UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

Anyoli Sanabria López
Education Specialist
UNICEF Nicaragua

© UNICEF/2009/Sebastian Rich
Punta Arena, Nicaragua. 2009.

Every year, UNICEF Nicaragua supports a reading contest for young children aiming to help them develop good reading habits early on. The competition starts at the grade level and expands to school, municipal and national levels.

Every year I attend the biggest contest, where children from around the country gather to compete in reading stories from their favorite books.

This year, the first contestant was Irma. She is a 10-year old girl who is blind. Irma stood confidently in front of a large crowd and read a beautiful story that her teachers had written for her and other classmates in Braille.

For me it was a moment of realization, I understood instantly why she was there, why I work for UNICEF and why inclusive education is a must when it comes to equity. I thought, “This moment has been worth all the work this year.”

Children with equal opportunities, reading well and enjoying the magic of books – that is worth getting up for each morning and feeling happy to come to work.

Simone Vis
Chief of Education Section
UNICEF Turkey

© Photo courtesy of Ozge Hassan
Turkish children participating in International Inspiration, a programme that supports the development of children and young people through play, physical education and sport.

Within weeks of arriving in Suriname, I visited several remote villages deep in the Amazon, where I met committed teachers who themselves had not even completed secondary education. I also spoke to hard-working teachers at the most disadvantaged schools in the capital city, Paramaribo, who talked about how difficult it was to deal with their overcrowded classrooms.

Being passionate about the things I do is essential. For me, passion is about doing work that resonates with my core values and is aligned with my heart’s true desire. Would I be able to feel passionate about the upstream work I was responsible for?

After meeting the teachers I clearly recognized the challenges they were facing, but I also realized the strong need for disaggregated data to support evidence-based policy advocacy. Collaborating with the Ministry of Education, we conducted a mapping of all schools in Suriname, with a special focus on children in the interior.

I found my passion in making use of this data during meetings with the Minister of Education, and education stakeholders. What happened then is something I never could have imagined: the data fed directly into a multi-year strategy that had a direct and positive impact on the conditions of teachers in remote and disadvantaged areas.

When I left Suriname this summer to take up my current position in Turkey, it was not the policy, nor the personal farewell e-mail from the Minister that was my professional highlight: it was the handwritten letter from a teacher in one of the villages, thanking me in person for the first-ever government-supported teacher training. This will always remind me why I have chosen this profession. I no longer doubt my ability to work passionately on moving something forward at a higher level, no matter what the obstacles!

Cristina Brugiolo
Education Specialist
UNICEF Swaziland

© Cristina Brugiolo/2011
Swaziland, 2011. Stakeholders during the National Dialogue on Violence against Children.

After a lot of excitement, commotion, hectic preparations, long working weekends and last minute postponements, the day finally arrived. October 19 was the day for the National Dialogue on Violence against Children in and around Schools and the whole team was ready.

Violence in schools was one of the main issues discussed among colleagues since my arrival in Swaziland in January. Excessive corporal punishment, sexual violence and harassment on the way to school, and teacher-learner relationships make the news almost every day. Everyone felt the need to discuss the problem openly, making sure the voice of children was heard, but how? Then came the idea of a national dialogue to put the issue at the top of the government agenda, and the Ministry was enthusiastic about it.

With a hall full of enthusiastic and committed people as well as children ready to make their voices heard, the Minister gave his speech: “Away with teachers who beat children! Away with teachers who sleep with young students!”

With that, others felt encouraged and began to shout out loud that all forms of violence against children are unacceptable, intolerable and must be stopped. Stakeholders made commitments to stop violence in schools and we all really felt we were making a difference:

We looked at each other and said, “Well done colleague! We made it! We succeeded once again to put children on top of the agenda in the country.” It was great teamwork, not just among UNICEF, but also with colleagues in the Ministry.

Now the real work starts, to make sure those commitments are not in vain.

Jenieri B Sagnia
Education Specialist
UNICEF Banjul, the Gambia

© UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0536/Pirozzi
Gambia, 2003.

The most exciting moment for my work has been developing a concept paper on a new strategy for quality improvements in basic education.

Essentially I defined it as a package of services encompassing curriculum improvement, teacher training (focusing on child-centered and participatory approaches), school infrastructure improvements including water and sanitation, provision of teaching and learning materials, improvement in school management, health and nutrition, life skills, child protection, community participation and improvement in monitoring learning achievements. The strategy also underscores the principle of inclusiveness, thereby addressing the issue of access to and equity in basic education.

To date, the approach has been launched and sensitization activities have been conducted in all six educational regions of the country. I consider this a major contribution to basic education in the Gambia.

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UNICEF education staff share their stories

NEW YORK, 4 January 2012 – We asked UNICEF education staff around the globe to tell us about their most inspiring moment they experienced in 2011. Something that they would not forget and reminded them why they chose this profession. Here are some of their stories.

