CISARUE, Indonesia – In middle school level classes, students are learning about planetary science, from Jupiter’s gases to Mercury’s exosphere.
While this lesson may seem no different to many schools around the world, it is taking place at a learning centre for refugees in Indonesia.
It’s something that 13-year-old Afnan Glade, who fled Somalia with her family for the Southeast Asian nation, is paying close attention to. She said her family worried about violence back home but can now focus on their dreams.
“I want to be a scientist when I grow up because I like doing experiments and discovering things,” Grade said.
Thirteen-year-old Somali refugee Afnaan Glade dreams of becoming a scientist and is one of 85 students from Africa and Asia studying at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre in Cisarua, Indonesia.
She is one of 85 students at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center, where the curriculum is taught entirely in English, including math, science, social studies and basic life skills, and, starting this year, eligible students can participate in an online program that helps them earn a U.S. high school diploma.
One of them is Masoud Azimi, a 15-year-old refugee from Afghanistan who has been living in Indonesia for eight years but plans to resettle with his family to the United States within the next few months.
Massoud Azimi, a 15-year-old refugee from Afghanistan, is working towards his American high school diploma as his family plans to resettle to the United States this year.
“The learning center’s programs are helping me prepare for school in the U.S.,” Azimi said. “They’re strengthening my academic skills.”
Cisarua is a hilly town a few hours’ drive from Indonesia’s largest city, Jakarta, and has served as a base for many of the refugees who have fled to Indonesia.
A spokesman for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told VOA there are about 12,600 refugees and asylum seekers in the country, about 1,300 of them in Cisarua.
Refugees said the town was attractive because of its milder temperatures and lower cost of living compared to Jakarta.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees told VOA there are about 1,300 refugees in Cisarua, a few hours’ drive from Jakarta.
But most or all of these refugees hope to eventually be resettled in a third country. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees said the United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are accepting refugees from Indonesia, but the process typically takes at least seven years and resettlement is not guaranteed.
While Indonesia allows refugees to enroll in public schools, the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center offers students the opportunity to focus on English, a skill refugees will need if they are resettled.
“We are trying to prepare the students for the country they are going to next,” said the school’s principal, Reza Hussaini, himself a refugee from Afghanistan.
The learning center serves refugees who have fled violence and persecution in Asian and African countries, including Yemen, Iraq, Sudan and Myanmar. “We have students from different cultures, different religions and different countries here,” Husseini said. “We have a diversity of cultures here.”
The Cisarua Refugee Learning Center has an English curriculum that helps students prepare for resettlement. The school is funded by private donations.
Zahra Sakhawat, a 12-year-old girl from Afghanistan who dreams of becoming a doctor, said students at the learning centre feel connected because it fosters a sense of community.
“Everyone is so kind and sweet to each other,” she said.
The facilities are basic and there are no high-tech science labs. The learning center is run entirely by private donations. There are also English classes for adults, which are often visited by the students’ parents.
The teachers are all volunteers, and many are also refugees, including a 39-year-old man who agreed to have VOA not identify him out of concern for the safety of his family back in his native Myanmar, where he fled civil war just four months ago because the military junta that staged a coup in 2021 was trying to conscript him into the army.
The man standing here fled Myanmar’s civil war because the military junta tried to conscript him into the army, and is now a volunteer teacher at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Centre.
“They were trying to force me to fight for the military, so I’m not going to help the military, so I’m not going to do that,” he said.. He has a degree in Computer Science and hopes to get the opportunity to study Artificial Intelligence in his new country.
Meanwhile, he said he enjoys the opportunity to share his knowledge of computers and mathematics as a volunteer at the Cisarua Refugee Learning Center, which opened 10 years ago and has become a model for similar refugee programs set up across Indonesia.
“All refugees should be given the opportunity to prepare for their future,” Hussaini said.
