In the News

The grant, implemented by a consortium led by Save the Children, targets 80,000 children and builds on ECW's ongoing support in Syria which has already reached 610,000 girls and boys.

To provide children and adolescents impacted by these vast and interconnected challenges with the safety and opportunity of a quality education, Education Cannot Wait (ECW), the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations, announced today a significant new US$20 million Multi-Year Resilience Programme grant to scale-up investments in Syria, crowd-in resources from partners including the Global Partnership for Education, and deliver on the promise of education for all.

The grant builds on ECW's US$57 million in investments in Syria to date, which have already reached over 610,000 children with quality, holistic education supports, built and rehabilitated approximately 2,600 classrooms, and reached more than 900,000 children through dedicated COVID-19 investments. The grant will be delivered by Save the Children in coordination with local and international partners. Fully funded, the grant will reach 80,000 children and adolescents with quality, holistic education.

"The children and adolescents of Syria have suffered a disruption of their education amidst destruction for far too long. By scaling up our investments in Syria along with our strategic global partners, we continue to our goal of reaching an entire generation that has been pushed to the shadows by the tides of war and oppression. Bearing in mind that Syria once had universal education, this is our investment in the young people and their teachers, rebuilding their country," said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait.

"If we do not provide children the chance of a quality education, we deny them life chances again and again as they grow up. Too many children in Syria today are out of school or learning in damaged, dilapidated or overcrowded school buildings, without access to the bare minimum of resources. We are delighted to be working with Education Cannot Wait and with partners across Syria to ensure that more children can achieve their full potential in life. School is an essential component in nurturing that potential," said Rasha Muhrez, Syria Response Director for Save the Children.

The global food crisis is even more pronounced on the frontlines of armed conflicts, forced displacement, climate change and other protracted crises. According to the World Food Programme, nearly 60% of the world’s hungriest people live in just a few countries: Democratic Republic of the Congo, Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Sudan, South Sudan, Pakistan and Haiti (as listed from most to least severe). Nowhere is this more severe than in Gaza. Analysis by the IPC Partnership found that around 96% of the population in Gaza face high levels of acute food insecurity. These are all the very same countries where Education Cannot Wait and our strategic partners are delivering life-saving quality, holistic education programmes that include school feeding programmes.

To deliver on this essential human right, ECW is working with partners such as WFP, UNICEF and Save the Children to provide nutritious school meals, access to safe drinking water and sanitation that keep children healthy. In 2023, ECW and our strategic partners provided over 335,000 learners with school feeding, according to our latest Annual Results Report. In places like Cameroon and Haiti, local procurement from smallholder farmers provides home-grown meals that prop up local communities while also ensuring nutritious meals for hungry children.

The cost extension in support of the education sector strategy will help to sustain critical support, enabling children to return to school for the upcoming academic year. With the expanded funding the First Emergency Response will now reach 20,330 displaced children and youth, a significant increase from the original 7,530 children targeted through the US$2.2 million ECW grant announced this March.

The fast-acting response focuses on providing inclusive and safe access to education for displaced children. The programme will identify hub schools to expand their operational capacity to absorb incoming students. It also focuses on delivering quality learning outcomes in protective and inclusive learning environments, with targeted trainings and interventions for girls and children with disabilities. In building back better, the investment also focuses on the resilience and recovery of the education system.

In response to the escalating crisis in Lebanon, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) and its strategic partners announced today US$1.5 million in additional funding to support inclusive and safe access to quality education for girls and boys impacted by the conflict.

"Once more, Lebanon suffers. The current conflict has placed immense strain on Lebanon's education system, with countless children at risk of falling behind or dropping out of school altogether. Children are dying, families are losing their homes, and valuable school infrastructure is being damaged. Girls and boys are entitled to the safety, protection and hope that only a quality education can provide," said Yasmine Sherif, Executive Director of Education Cannot Wait, the global fund for education in emergencies and protracted crises within the United Nations. "We must step up our efforts and leave no child, nor teacher, behind in Lebanon."

