Frontiers of Hope | Indonesia to Australia

Khadim Dai has met Oscar-winning filmmakers and Indonesian politicians. He was a panellist on the SBS show Insight and is being recruited by the art school at Monash University in Melbourne, where lecturers have described him as the most talented young artist they have seen in recent memory, and where a scholarship has been created to try to bring him to Melbourne.

The Refugee School Of Hope

Some have been in the queue ten years. But through the school they've found hope. They're up early to go to class and prepare lessons. They have skills to share. Parents make lunches and are proud they're able to provide an education for their children.

The refugee run school transforming young people’s lives

“My country destroyed my childhood. It failed to shelter me. Sometimes I wish that I would wake up in a world were there is no Taliban, no war, and no dying children.”

Refugee Transit in Indonesia: The Critical Importance of Community

The community was formed around a refugee-run school that opened in August 2014 and now has 200 students and 17 volunteer staff. The school has provided the community a focal point and shared project in which all are heavily involved.

Indonesia has not signed the UN Convention on Refugees, meaning asylum seekers are not able to work or get an education in the country.

Learning Centre Helps Asylum Seekers Cope

Just two months ago, these children were bored and aimless, dislocated from their home countries and stuck in temporary accommodation as their school years ebbed.

How Learning Is a Lifeline For Refugee Children

I want to be a scientist in the future and invent new things that will help my country, or become an artist so I can paint pictures which express the pain and feelings of those experiencing war, such as my people in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

Resisting Limbo

Even before the school comes into view, I hear the shrieks of delight of children playing. As I enter the gates I see parents chatting with one another while maintaining a watchful eye on their little ones. Teachers brainstorm about lesson plans for the next day, and talk excitedly about their upcoming soccer game on the weekend.

A school set up by asylum seekers and refugees in the West Java town Cisarua, Indonesia, is an initiative that Australian and Indonesian governments should model and support. In August 2014, refugees from Afghanistan in transit in Indonesia established the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre (CRLC) to provide education for their children.

Exiled by Taliban, karate black belt trains asylum seeker children

"When they are coming to sports they are very relaxed, that's why karate is good for us."