News

Cognita Scholarship for two brave stateless children

It is our great pleasure to announce the award of two scholarships on behalf of Cognita for St. Andrews Sathorn and Sukhumvit 107 International Schools to the two following brave children, who will shortly start school at our Sathorn campus.

H Huynh and Y Juel Bya are asylum seekers from a persecuted Vietnamese minority called the Montagnards. They have been through much hardship and tragedy and have spent nearly two years in the Thai Immigration Detention Centre, close to Sathorn but are finally due to be released on bail this week. The scholarships we are offering to these children recognise the amazing and dedicated work of one of our parents, Tanya Prince. With the help of other parents, Tanya has been supporting asylum seekers and refugee families at the detention centre with fresh food, clean water, toiletries and small activities for the children, on a weekly basis. As well as drawing attention to the plight of these asylum seekers, Tanya and her friends have raised the $6,000USD needed to bail out H Huynh, J Yuel and their mother and have committed to supporting the family, both financially and personally, while they live in Bangkok.

We look forward to welcoming them to Sathorn. Our small and very supportive school will enable these two very deserving refugee children to re-enter the formal school system successfully. The outstanding education they will receive here will prepare them for future challenges and for the United States where they have family and hope to settle once asylum is formalised.

Tanya Prince met H Huynh and Y Juel in the detention center a year and a half ago with their widowed mother, H Wan Bya.  H Huynh is 13 years old, she is confident, mature, outgoing and wise beyond her years. She is a great support to her mother and brother and often speaks for them. On one of Tanya’s first visits to the detention center she recalls H Huynh asking for some novels, particularly the Twilight series! She has good English skills considering her lack of formal education and has been teaching other children English during her long stay at the detention centre. H Huynh’s brother Y Juel is a quiet ten year old much shyer than his sister, he is kind, gentle and always has a smile on his face. We look forward to watching their true potential grow with the education and support we can offer at Sathorn.

As Thailand is not a signatory to the UN Convention on Refugees, people escaping persecution and oppression in their own countries are treated like any other illegal migrant, they are arrested, tried and put in detention until there is an opportunity to send them home. For most illegal migrants this is a matter of days or weeks. But for asylum seekers, they cannot return home and instead have to remain in detention while the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) verifies their refugee status and eventually organizes re-settlement to a third country. 

The above process can take years. In the meantime, these families including H Huynh and Y Juel, live in prison-like conditions with barely adequate food, water, physical activity, or medical attention. According to Thai law, all children in the kingdom, even those who are illegal or stateless, are entitled to an education. Unfortunately, this is not always the reality. In the Immigration Detention Centre, a “daycare” is provided which the children in detention attend a maximum of two days a week. There are no qualified teachers and no formal curriculum.

In June 2011, through the efforts of a Thai registered organization, Thai Committee for Refugees (TCR), the Immigration Department introduced a bail program that allows recognised refugees to be bailed out of the detention centre to live in Bangkok while they wait for re-settlement. With the help of TCR, Tanya and her friends have been able to support H Huynh and Y Juel in this process both emotionally and financially.

Cognita and our St. Andrews Sathorn and Sukhumvit 107 International Schools are very proud to be able to support this cause by sponsoring H Huynh and Y Juel a high quality education while in Bangkok.