Tizie Maphalala
Education Specialist
UNICEF Ethiopia

© Wossen Mulatu/2011
Ethiopia, 2011. Neima, 13, at the Children’s Race, Addis Ababa Stadium.

It was overcast and rather chilly on Saturday, 26 November, the day of the Children’s Race at the Addis Ababa Stadium. The stadium was alive with excitement; it was a day for children to enjoy themselves.

The final event of the day was a 200-metre race for girls and boys with disabilities. The last two runners were the ones that caught my attention. The second last was a child in a wheelchair, whose teacher was pushing him toward the finish line. The last one was a girl with one leg balancing on a crutch and hopping steadily – with a caregiver/teacher just a few metres away to give support.

About 20 metres from the finish line, she hesitated and stopped, exhausted and seemingly ready to give up. The crowd wasn’t sure how to react. I shouted, “Go girl, go!” but in my head I prayed that she would not give up. After hesitating for a few moments, she managed to regain her composure and hop steadily towards the finish line. With the crowd cheering her on, and children clapping and dancing, the girl won the race.

Afterwards, she told us, “To tell the truth I was scared at the beginning. I was not completely sure that I could do this… But the crowd gave me moral support. There was clapping and shouting to encourage me to continue and finish the race. It makes me believe that if one tries, disability cannot stop one from accomplishing what he or she wants.”

I was filled with pride that I was part of the UNICEF team that gave these children an opportunity to feel “ordinary,” and also be accorded the opportunity of doing what other children do.

Dr. Vijitha M. Eyango
Chief of Education
UNICEF Cameroon

© UNICEF/NYHQ2009-2032/Sweeting
Cameroon, 2009. Teacher assists a student with her reading assignment at the public school in Perma Village, North Region.

Dembo is a multi-grade school hosting a significant number of refugees from the Central African Republic. The first time I went three was in November 2010, where I witnessed first-hand the resilience of a determined school principal and teacher and the local population as they hosted the refugee children sharing their precious school space.

Visualize a school comprised of one multi-grade classroom with only two teachers (one of whom also served as school principal) divided into six discrete classes. The refugee students accounted for almost 40 per cent of the students enrolled. Instead of seeing anger, frustration and resentment – as one might expect when a poor and vulnerable local population is forced to share their small cramped school, materials and teachers with refugee students – I saw harmony, community engagement and resilience.

Fast-forward to April this year, when we launched the Cameroon chapter of the United Nations Girls’ Education Initiative in this very school – our “School of Hope” – which now boasted new classrooms and a water station.

My most inspirational moment was watching the Minister of Education, U.S. ambassador, and UNICEF Representative walking towards the podium amid that same sea of faces I’d seen the previous year. Faces of resilience had been transformed to faces of joy and hope for a better future. The journey wasn’t easy but the result made it all so worthwhile.

Louise Mvono
Chief Basic Education and Gender Equality
UNICEF Zimbabwe

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-0403/Pirozzi
Zimbabwe, 2006. Students at a UNICEF-supported primary school in rural Murambinda Growth Point in the eastern Manicaland Province.

“This is the first time in my life that I have a full set of textbooks.” – Hearing this from orphans and other children in Zimbabwe has provided me with great inspiration, courage and faith in what I can do for children who cannot even afford to hope.

Through the Education Transition Fund, a $50 million project for development partners to support the Ministry of Education, UNICEF and partners provided more than 21 million textbooks and stationary to all primary and secondary school children.

Now working in Sudan, I received a message from a former colleague: “Today was a great day – the start of distribution of secondary school books. The Prime Minister spoke of how children with absolutely nothing, not even shoes, now have a full set of textbooks! The Education Minister specifically mentioned you, thanking you in absentia for the amazing work you did and for having started such an amazing programme.” This is one of my most precious memories. For me, working for UNICEF is fulfilling professionally but also personalally; it provides me with the opportunity to help the voiceless. I feel so thankful to UNICEF, its mandate, vision and credibility that provided me with the opportunity to contribute to such amazing results. Together we contributed to ensuring that primary and secondary school children in Zimbabwe will have access to textbooks for the next 3 to5 years.

Amina H. Ibrahim
Education Specialist
UNICEF Kenya

© UNICEF/NYHQ2004-0146/Furrer
Kenya, 2004. Children work in groups during an exercise, in class at Kihumbuini Primary School in Kangemi, a neighbourhood in Nairobi.

From 1990 to2006, less than five girls from all ten girls’ secondary schools in the North Eastern Province of Kenya qualified to join university. The equity gap was severe in both secondary and higher education for women from nomadic communities. UNICEF and its partners came up with a girls’ scholarship program which increased the number of girls attending university and give them confidence and aspirations for the future. The scholarship program addressed the decades-long gap in higher education for girls and women in the nomadic communities.

