people of their native land, Kashmir. Since the
independence of India in 1947, this Hindu community has been victim
of discrimination and economic squeeze. Severe harassment and
intimidation by Islamitic fundamentalists – with regular attacks
and murders - started in 1986 and led to a mass exodus of Kashmiri
Pandits who fled from the Kasmir Valley to the neighboring area of
Jammu. At present around 700.000 of them live in seven large refugee
camps in and around Jammu. By the standards of international human
aid organisations they are considered as “internally displaced
persons”.
Because they still live in their own country
they are formally not “refugees” and can’t count on help from
these organisations. They live under deplorable conditions; basic
needs, like health care and education, can not be fulfilled.
Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) – in co-operation with the
local “Help Health” organization - strives to improve the
quality and quantity of the health care in the camps, to make it
possible for the children to go back to school and to improve the
awareness of human rights. GHRD is an international network of
150 selected participants of (inter)national human rights
organizations from all over the world. It has its headquarters in
the Hague, the Netherlands and liaison offices in Bangladesh,
Bhutan, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka. GHRD does not receive any
subsidies from governments and is dependent on donations from
private persons and organizations.
For the 140 most needy students (from 6 till 17 years old) in four
refugee camp schools GHRD wants to distribute school bags with
school supplies. For the 21 orphans of this group, GHRD wants to pay
for scholarships for secondary education. The selection of the
students was made by the committees of teachers constituted by the
respective schools.
