In the News

In Gaza, with all UNRWA schools now serving as shelters for displaced persons and with schoolyards becoming graveyards after being hit directly or indirectly by airstrikes, learning has stopped for 300,228 UNRWA students throughout the past month. Children and teachers have been killed and children are experiencing traumatic events on a daily basis. In October alone, UNRWA reported that 91% of children demonstrated effects of trauma, a number that most likely has increased since then. It is safe to say that no child in Gaza is unaffected. With their education entirely disrupted, Education Cannot Wait recently announced an initial US$10 Million First Emergency Response grant to UNRWA and UNICEF to urgently support mental health and psychosocial services, and protective learning opportunities. We look to all our strategic donors and partners to help us do more.

As the global community marks World Children’s Day, every child should be guaranteed their rights, including those in the Gaza Strip, where heavy bombardment and military operations by Israel have killed more than 11,000 people, 40 percent of them children.

“Under international humanitarian laws and the Safe Schools Declaration, civilians—in particular children, schools, and school personnel—must be protected. What we are seeing in this conflict are bombs pounding the most densely populated area on earth, schools and other civilian infrastructures being attacked, and an entire population being trapped in the most dire conditions, with no safe place to flee to. Surviving children are maimed, orphaned, or have lost close and extended family. Horrors of unimaginable proportion are unfolding before our eyes,” Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the UN global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, tells IPS.

“En las mejores circunstancias, ser profesor es un reto. Ahora imagine lo que es para los maestros en una zona en crisis o afectada por un conflicto en Afganistán, Colombia, Siria o Uganda. Imagine lo que es enseñar siendo uno de los millones de personas que huyen de guerras, conflictos y catástrofes sin ningún apoyo”, observó la directora ejecutiva de la organización la Educación no puede esperar con ocasión del Día Mundial.

Según Yasmine Sherif, esa la realidad a la que se enfrentan millones de profesores en las peores crisis humanitarias del mundo”, por lo que la Educación no puede esperar ha ofrecido servicios de formación a más de 145.000 maestros que se encuentran en esas circunstancias.

Somaya Faruqi, 21, is a Global Champion for Education Cannot Wait and the former captain of the Afghan Girl Robotics Team. Now pursuing her engineering degree in the United States, Somaya emphasized, “Education is a human right that can’t be negotiated.” She urged the audience to contribute to efforts to fund girls’ education, especially for refugees and emphasized the importance of including women in the decision-making process. Somaya feels a deep sense of responsibility to shine a light on the harsh realities faced by 222 million children worldwide, especially for the more than one million girls in Afghanistan who currently do not have access to education at all.

“We must work together, not just stand in solidarity, because solidarity without action means nothing,” Somaya said.

For the second time Colombia has the opportunity to receive cooperation from the United Nations Education Cannot Wait Fund in charge of addressing education in emergencies and prolonged crises. This new phase of the Multiannual Resilience Program (MYRP), led by the Ministry of National Education and the Office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Colombia, has a proposal prepared collectively, giving participation to organizations of base of different territories of the country, multilateral organizations, international and national non-governmental organizations (foundations and institutes among others).

In the new MYRP2 the objective is to achieve greater resilience in the educational ecosystem to guarantee the right to quality education for girls, boys and adolescents affected by situations of internal armed conflict and migration with an emphasis on the gender and inclusive approach.

L’inverno si sta avvicinando e, con il calo delle temperature, è stata nuovamente avviata la campagna di sostegno alle famiglie ucraine e moldave, con l’organizzazione di alcune giornate di “shopping” per i bambini provenienti dalle situazione più di difficoltà. Rispetto a quanto fatto in precedenti occasioni, in cui era stato il personale di Ai.Bi. a scegliere gli indumenti più adatti e distribuirli ai beneficiari, questa volta è stato deciso di lasciare la scelta a bambini e genitori, così che potessero “fare la spesa” in autonomia, individuando gli articoli più adatti alle esigenze di ciascuno.

