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'Refugee Code Week' will run in October in Middle East refugee centres
The United Nations said on Monday it would train more than 10,000 refugees in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey to become computer coding engineers in a bid to boost the region's digital economy and provide much-needed employment for economic migrants.
Refugee Code Week is a partnership between the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) and German technology conglomerate SAP. The event will allow participants to attend one of hundreds of workshops set to be held across the region between October 15 and 23, offering training in subjects such as HTML, CSS and Javascript.
The initiative was announced at the World Humanitarian Summit in Istanbul this week.
"Refugee Code Week is a practical example on the role of corporations in impacting the lives of refugees...It will be an added value for the refugees themselves and their host communities," Houssam Chahin, UNHCR's senior private sector partnerships officer for the Middle East, was quoted as saying in a statement.
"By empowering everyone in the community - parents, teachers, volunteers, children, universities, schools, and nonprofits - Refugee Code Week is a unique leverage to put IT education at the heart of education programs for refugees. Equipping thousands of young refugees with highly job-relevant skills that will open many doors in their life, beyond that of self-sufficiency," he added.
The aim of the project is to address issues facing millions of refugees fleeing war and conflict in the region and living in camps in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon and Turkey. Refugee Code Week takes its inspiration from the success of last year's Africa Code Week 2015, which saw 89,000 youth people trained in coding in 17 African countries over 10 days, the statement said.
Research by the Open Political Economy Network found that every one dollar invested in assisting refugees was repaid twice over in economic benefits in jobs and investment within five years, it added.
(Writing by Shane McGinley)
© Zawya 2016
