PROJECT GREEN LIVING
EarthChildren’s Home for Orphaned Refugee Girls
Description
Our work – Project Green Living for Orphaned Girls
Of the 1.2 million people who reside in the camp, more than half of them are children, many of whom are orphaned. These vulnerable children will likely never leave the camp.
EarthChildren is building a green and fully sustainable home, complete with a botanic edible garden, for orphaned girls in the world’s largest refugee camp. This is the first female-only shelter for orphans in the camp. It is also the first green and sustainable building in the camp. Affectionately known as “EarthChildren’s Home”, it will accommodate 25 orphaned girls between the ages of 6 and 16 who attend our school. The shelter will include wall gardens, solar power, an edible botanic garden, clean cookstoves powered by biofuels, and an innovative waste management program.
Green and Sustainable
Our home will be equipped with:
- Green buildings, which are carbon-neutral and made from sustainable materials.
- Solar power and solar chargers for devices.
- Wall gardens and an edible botanic garden to promote biodiversity of plants and insects within the camp and to foster a sense of community, as the women and girls may plant and upkeep the gardens themselves.
- Innovative and comprehensive waste management that helps alleviate the ongoing plastic and waste problems within the camp.
- Clean cookstoves and biofuels that ensure safe, healthy, and environmentally conscious cooking practices.
EarthChildren’s Home
Our EarthChildren Home costs $25,000 to build:
- $12,000 for the green buildings,
- $8,000 for the sustainable furniture and amenities,
- $2,000 for the wall gardens and botanic garden,
- $2,000 for the solar renewable energy, and
- $1,000 for clean water solar pump.
EarthChildren’s Happy Learning Centre
The orphaned girls who reside in our home also attend our School, EarthChildren’s Happy Learning Centre. Our school is the first all-girl’s school in the camp; the first school to deliver a full syllabus in English; the first school to deliver an international curriculum; the first school to teach beyond Year 5; and the first school to include a food program.
Summary
Globally, 40% of all refugees are children, many of whom are single or double orphans. Within this environment, children can easily enter the human trafficking trade for sex, slavery, or marriage. Many refugee women and children within camps are illiterate and do not know their own personal rights or freedoms. This unstable environment leads to a cycle of abuse, instability, poverty, and suppression.
EarthChildren provides comprehensive and holistic support programs for refugee women and orphaned girls to break the cycle of poverty, slavery, violence, inequality, and oppression. Starting at the core, our EarthChildren’s home allows us to nurture the children with safety, stability, nourishing food, clean water, the freedom to play, and an environment to heal and grow.