Per individuare le famiglie più bisognose, lo staff locale di Ai.Bi. ha chiesto aiuto agli insegnanti delle cinque scuole di Chisinau (la capitale della Moldova) dove, con il sostegno di Education Cannot Wait e in collaborazione con UNICEF Moldova e Plan International Amici dei Bambini sta svolgendo il progetto “Aumentando l’accesso a opportunità di apprendimento formale e non formale sicure, protettive e di qualità per i bambini ucraini, temporaneamente sfollati nella Repubblica di Moldova, e per i bambini delle comunità ospitanti, attraverso i centri di apprendimento a misura di bambino, le Ludoteche e il Ludobus”. Non è stato semplice organizzare le giornate di acquisti, ma la soddisfazione e le emozioni lette sui volti di chi ha vissuto questa opportunità ha ripagato di qualsiasi sforzo. Per alcuni bambini si è trattata addirittura della prima volta in cui hanno potuto scegliere un vestito secondo i propri gusti e acquistarlo, senza essere costretti a rinunciare ad altre cose perché “i soldi non sarebbero bastati”.

On the International Day of Tolerance, let us seriously reflect and make the effort to consciously embody the full meaning of tolerance before the millions of school-aged children whose futures depend on us and upon whom we, too, depend. 

In the final analysis, educating for tolerance requires role models for the young generation. As parents, teachers, leaders and people from all walks of life, we need to look afar and within. Because tolerance starts with ourselves and how we relate to universal values in practice and in action – just as outlined in the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance. 

On the International Day of Tolerance, let us seriously reflect and make the effort to consciously embody the full meaning of tolerance before the millions of school-aged children whose futures depend on us and upon whom we, too, depend. 

In the final analysis, educating for tolerance requires role models for the young generation. As parents, teachers, leaders and people from all walks of life, we need to look afar and within. Because tolerance starts with ourselves and how we relate to universal values in practice and in action – just as outlined in the Declaration of Principles on Tolerance.

Millions of crisis-affected children around the world are in urgent need of education support. These girls and boys are in danger of losing out on years of learning, and are at higher risk of child marriage, human trafficking, child labour and forced recruitment into armed groups.

To strengthen and scale up the delivery of holistic and protective education for children left furthest behind, Education Cannot Wait announced today a US$500,000 grant to the Alliance for Child Protection in Humanitarian Action. This 36-month Acceleration Facility grant will strengthen partnership between child protection and education sector actors in emergencies and protracted crises – enabling them to better implement a whole-of-child approach that enhances protection, learning and wellbeing for children in crisis contexts.

That is why Labour is now urging the British government to work with its partners to coordinate a plan for the children of Gaza. To ensure that among the many priorities, we can deliver school kits, deconflict shelters for education and trauma support and protect aid workers so they can teach and alleviate children’s mental distress, deliver MMR vaccines and prioritise water and nutrition for children.

We have done this before, in conflict zones around the world through UN initiatives like Education Cannot Wait, UNICEF and Save the Children. Even in the darkest moments of war, more than eight million children have had the solace and the hope that comes with education as a result.

Finally, the “Education Cannot Wait” program is a crucial solution to helping Somalia escape the cycle of poverty. This program sees quality education for children and adults as the key to improving life for future generations. Almost half of the children in Somalia do not attend school due to having to help work at home, lack of teachers, illnesses and general lack of resources. With this program, however, families are given school supplies in addition to supplementary foods and safe drinking water. Partners in this program also provide incentives for teachers to give children a more significant opportunity for enrollment and rehabilitate classrooms. Eighteen thousand children have had access to education since 2019.

Anastasia is a student at Lyceum No. 1, one of the few schools in the Mykolaivska region of Ukraine that is fully operational. With over 700 students – including those coming in from neighboring villages and internally displaced children from areas where shelling continues – the school in Kryve Ozero remains open thanks to dedicated teachers, administrators and support from government and international partners.

Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the UN fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises, and partners in Ukraine are working to ensure that children are able to continue learning and building towards a brighter future. Among its numerous holistic education supports, ECW funding to UNICEF has supported an initiative to install shatter-resistant window film at 23 schools in the Mykolaivska and Odeska regions of the country – including Anastasia's school.