The success of this program led to the birth of Northern Kenya Education Trust (NoKET) – a program that institutionalized scholarships for nomadic children. Launched in November 2011, NoKET is scaling up advocacy efforts and lobbying to reduce disparities in secondary education. Lessons and technical knowledge from Kenya were also shared with the UNICEF office in Somalia, where a similar girls’ scholarship program was developed in Somaliland and Puntland.

I feel blessed, proud and humbled to be part of UNICEF family and experience the birth of NoKET, a program that will changes the lives of many excluded girls for many more years to come!

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Africa’s teachers tell us about the progress of education in their country, and what they see as the biggest challenges and hopes for African teachers and students. Education features prominently in the millennium development goals, and MDG2 aims to ensure that all children complete a full course of primary education, measured by enrolment, the proportion who reach the last grade, and literacy rates for those aged 15-24.

Take a look at all our Global development education stories or view other interactives from the Global development voices series.

Read teachers answer the steps being taken to achieve universal primary education (MD2) in their respective country:

Olivia Muhumuza Mathematics and science; also headteacher – Railway Children primary school, Kampala, Uganda

Uganda-Olivia-Muhumuza
Mathematics and science; also headteacher

“Uganda has created policies to encourage children to complete at least a primary school education, which has raised enrolment significantly. However, although many children are in school, I’m not very comfortable with the quality of education they are getting. Facilities do not match enrolment, leading to overcrowded classrooms and high teacher-pupil ratios – a teacher may have to manage a class of 100-plus children for the whole day. Some teachers are underqualified; the numbers were overwhelming when the universal primary education programme started. But the government is rectifying this with in-service teacher training.

Read more

Maria Emelia Primary grade 2 teacher – School 61, Lubango, Angola

Our biggest problem is overcrowding. The war left us without enough classrooms and teachers.

We are much luckier than the rural areas, where teaching takes place under trees. Lubango remained in government hands throughout the war and its schools never closed. The greatest pressure on us is the population influx caused by the war. It continues to put pressure on facilities. Some of our classes are based in an abandoned chapel in another part of the city, and that is really unsatisfactory because it creates disparities.

Read more

Enoch-Abukari
primary grade 3, also assistant headteacher - Tarikpaa primary school, Northern Region, Ghana

Enoch Abukari Primary grade 3, also assistant headteacher – Tarikpaa primary school, Northern Region, Ghana.

Ghana is very close to achieving MDG 2, but is beginning to face many challenges. Free compulsory basic education now covers 11 years of a child’s education. Gross enrolments rates are more than 100% nationally, while gross admission rates are above 90%. The extensive growth in basic education has reached a limit and services cannot be stretched much further.

Read more

Paulina Okine P2 teacher – Abetifi DA primary, Eastern Region, Ghana.

The government is providing upgrading knowledge of teachers through in-service courses, and refresher programmes. In addition, the government is providing free uniforms, exercise books and textbooks for children in deprived communities. The school feeding programme is enhancing the enrolment and retention of children in schools.

Read more

Yesso Jean-Marie Bogui Primary 6 teacher – BAD primary school, Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Yesso Jean-Marie Bogui
Primary 6 teacher BAD primary school, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast has adopted the resolutions of the World Forum of Education for All (Dakar, 2000). The country has rehabilitated many schools, decentralised and renewed the school administration system, and started giving free schoolbooks. New teachers’ colleges were set up. Parents’ management committees were given more responsibilities. Appeals were made to international bodies such as Unicef, Unesco and the World Food Programme (for school canteens). Social mobilisation was intensified to encourage girls to come to school and not drop out.

Despite these efforts, Ivory Coast is still far from achieving the MDGs, because of the lack of resources but also because of a worsening of the social climate since 2002.

Read more

Francis Kiyanja DDE, history and Christian religious education teacher – Pioneer high school, Namungo, Mityana, Uganda
Here in Uganda we already have universal primary education and now it is being introduced to secondary schools, too. Because the government has few secondary schools, it has begun entering into partnerships with private schools to pay fees for students. The government is acting like a parent to those students. The system isn’t perfect yet, and there are lots of challenges. Teachers in government schools are often paid late, which causes big problems. I would say we are 50% of the way there but there is still a lot to be done.

Read more

Gouana Zamble-Tralou Primary 2 teacher – Agbekoi primary school, Abidjan, Ivory Coast.

Gouana Zamble-Tralou
Primary 2 teacher - Agbekoi primary school, Abidjan, Ivory Coast

Ivory Coast is committed to reforms in the education sector. The country now provides free education, with free textbooks. Registration fees have been abolished; corporal punishment made illegal. There is an emphasis and training on child rights.

Efforts are being made in teacher training and recruitment; the construction and rehabilitation of classrooms; involvement of parents; and the establishment of clubs for mothers of schoolgirls.

It is possible to achieve MDG2 by 2015 with the support of the international community including UN agencies such as Unicef and international NGOs such as Save the Children.

