Islamic Relief Malaysia Sets Up School For Rohingya Children

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 (Bernama) -- The Rohingya Integrated School of Excellence (RISE), an alternative guidance centre for the Rohingya community, will provide free education to Rohingya children around Selangor from Thursday. Islamic Relief Malaysia (IRM) chief executive officer, Zairulshahfuddin Zainal Abidin said the first project which was handled fully by IRM, would benefit at least 150 Rohingya children in the educational, religious and technical aspects and individual skills. "We will also provide transport to ensure they attend school. They will also be given food with balanced nutrition, and vaccination. Their parents will be given short skills and language courses. "We hope all these efforts will help turn out high-quality and educated Rohingya students towards building a better future for themselves." He said this at a press conference after the launching of the school by former Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Special Envoy to Myanmar, Syed Hamid Albar in Kajang, near here, Wednesday. Among others, the school will provide classes for Malay, English and Myanmar laanguage, Mathematics, Science, Islamic Studies and skills classes such as cooking and sewing conducted by trained local graduate teachers and Rohingyas. According to a report from the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR), to date there are 150,000 Rohingya refugees in Malaysia and only 5,856 are registered. -- BERNAMA