TEHRAN A person becomes a refugee when he or she has no other option: It is the last resort of the desperate and the needy. Hundreds of thousands of Afghans, Kurds and Iraqis had to make this choice in the past two decades. And Iran was the country that gave them refuge. But over the years, the greatest majority of these refugees became children: The sons and daughters of the first refugee generation. This new generation did not even have the luxury of choice, but, however, it has a better chance for return. And until this happen the international aid organizations in Iran and especially the World Food Program (WFP) have a very important role to play.

The current worldwide initiative to feel all needy school children in the world by the year 2005 provides a new hope for hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghan camp schools. In Semnan, an Afghan camp, teachers have complained that students are suffering from hunger to such an extent that they can barely concentrate and pay attention in class.

The Iranian Ministry of Education manages the camp schools in accordance with the national curriculum. The majority of these children (especially those from Afghanistan) would never have had access to this education in their home countries. Each refugee camp has at least a primary school and many the high enrollment rate of girls is an indication of the success of the WFP Oil For Girls' Education Scheme. The girls and their teachers receive four liters of oil for every month in which they attend school for 20 days.

While WFP tries to encourage school attendance, its work is being hampered by the lack of educational facilities. In Jahrom, an Iraqi refugee camp that I visited this fall, pupils were pleading for more books, stationery and even pencils to write with.

There is a clear need for more support from the donor community for WFP and other aid agencies' work to support girls' education in these refugee camps. We have to remember that helping these children is the best way for the international community to prepare them to rebuild their homelands upon repatriation and we must come up with an appropriate response to their need for food and educational supplies.