Kingfisher School

I do have a dream. It's been with me for some time. It's been growing in my mind for almost ten years now, and the path I've taken in my life is pointing more and more towards making it a reality - somehow. I have no idea if I can actually do it. I'm full of doubts whether I have the right skills, the drive and energy to make it come alive and become a real thing in the world, but I do have the dream.

In 2010 I was volunteering with a refugee support charity in the UK. It was challenging work but very rewarding. I'd just finished academic training as a lawyer and was interested in this area of international law. And in helping people in such dire circumstances, trying to move on in their lives which have been shattered by war and other horrors. When the European 'refugee crisis' of 2015 hit all the headlines, I got even more involved, and 2016 found me in Calais in northern France with a small refugee legal advice association, helping people directly in the camps there.

Before training in the law I'd spent years in education, specifically teaching English as a foreign language abroad. There were a few education projects in the French camps, and I admired them, providing young minds with learning opportunities despite the mud, the cold winds, and myriad deprivations of the common refugee camp experience. My own views and experiences of learning and studying have given me a deep appreciation of how directing the mind towards learning something can help you to overcome all sorts of obstacles in your life, learn how to rise above situations and how to change them for the better. I'm a firm believer in the transformative power of education.

Here comes the statistic. The UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, estimates that more than 1.8 million refugee children - or 48 per cent of all refugee children of school age worldwide - are out of school.

Just read that again.

Now pause and think about it for a moment. That's almost half of all refugee children worldwide, out of school. That's an awful lot of kids. A lot of kids who could be learning all sorts of things - languages and maths and science and music and art, all the things that you reading these words probably learnt at school and don't even know you know - your fundamental education, a lot of which allows you to do whatever work you do and a whole lot more besides.

1.8 million refugee children, out of school. That's just not on. Is it?

So this is where my vision starts. It's not fully formed yet as a vision, it's a bit vague still, but it's definitely there in my mind. A school for refugee children. I'm not sure where it is - whether in one of the camps somewhere, or more probably in a country where refugees have arrived and are trying to integrate themselves into a local community. Maybe Turkey, maybe Africa. In a way I'm not sure it matters too much where I start, because I feel that once it gets under way and the ball starts rolling, this could develop further and further, as more people come aboard and help it to build momentum. I'm sure there are a huge number of people who would come aboard to help make this vision come alive.

I see the first school as one of many. I see kids learning maths, painting and drawing, playing musical instruments and cooking. It's a colourful and cheerful place.

It's called Kingfisher School.

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