Technology to Improve Education in Emergencies-BHER Project

The Borderless Higher Education for Refugees (BHER) Project is an international collaboration between Canadian/Kenyan universities and NGOs working together to make educational programs available where refugees need them. The refugee encampments of Dadaab, Kenya remain one of the largest and long-standing camps in the world today, hosting three generations of refugees from Eastern and Central Africa. Only one per cent of refugees have access to higher education and attending university or accessing other tertiary degree has been almost impossible. Young women face additional barriers to pursuing an education.
To redress this situation, BHER aims to provide gender equitable tertiary programs to working, untrained teachers who can then contribute back to the community, increasing and improving education in the camps overall . These same students continue beyond their teacher training certificates and diplomas, applying their “portable” earned credit towards full undergraduate and graduate degree programs. In doing so, BHER students can increase their opportunities for employment in the camps, local areas and upon resettlement or repatriation to their home country, where fruits of the project’s aims were realized and ongoing.