ICMC Provides Vital Training for Educators Working With Refugee Students in Malaysia  

On 3-4 December 2024, 40 educators working with refugee children at Dignity For Children Foundation, Kuala Lumpur, attended ICMC’s two-day Child Cyber Safety training. In a series of three short films, we introduce the ICMC educator training program, take you inside the December training event, and hear the reflections of staff and educators. 

In Malaysia, ICMC has supported survivors of Gender-Based Violence (GBV) and their families, and worked to prevent GBV in refugee communities.  

ICMC Malaysia’s prevention programs include training for educators working with refugee children. Refugee and asylum-seeking children are unable to access Malaysian government schools, and the majority rely on community schools and refugee learning centers operated by non-governmental organizations (NGOs). 

For more than ten years, the ICMC Child Safety training program worked in partnership with these organizations to build child safeguarding knowledge and capacity amongst educators. In 2023, the program was expanded to include a new focus on child cyber safety and cyberbullying.  

In 2024, 91 educators from three refugee learning centers successfully completed ICMC’s educator training programs, providing them with the skills and knowledge they need to protect the more than 2,200 refugee students enrolled in their institutions. 

ICMC Malaysia: Supporting Survivors & Communities Affected by Gender-Based Violence  

For more than 15 years, ICMC Malaysia focused on GBV amongst refugee communities, providing casework and implementing a program of preventive GBV awareness-raising and educational activities. 

Hear from ICMC Malaysia staff members on ICMC’s work to support survivors of GBV, including children, and how the ICMC Child Safety and Cyber Safety educator training programs contributed to ICMC’s aim of preventing GBV within refugee communities. 

Child Cyber Safety Training for Educators: Partnering with Dignity for Children Foundation  

For just over three years, ICMC worked in partnership with Dignity for Children Foundation, an NGO providing holistic care and education for marginalized and urban poor children in Kuala Lumpur.  

Hear from staff and educators at Dignity on their approach to education for refugee children, and why they chose to partner with ICMC on educator training. Teachers also reflect on how cyber safety and cyberbullying affect their students, and the challenges they face in effectively responding to these issues. 

Since the ICMC-Dignity educator training initiative was established, 190 educators have benefited from ICMC Child Safety and Child Cyber Safety training. On 3-4 December 2024, a further 40 educators at Dignity’s learning center attended a two-day ICMC Child Cyber Safety training.  

Hear from participating teachers about their experiences of ICMC training, their reflections on participating in the Child Cyber Safety training, and how they plan to put what they learned into practice in the classroom. 

Authors:

Rachel Westerby and Christopher Boonekamp (with thanks to Christian Tasso)