Read more

John Lubakare Manase
mathematics and science teacher - Juba One boys basic school, Juba, South Sudan

John Lubakare Manase Mathematics and science teacher – Juba One boys basic school, Juba, South Sudan

My country has taken some steps to achieve MDG2 by declaring free primary education since the end of the war in 2005. However, MDG2 will not be achieved despite the efforts to increase enrolment and improve quality.

The facilities are not enough. Most children still learn under trees. And there are very few tertiary institutions to improve the quality of the teachers and teaching in general.

Read more

Related link:
UNICEF-supported child-friendly schools bring education to rural Ghana

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0999/Kate Holt
Somali children waiting to register for food and other aid in the Dagahaley refugee camp in North Eastern Province, near the Kenya-Somalia border. The camp is among three that comprise the Dadaab camps, located on the outskirts of the town of Dadaab in Garissa District. In Kenya, 1.7 million children have been affected by the drought, including 220,000 Somali refugee children in the north-eastern town of Dadaab.

By Rudina Vojvoda

NEW YORK, USA, 12 September 2011 – As the emergency escalates throughout the Horn of Africa, the numbers of those in crisis continue to grow. Currently, 13.3 million people in the region are in need of humanitarian assistance. Somalia is the worst-affected country, with more than 750,000 people at risk of death.

This dire situation poses some crucial challenges to the education services. Due to displacement and lack of security, more than 1.8 million children are unable to attend school in Somalia. Meanwhile, in drought-affected areas in Kenya, there are significant shortages of school facilities, teachers and learning materials due to a large number of refugees that are seeking education.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 format

To discuss the beginning of the school year under these extreme circumstances and the importance of education in emergency situations, UNICEF’s new podcast moderator Femi Oke talked to Mr. Jumma Khan, Education Cluster Coordinator for Somalia and Mr. Garisa Omara, a Senior Assistant Director of Education in the Kenyan Ministry of Education.

Education situation dire

Years of conflict, back-to-back droughts accompanied by food crisis, poverty and lack of funding have put the education of children in south and central Somalia in a desperate situation. Approximately 25 per cent of children were attending primary education before the crises and this number is expected to drop at the beginning of this school year.

“We are very worried about the education situation in that area [south and central Somalia] because there is no Ministry of Education there,” stressed Mr. Khan. Traditionally the education system in these areas is supported by Community Education Committees formed by local leaders, parents and teachers.

“Now the communities are unable to pay the fee,” Mr. Khan further explained. “Teachers have been displaced because they don’t have any livelihood there.”

Immediate assistance needed

Running from famine and violence, many children from Somalia are going to schools in Kenya.

“We need teaching and learning materials,” said Mr. Omara. “Putting up infrastructure such as classrooms and supporting mobile schools are essential because most of the people are on the move”.

Supporting this idea, a recent publication by the Education Cluster in Kenya calls for immediate support in order to establish temporary learning centers, and provide classroom space to accommodate new students in host communities. Furthermore, assistance is needed to ensure adequate water and sanitation facilities and provide essential teaching and learning materials for children and teachers.

Liberian host communities support education for Ivorian refugee children from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

Creating opportunities from crisis

By Priyanka Pruthi

GRAND GEDEH, Liberia, 20 July – In a nation still recovering from a ruinous civil war – a place where many people have no access to electricity, safe water or health care – hundreds of communities have opened their doors to refugees from neighbouring Côte d’Ivoire.

Eight months after a political crisis erupted in that country, more than 150,000 Ivorians remain in Liberia. Most of them are being hosted by families in remote villages dotting the Liberia-Côte d’Ivoire border.

At the Barker C. Gaye public school in one border community, Zleh Town, Liberian students are sharing their playgrounds and their classrooms with Ivorian refugees like Sophie (not her real name), 13.

Displaced by violence

“My parents would have been proud to see me do so well in the mathematics class here,” says Sophie, who doesn’t know where her mother and father are or when she will see them again. “There has been no news from them. I haven’t heard from them in a long time,” she explains.

Sophie’s family members were amongst the hundreds of thousands displaced by the violence that followed presidential elections in Côte d’Ivoire last December. They fled from their home in Abidjan, fearing for their lives. Sophie made it to the Liberian border with her sister, but the siblings got separated from their parents.

“The journey was very long,” she recalls. “We walked for an entire day. There was no water or food on the road. I was really afraid, it was so dark…. We couldn’t see anyone for miles.” she says.

Solace in books

As Sophie struggles to find her way in a foreign land, her only consolation lies in books and the company of her new friends.

© UNICEF Liberia/2011/Scott
Over 450 Ivorian children attend classes at this primary school in Zleh Town, located in Grand Gedeh County, Liberia.

