By Simon Ingram

MASHTA EL HAMMOUD, Lebanon, 17 April 2012 – Stepping off their minibus in the mountain village of Mashta el Hammoud, in northern Wadi Khaled, a group of children scampers up the stone steps to their classrooms. While the prospect of maths and Arabic classes may not seem attractive, there’s no mistaking these youngsters’ eagerness for the afternoon that lies ahead.

There’s a special reason for their enthusiasm: Many of the students are Syrian, and this weekly visit to an NGO centre is helping them reclaim the educations that were forced to abandon when they fled the violence gripping their homeland.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2008-1016/Christine Nesbitt
Kinkole Primary school near Kinshasa, DRC.

By Taleen Vartan

NEW YORK, USA, 31 January 2012 – In 2011, UNICEF commissioned research to investigate the role of education in peacebuilding in post-conflict contexts. The resulting report, entitled The Role of Education in Peacebuilding: A synthesis report of findings from Lebanon, Nepal and Sierra Leone, is part of a knowledge generation study within the Back on Track programme on Education in Emergencies and Post-Crisis Transition. Back on Track is a five-year partnership between UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands and the European Commission.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2011-0770/Olivier Asselin
Sierra Leone. 2011.

19 January 2012 – In 2011, UNICEF commissioned research to investigate the role of education in peacebuilding in conflict-affected states, as part of the Education and Emergencies and Post-Crisis Transition (EEPCT) programme – a partnership between UNICEF, the Government of the Netherlands and the European Commission.