In Kandahar Province, Afghanistan, a page from a school notebook that bears the UNICEF logo lies amid other burnt papers and books.
©UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0557/Brooks

KABUL, Afghanistan, 14 November 2008 – UNICEF has condemned the increasing number of attacks on schools and students in Afghanistan. A recent acid attack on 15 female students walking to school in the southern city of Kandahar blinded two of the girls and injured two others.

Iraqi children flood Damascus schools putting pressure on education system
© UNICEF Video

25 September 2008 – Iraqi children flood Damascus schools putting pressure on education system

Iraqi children head to schools in Damascus at the beginning of the new school year. Their families fled the conflict in Iraq, and schools in Syria are now overcrowded

Young students at the Al Aqsa School for Palestinian refugee children in Damascus, Syria.
© UNICEF video

By Monica Awad

DAMASCUS, Syria, 2008 – Palestinian children residing in Husseiniyeh camp here are suffering from overcrowded classrooms and double-shift schools. Faced with staggering challenges outside the classroom, children are now in danger of losing their right to a quality education.

© UNICEF/MENA02131/PirozziA man teacher helps students, sitting three to a desk in a school is in the village of Al-Zuraiji. Like many in the area, it was damaged during the war.

By Claire Hajaj

AMMAN, Jordan, 23 May 2008 – The Baghdad Girls Primary in Iraq’s Sadr City had only been occupied by students for a few months before violent clashes erupted between military forces and militia groups in the area.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2003-0014/Shehzad NooraniOne girl stands up to read while others, seated at shared desks, follow along in their textbooks

By Claire Hajaj

AMMAN, Jordan, 21 April 2008 – In recent weeks, families in Basra and Baghdad’s Sadr City have been plunged into one of the most violent episodes in Iraq’s recent history. As Iraq’s security forces mobilized against militia groups, widespread clashes and curfews kept families trapped indoors and led to shortages of water, food and medical supplies.

© UNICEF/NYHQ2006-1275/David BerkwitzHer Majesty Queen Rania Al-Abdullah of Jordan speaks at the High Level Symposium on Child Survival (MDG4) at UNICEF House

By Rania Al Abdullah

AMMAN, Jordan, 8 April 2008 – Ayman is a soft-spoken 14-year-old boy from Jabalia City, Gaza. His family is poor, as his father has been unemployed since March 2006. Ayman’s parents have already sold almost all their furniture to pay for food and schooling for their children. Recently, after collecting a governmental food handout, Ayman’s father had to sell the milk to get the money for the journey back home.

Ayman works very hard in school. He dreams of a future career. But with 47 students in his cramped classroom and double shifts the norm, his learning environment is very stressful. Home is no refuge: The recent incursion of Jabalia was 200 metres from where Ayman lives. The shooting and shelling so terrorized his five-year-old sister that she still wakes up screaming in the night.

Ayman’s experience is all too familiar in Gaza’s crowded, crippled neighbourhoods, where those who are least to blame for the troubles are the ones who are suffering most. Indeed, among Gaza’s 840,000 children, out of which 588,000 are refugees, Ayman has a luckier story than many.