Nearly 450 Ivorian children are studying along with her at the Barker C. Gaye school, which is supported by the Liberian Government. Regular academic programmes for Liberian students take place in the morning, and classes for Ivorian students are held in the afternoon. The special shift was organized by UNICEF along with its partner Plan International.

UNICEF has been advocating for the use of government school buildings to provide educational services for refugee children throughout Liberia. Recently, the Ministry of Education issued the regulation that allows public schools to hold ‘catch-up’ classes for Ivorian children in an effort to prevent them from missing a school year.

“We will make sure that accelerated learning programmes and catch-up classes and summer schools take place and target the biggest number of refugee children,” says UNICEF Liberia’s Education in Emergency Coordinator, Francesca Bonomo. “We will advocate the Government of Ivory Coast to ensure that the certification issued to the children in Liberia is accepted in Ivory Coast once students go back.”

Education as a lifeline

UNICEF has also acquired the Ivorian curriculum and distributed it to the major counties in Liberia. Qualified Ivorian teachers have been identified from amongst the refugees and trained in helping children cope with these difficult circumstances.

© UNICEF Liberia/2011/Scott
UNICEF and its partners have organized classes for Ivorian refugees in existing government school buildings in Liberia.

For thousands of children feeling lost in the aftermath of the conflict that uprooted them, school is proving to be a lifeline. The routine has provided them with a sense of familiarity and normalcy despite the disarray.

While the Ivorian children are slowly beginning to get comfortable in their new surroundings and finding the strength to believe that the worst might be over, the strain on the limited resources of their hosts is increasing. Liberia’s education infrastructure is too weak to accommodate the influx of refugees.

“There is an urgent need to provide the students with adequate protection,” says UNICEF Education Officer Matthew Flomo. “There is a lack of drinking water and sanitation facilities. There aren’t enough benches or supplies in classrooms, making them extremely overcrowded.”

‘What goes around…’

Even though the capacity of the public school in Zleh Town is being stretched beyond its limits, Liberian students and teachers say they’re willing to counteract the pressure with whatever it takes.

“They are not the first ones to be refugees,” says second-grade teacher Philomena Quiah. “We ourselves were refugees in Africa for so many years. We went to school there, we sent our children to school and achieved an education before we came back to our own country. So when this has happened to them, we need to embrace them.”

Her sentiment is echoed throughout the school’s campus. The stories of support and survival are astounding.

“There are five refugees living in my house. But there is no space for all of them, my mother, grandfather and sisters – so I sleep outside in the fields,” says one 18-year-old student. “It’s really hard for us. I’m the only one who is studying and also earning for my family. But we Liberians say, ‘What goes around shall come around.’ So what happened to them today, it may happen to us tomorrow. That’s why we need to take care of them.”

Education: an enduring casualty of war from UNICEF: Back on Track on Vimeo.

In the Kailahun district of Sierra Leone, burned out buildings and bullet holes serve as a constant reminder of a turbulent and horrific past. This remote eastern border area was one of hardest hit by Sierra Leone’s brutal civil war. It was just south of Kailahun, in the village of Bomaru, where rebels of the Revolutionary United Front (RUF) first crossed into the country from neighbouring Liberia, marking the start of the conflict. Education was one of the early casualties of war- schools were destroyed and teachers were among those who fled the area.

“It was terrible. There was no school in this area for 12 years during the war. Some children went to Guinea and Liberia and attended school there,” said Mr. Abel Ngafua, the principal of a primary school in Dawa village that borders Liberia. “Some of the children, their parents died in the war, they have just come here and are being looked after by people.”

© UNICEF Video
Students at Dawa school in the Kailahun district of Sierra Leone.

Reaching the most vulnerable

Almost a decade later, the country is still struggling to rebuild schools, train teachers and reach children who have yet to see the inside of a classroom. Responding to this need, UNICEF and its partners are working together to improve the education system and bring educational opportunities to all children in the country. The Cross Border Schools Project, which trains teachers and school managers, was developed to target the high numbers of out-of -school children in the border regions of the country.

David is 18 years old and will be among the second post-war class to graduate primary school in Dawa. When David returned home in 2003 he expressed his wish to attend school to his father.

“I asked my father if I could go to school and he said no, we don’t have any money,” he said.

Despite education being free in the country, there are still fees being charged that go towards paying for schools supplies and other additional costs. Not to be deterred, David went into the forest outside the village and began clearing himself a small patch of ground for cultivation. He grows chilli peppers and cassava, which he sells in a nearby market.

“When the plants survive I sell them and pay for my school fees,” he said.

Making teachers a priority

Despite the challenges facing education in this region, progress is slowly being made with a focus on quality and on giving teachers the opportunity to increase their skills. With funding from the Government of the Netherlands, efforts to better train teachers nationwide have been stepped-up in recent years with over 3,000 teachers participating in first-time or continuing courses, helping them to teach more effectively.

