June 20 marks World Refugee Day, as designated by the United Nations. The term “refugee” applies to any person who, “owing to a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion, is outside the country of his or her nationality and is unable or, owing to such fear, refuses to avail themselves of the protection of that country; or who, not having a nationality and being, as a result of such events, outside the country of their former habitual residence, is unable or, owing to such fear, unwilling to return to it.”

Behind every statistic lies a life cut short. A child who had to leave their school, their home, and their friends to start over. Today, nearly 117 million refugees and displaced people worldwide have had to flee their homes, and millions of them are children.

At Fundación Telefónica and Fundación “la Caixa”, through our educational innovation program ProFuturo, we believe that access to education must be maintained even in the most challenging contexts. That is why, together with UNHCR , we are working to bring learning opportunities to refugee and displaced children, adapting an educational model to emergency settings and helping ensure that no child is denied their right to learn.

Since we began working together in 2021, more than 47,800 students and more than 2,200 teachers have participated in educational initiatives carried out in refugee contexts. Here are some of the figures resulting from this collaboration, broken down by country:

Rwanda: 38,669 children benefited and 1,445 teachers trained.
Nigeria: 2,235 children benefited and 236 teachers trained.
Zimbabwe: 6,921 children benefited and 341 teachers trained.

Education transforms lives. That is why, today more than ever, we reaffirm our commitment to continue bringing it to where it is needed most.