Children in war zones want 'opportunities that education promises'

Education is the most important road to recovery for children living in conflict zones around the world, as underlined in an earlier report. Lisa Bender, UNICEF Education in Emergencies Specialist, re-enforces this message by sharing her experiences when visiting these children and explains why their voices need to be heard.

“Global figures about children who are affected by conflicts indicate that when there’s an outbreak of violence, it can badly interrupt a child's schooling,” Lisa Bender told dna. 

An education and child protection specialist, Bender, who has visited different parts of the world experiencing conflict, like the Democratic Republic of Congo, Liberia, Afghanistan and Yemen, says that when a crisis emerges, children's voices are often not heard.

“When there’s a crisis, everyone is concerned about security and food distribution and there isn't always a chance to hear from children directly about what they want and how we can support them,” said Bender. “All the children I’ve visited have expressed how much they love being in safe, learning spaces, though they usually say things like — they love their teachers, being with their friends, playing, doing math and practicing life skills.”

“From older children I always hear the same thing, that they don’t just want to go to school, they want to do well and finish school and have the opportunities that education promises. From younger children, they want to go back to their lives before the conflict, they want things to be “normal”, to be safe with their family and friends,” said Bender.

When organisations like UNICEF provide temporary learning spaces or child-friendly spaces to engage in non-formal learning activities, children will share their thoughts and feelings about dealing with life in a conflict zone.

“We'll often give them (children) an opportunity to draw photos of what their life was like before the crisis and currently. It's devastating to see the differences. Before, they draw pictures of them with their friends in school and being happy. And then afterwards it's pictures of people dying or everything being lost or buried, it's heart breaking,” said Bender.

Children want an opportunity to talk about the situation they are in. Which is why UNICEF provides staff that are equipped to handle these children's turmoil and give them an outlet to freely speak about their plight.

“In our child friendly spaces, in our temporary learning spaces we always include training for teachers and facilitators on how to identify trauma and have a talk with children on what’s happening with them and again just providing an opportunity for normality and have a schedule every day and have things to look forward to really helps the children,” said Bender.

Bender also stresses the importance of providing these children with a safe place to got to every day.

“I’ve seen where children go when they’re not in school during times of conflict and its, usually, not the places you want children to be,” said Bender. “The difficult challenges children and their families can find themselves in when they are fleeing conflict, either as Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) or refugees. Children can find themselves in transit sites, sheltering in other communities or in refugee camps. In worst cases, we hear horrible stories of families hiding in the woods, to avoid detection by armed groups. The question of where, how and when children can go to school is very important to families,” added Bender.

Families and communities in conflict zones know the value of education for their children.

“When we've worked in partnership with other organisations and done these surveys in communities affected by conflict, parents and children always say that education is one of their top priority,” said Bender. “We know that it contributes to children psycho-social well-being and their mental state and this opportunity to be children, to play with their friends and have a sense of normalcy, to be in a safe place,” added Bender.

Bender says as adults it is our duty to ensure children access “basic rights” because these children are the future of tomorrow.

“The important thing to do is to remember it’s their rights not something we are providing for them or something extra we are giving. It’s their right to have education and as adults it’s our job and our responsibility to make sure they continue to receive it and part of that means providing the funding so that we can provide those critical educational services,” said Bender.

“Children and young people need to be developing the skills to contribute to peace and development in an increasingly smaller and more connected world. Someday soon we’ll need them to be the doctors, to keep water clean, to grow the food, to ensure we live in a just and safe world. They deserve and need our support to develop their full potential, and that can’t happen with just food and health care. Young minds and lives need more to really grow!,” said Bender.