Francis Josiah is the first and second grade teacher at Dawa School. When he was 15 years old the rebels came to his village and killed his family, but he managed to escape. Having been robbed a part of his childhood, Francis finds that working as a teacher also gives him hope for the future. After completing the teacher training programme, Francis now plans his lessons and believes he is a much more effective teacher.

© UNICEF video
Francis Josiah is the first and second grade teacher at Dawa School.

“The training was about managing children’s behavior, how to keep them safe in school, and then how to teach actively,” he said.

New beginnings for teachers and students

The healing of wounds from the war is far from over, but through a gradual improvement in education a new generation of children are growing up with hope for a better future. David’s dream would not take him far away from the classroom.

“When I grow up I want to be a teacher,” he says smiling.

“I want the children to become good people. Better people for tomorrow. That is why I am teaching them,” said Francis. “I teach them equally so when they become good people in the future and I am passing they can say ‘Oh that was my teacher.’ When I see children that I have taught and they are moving on to higher levels of education I really feel proud of that.”

In this challenging context, the development community and local partners are facing down the odds to bring education – and the chance for a better future – to some of the most marginalized and forgotten of Sierra Leone’s children.

© UNICEF/2008/Shankar
Co-author of ‘Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children’ Grace Akallo (left ); and spokesperson for War Child Holland Kon Kelei (front)recording the 'Recovery through education'; podcast at UN Radio studios.

NEW YORK, USA- Ishmael Beah, Grace Akallo and Kon Kelei know the consequences of war. All three have lived through and participated in conflict in their native countries of Sierra Leone, Uganda and Sudan.

They share not only common experiences as former child soldiers, but also agree that it was education that enabled them to become the writers and advocates they are today.

During a podcast recorded at the UN Radio studios in New York recently, the three survivors spoke about a recently-launched network for young people affected by conflict. The This is a core principle of the network is that all children, including those affected by armed conflict, have a right to be protected and educated.

The network, which includes other child survivors, aims to reach out to all children whose lives are fractured by war, not only former child soldiers like themselves.

Empowering former child soldiers

Mr. Beah spoke of a recent trip to Northern Uganda where he visited a school to speak about his experiences in Sierra Leone. He relayed the story of one boy who was astounded by his accomplishments as the author of the bestselling memoir, ‘A Long Way Gone: memoirs of a boy soldier’.

“’You were only in the war for over 2 years. I was in the war longer. I can write a book, I can do anything that you did.’ And that’s the kind of empowerment we want to see, that’s the kind of motivation we want to bring to young people,” said Mr. Beah.

Ms. Akallo remarked that their vision is to create “a world that is just inclusive and supports the participation of young people in bringing about change.”

By working together they hope to raise awareness of the plight of children in conflict zones and to serve as role models for children who are currently struggling to recover from war.

‘Double work’ for girls

In civil conflicts and protracted crises, young women are particularly vulnerable.

“Some of my friends had to give birth while fighting. Some of them were going with children on their backs, some of them pregnant – and they still fight,” said Ms. Akallo. “It’s like double work.”

In many countries, armies on both sides of a dispute refuse to give up girls until the last moments of fighting, because they are seen as being valuable.

“When they give up girls you loose the functioning capacity of your squad because the men would no longer have sexual partners- you don’t have people who can cook and carry those loads,” said Mr. Beah.

A key component of rehabilitation

Education factors largely into the plans for the future work of these young activists, as it has had a profound impact on each one of them.

“If I just come back from a war, or I have been affected by war, and you just rehabilitate me without giving me direction or something to look up to- more or less you’ve have done nothing. I am just going to be back in that society, which is violent, without a future without a hope of changing that society. And I become helpless,” said Ms. Akallo. “So If you give me education, give me a hope, give me something I can look up to; it can change everything.”

Mr. Beah said: “For me, education is absolutely important because without it we cannot be in a position to understand one another, to move forward, to build societies, to have future leaders."

Kon Kelei unequivocally agreed. “The only way we can integrate into the real world is through education.”

Listen to the podcast

UNICEF advocate for children affected by war and author of the best-seller ‘A Long Way Gone’ Ishmael Beah; co-author of ‘Girl Soldier: A Story of Hope for Northern Uganda’s Children’ and a masters student in International Development and Social Change at Clark University Grace Akallo; and spokesperson for War Child Holland and a masters student of International and European Law in the Netherlands Kon Kelei.

Listen to the podcast in MP3 format

Listen to the podcast in RealMedia

Click here (Real player) to listen to this UNICEF Radio podcast discussion on education in emergencies, featuring these

Click here to listen to other podcast in the “BEYOND SCHOOL BOOKS” series.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-0460/Adam Dean
A boy raises his hand, seated with fellow students in a large temporary classroom at a camp for people who have been displaced by the earthquake, in the city of Mianyang in Sichuan Province. The city is in one of the worst-affected parts of the province

In China, on 12 May 2008, a massive earthquake struck Wenchuan County in Sichuan Province, damaging more than 12,000 schools – 40 per cent of all schools in the province – and another 6,500 schools in neighbouring Gansu Province. It is estimated that thousands of children died.