أرباع المليون، الكثير منهم وصلوا حديثا فرارا من الصراع في السودان أو بسبب الحرب غزة، دعا صندوق "التعليم لا ينتظر" ومفوضية شؤون اللاجئين واليونيسف إلى زيادة الدعم الدولي العاجل للأطفال الذين أجبروا على النزوح بسبب الصراع المسلح، سواء داخل السودان أو في الدول المجاورة.

Yobe state government, in partnership with Street Child and Yobe Peace Community Development Initiative, has trained 650 Out-Of-School Adolescent Girls under its funded program Education Cannot Wait.

This project is funded by Education cannot wait in consortium with other partners to support education outcomes through empowerment livelihood. This project looks at the empowerment of the most vulnerable adolescent girls within the targeted communities of implementation.

Funding will be an issue. Education as a whole is never prioritised in humanitarian appeals; the $3.42bn flash appeal has been launched primarily for food, health and shelter, for example. Only 3.5% of these funds have been allocated to education. In fact, in the absence of bilateral support, Education Cannot Wait, a charity I chair that helps displaced and refugee children get an education, has had to become the third largest donor. Yet surely there is enough worldwide concern for the children of this conflict that a compassionate coalition of interests could raise the necessary cash.

Today, with resolve and determination we call on world leaders to join us in providing access to life-saving quality education for the innocent girls and boys impacted by the carnage ripping the region apart. Education is our single best investment in opening the hearts and minds to prevent further destruction and foster peacebuilding and respect for international law.

According to UNICEF, the Gaza Strip is the most dangerous place in the world to be a child today, where thousands of innocent children have been killed, thousands more horrifically injured, and an untold number buried beneath rubble. This attack on children is unconscionable.

Hoy, con el corazón roto, conmemoramos elprimer aniversario desde la implosión de
Gaza el 7 de octubre de 2023. Hoy honramos a los rehenes,a los detenidos arbitrariamente y a los más de 40.000 civiles inocentes que, según los informes, hanmuerto en esta brutal carnicería, así como a los innumerables discapacitados y a todos los que hanquedado traumatizados de por vida.

Nos unimos al secretario general de las Naciones Unidas, António Guterres, para pedir un alto elfuego inmediato en Gaza, Líbano y más allá. Oriente Medio se ha convertido en un campo de batalladonde se han destruido miles de años de cultura y han muerto millones de personas. Que haya paz yjusticia, seguridad humana y seguridad nacional para todos los pueblos de Oriente Medio
.

Today with broken hearts, we mark the one-year anniversary since the implosion of Gaza on 7 October 2023. Today we honor the hostages, the arbitrarily detained and the more than 40,000 innocent civilians who have reportedly been killed in this brutal carnage, and the countless others that have been disabled and all who have been traumatized for life.

We join the United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres in calling for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza, Lebanon and beyond. The Middle East has become a battlefield where thousands of years of culture have been destroyed and millions of lives killed. May there be peace and justice, human security and national security for all the peoples of the Middle East.

C’est à partir de 2023 que Handicap International a commencé à accompagner Anai et sa famille. Chaque semaine, un kinésithérapeute et un ergothérapeute se rendaient chez eux. À l’aide d’une chaise haute, ils faisaient faire différents exercices à la jeune fille pour renforcer les muscles de ses jambes. L’association lui a aussi fourni un nouveau fauteuil roulant à sa taille, un siège de toilette adapté ainsi que du matériel scolaire. Anai s’est exercée à utiliser ses nouveaux livres, ses crayons et ses stylos sur la chaise haute, pour développer ses capacités d’apprentissage.

Les parents d’Anai sont très dévoués et souhaitent apprendre tout ce qu’ils peuvent pour soutenir au mieux leur fille. Les équipes de Handicap International leur ont enseigné des exercices qu’ils appliquent pour aider Anai à devenir plus forte, plus mobile et à améliorer sa capacité de concentration.

• Through the Lebanon Humanitarian Programme, the UK is one of the largest donors to UN OCHA's Lebanon Humanitarian Fund which has allocated $14.7 million to a range of non-governmental organisations for preparedness and response to displacement.
• In addition to the $10m announced this week, earlier this year a CERF allocation of $9 million was released to support UN partners response to the rising needs in Southern Lebanon.
• $2.2 million Education Cannot Wait (ECW) funding has been released to support 5,000 children affected by the crisis. The UK is the second largest donor to ECW