Social entrepreneur Deborah Henry on her organisation Fugeelah, which opens doors to a better education for refugee youths
In the What Matters To Me series, a Generation T honouree describes what they do, why they do it, and why it matters.
There are an estimated 179,570 refugees and asylum seekers in Malaysia as of June 2021, according to the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR). In Malaysia, refugees are officially classified as illegal immigrants by the government—a categorisation that inhibits access to necessities like formal employment, education and healthcare.
To address this problem, social entrepreneur Deborah Henry founded Fugee School in 2009, a non-profit education hub for refugee children aged 4 to 20 who do not have a legal right to education in Malaysia. To date, the school has educated over 500 children.
At first, Fugee School was fully reliant on donations to maintain its operations. Motivated by the drive to create a sustainable source of income to support the school, Henry founded Fugeelah, a social enterprise that supports refugee youths by providing skills training and employment opportunities, while creating funds to support Fugee School.
Here, Henry discusses her projects in her own words.
The inspiration for the name Fugee School came from the 1990s hip-hop group Fugees. The name was actually derived from the shortening of the word “refugee” referring to some members of the group coming from refugee backgrounds. When we were thinking about a name for a social enterprise, we thought of the song by the Fugees called Fu-Gee-La. I thought it would be a fun play on words to add an ‘h’ at the end, making it Fugeelah. It’s a fun name and I like the fact it’s got a Malaysian element to it that calls back to our roots.
Part of the reason why I’m vocal about the plight of refugees in Malaysia is because there is a lot of misinformation about refugees. Many face challenges in getting access to education and they are unable work legally. We have refugees who have been here in the country for five to 10 years, yet they cannot work. The fact remains that a refugee is not an illegal immigrant. They are people who have fled war, violence, conflict or persecution and have crossed an international border to find safety in another country.
See also: Matt Oon, The Founder Of Acceset, Is Changing How We Treat Youth Mental Health