Disaster struck Pakistan in 2005, and again on 29 October 2008, when an earthquake hit Balochistan Province, damaging about 300 schools in the worst affected districts – 85 per cent of all district schools – as well as 124 schools in the neighbouring Quetta district. More than 31,000 students were affected.

Cyclone Nargis hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008, leaving floods and destruction in the Irrawaddy Delta, affecting 2.4 million people, causing 84,537 deaths and destroying more than 4,000 schools.

On 7 November, more than 90 children and teachers perished in Haiti after their school collapsed because of poor infrastructure. Hurricanes and tropical storms that pounded the country in August and September damaged nearly 1,000 schools. The following week another school collapsed, fortunately with no fatalities.

This destruction and damage to schools and communities, and many of these fatalities, were preventable. But due to poor construction, outdated and unsafe buildings, and in some cases government corruption or lack of supervision, communities suffered the loss of their most precious and promising citizens.

“Whether caused by poor construction or natural catastrophes, school collapses invariably have disastrous effects on children,” said Cream Wright, UNICEF Global Chief of Education. “Schools must be safe places where children can learn and thrive.”

The role of architecture

Long before the disasters mentioned above made headline news, humanitarian aid agencies, led by UNICEF, embarked on setting architectural standards that governments can abide by and enforce to safeguard students and teachers. In some of the most challenging areas of the world, architecture is rapidly gaining attention in humanitarian relief and education service delivery. The urgency to design and build safe schools has become paramount for some architects and international humanitarian educationalists.

Carlos Vasquez, an architect working with UNICEF’s education section, came to the organization with a background in socially conscious design and construction.

“Most of my past experience concentrated on low-income housing, community health clinics for single mothers with HIV, urban interventions to improve living conditions of communities, and school construction,” he said in his office in New York.

Architecture has long been focused on problem solving. As international humanitarian aid and development communities are increasingly asked to address root causes of conflict and crisis, UNICEF has increasingly emphasized architecture as a means to alleviate chronic issues in schools – the first and foremost being safety.

During the past several years, Vasquez has travelled to a number of areas in Africa and Asia hit by natural disasters. Underlying his approach to humanitarian work is a basic participatory method. Vasquez makes sure his work adopts models that fit local solutions and materials, and that these methods instil community ownership.

Part of that attitude reflects a larger ideal in international development that encourages moving away from the piecemeal solutions of emergency work in countries affected by natural disaster and conflict.

“Investments in the communities, and in schools in particular, need to move from emergency support to development and sustainability,” said Vasquez.

While advocates in humanitarian aid have had to ‘sell’ schooling as a key component to the first line of emergency aid delivery, the recent school collapses have taught the global community that school design and construction are not optional services on the menu of first response.

Impact of climate change

During a recent education meeting at UNICEF in New York, Vasquez made an important inclusion of climate change, naming three things that should be done for education: make climate change part of the curriculum at schools; evaluate how far from a water source a school should be built; and reassess existing schools to prevent future collapses.

“Climate change affects schools,” he stated. “When you have deforestation as high as 80 per cent in some countries, you have a problem. Without materials, how do you build schools?”

New construction also considers sustainability of the environment and of materials used. Climate change will have an enormous impact on what can and what should be used.

Safe construction is an essential component of child-friendly schools (CFS) and learning spaces, which have the overall aim of ensuring a quality education for all children. Under the CFS model, school environments must be safe, healthy and protective – and endowed with trained teachers, adequate resources, and appropriate physical, emotional and social conditions for learning.

To help countries get onto the right path, UNICEF will launch the Child-Friendly School Manual this year. The manual is a practical guidebook intended to help countries design and implement child-friendly schools that are most appropriate to their circumstances.

In a world made increasingly volatile by climate change, civil conflict and a deepening financial crisis, innovative school design and construction can save lives.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu

NEW YORK, USA, 18 December 2008 – This week the Government of Norway is hosting the Education For All High-Level Group Meeting in Oslo to discuss progress made and challenges faced in providing quality education for all children.

For the first time, the annual meeting is being held in a donor country, sending a message to the international community on the urgent need for more sustained and effective support to basic education at the midway point to achieving the Millennium Development Goals by 2015.

Support for education has been gaining momentum. Last month, more than 30 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize signed a first-ever joint statement calling for urgent action to provide quality education and build peace in conflict-affected countries. Nearly 60 million children were not attending primary school in countries and territories affected by conflict between 2002 and 2006. Of those not attending primary school in conflict-affected countries and territories, 31.3 million – or just over half – were girls.

Struggle for change

Among the signatories was the South African human rights activist, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Last week the Archbishop spoke with UNICEF about his views on education, drawing on the experience of South Africa today and during the apartheid era.

“How do we know that someone might not be a brilliant scientist, or was going to be an outstanding composer?” asked the Archbishop. “You would have said, ‘Well, they can’t do it.’ And now that they’ve got the opportunity you see them blossoming and we are saying, ‘Look at how much we have stunted the growth of so many people and denied ourselves the joy we are now finding in these children, now developing the talents that they have.’ It’s just fantastic.”

But the opportunity to go to school is not a reality for many children in the poorest countries and communities around the world. In South Africa, Archbishop Tutu pointed to schools that were under-resourced and neglected in black communities.

“Generally, the air around many of these schools – and there are very many expectations, it is true – but generally it is true to say that the atmosphere around these schools is very depressing,” he said.

Challenges ahead

At the Education For All meeting, governments, donors, development agencies and educators are tackling the most pressing issues in education: weak governance and management, unmet financial needs and commitments, and a critical lack of capacity – particularly a shortage of qualified teachers. All of these elements are critical to building sustainable education systems that nurture young leaders who will be at the helm of schools, local communities and national governments in the future.

Without continued investment in education, communities will see the gains they have made in recent years dissipate as their youth are left behind, participants agreed.

Archbishop Tutu has been a relentless advocate for human rights and has seen change in South Africa and beyond. He knows well the value of an informed, educated population of young people.

“Some of the greatest changes have happened because of the involvement of young people,” he noted, adding: “We are not being merely altruistic if we care about the condition of our sisters and brothers in other parts of the world. It is the best form of self-interest.”

About this Podcast

UN and UNICEF Radio moderator Amy Costello is hosting a series of podcast discussions with Nobel Peace Prize winners. This is the first in the series.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 Format

Listen to the Podcast in RealAudio

A conversation with Desmond Tutu (RealAudio)

Click here to listen to other podcast in the “BEYOND SCHOOL BOOKS” series.

Two girls choose crayons from a large bowl in a kindergarten class at St. Teresa Catholic School in the Mamba Point neighbourhood of Liberia’s capital, Monrovia.
©UNICEF/HQ07-2225/Pirozzi

NEW YORK, USA, 28 October 2008 – High-level talks about progress towards the Millennium Development Goals took place last month during the United Nations General Assembly. Special attention was paid to commitments and progress in some of the poorest African nations, particularly in the area of education.

“We have made a lot of progress, but the problem is much more complex than just access,” said Dr. Codou Diaw, Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists, citing low attendance rates in secondary schools across Africa. “We need to pay attention to both access and what makes learning happen.”

German philanthropist and co-founder of the ‘Schools for Africa’ campaign Peter Kramer remarked that education is also a critical issue for the private sector.

“The second Millennium Development Goal [on universal primary education] is the most important and most influential, and it costs just 15 billion US dollars to bring each child in the world to school. This is less than 1.5 per cent of what all governments are spending for military purposes each year,” said Mr. Kramer.

The international community’s effort to bring education to all children is “not a pleasure, it is a duty,” he added.

Rebuilding schools and societies

“Many countries around the world have made remarkable progress, both in terms of eliminating poverty and getting more children into school and improving health outcomes,” said Desmond Bermingham, who heads the ‘Education for All’ Fast Track Initiative (FTI), a global partnership between developing countries and donors to accelerate progress towards the goal of universal primary education.

“But there are significant numbers of countries, often affected by war or other kinds of emergencies, which – unless we do something different for them – are not going to stand a chance of reaching the MDGs,” Mr. Bermingham noted.

Major donors to education initiatives are addressing this problem. For example, the ‘Back on Track’ initiative, partially funded by the Dutch Government, is a multi-national campaign designed to protect children’s right to education in emergencies. Other programmes, such as FTI, are also based on an awareness that education in emergency and post-emergency situations is an area of critical need.

“The challenge is helping those countries rebuild after conflict and providing them with the kind of support they need, quickly and effectively,” said Mr. Bermingham.

Discussion on financing

In the context of civil war, poverty and poor health conditions, how are donors helping the poorest nations in Africa fight poverty through education? How is the international community helping to support and transform these education systems? What are the particular obstacles that female students face?

About this Podcast

UNICEF Radio podcast discussion on financing education in emergencies, featuring these guests:
Desmond Bermingham, Head of the ‘Education for All’ Fast Track Initiative Secretariat; Dr. Codou Diaw, Executive Director of the Forum for African Women Educationalists; and Peter Kramer, Chairman of the Hamburg Society for the promotion of Democracy and International Law, and co-founder of the ‘Schools for Africa’ campaign.

Listen to the Podcast in Streaming MP3 Format

Listen to the Podcast in RealAudio

Listen to Podcast 10 – Financing Education in Emergencies (RealAudio)

Click here to listen to other podcast in the “BEYOND SCHOOL BOOKS” series.