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On 15th November, Fatima, 12, smiles while sitting in her new classroom in Al-Harith Primary School for internally displaced children in Kirkuk Governorate, Iraq. Fatima and her family fled violence in Falluja and as a result she missed more than one year of school. She wants to become a math teacher hopes to be able to go back to her home soon. In November UNICEF celebrated the opening of three new schools in Kirkuk Governorate, allowing more than 2000 displaced students to continue their education. The staggered start to the school year in Iraq concluded in late October, with millions of children returning to classrooms around the country. With generous contributions from the governments of Canada, Japan, Ireland and Germany, in the last year as part of the overall response to the crisis in Iraq, UNICEF and parters provided access to education to nearly half a million children through building new schools, installing prefabricated classrooms, establishing temporary learning spaces, and distributing lea Image Credit: © UNICEF/UNI203158/Anmar

Dubai

Dubai Cares, part of Mohammad Bin Rashid Al Maktoum Global Initiatives, has rolled out a one-year emergency support programme for a safe return to school for 4,800 children in Mosul, Iraq after the liberation of the city from Daesh.

The programme, called Supporting a Return to Education in Mosul City’, is part of Dubai Cares’ Education in Emergencies strategy aimed to address the urgent educational needs of children affected by war and natural disasters.

Children account for almost 50 per cent of those who were trapped in Mosul or forced to flee during military operations to drive out Daesh.

The $500,000 (Dh1.84 million) Dubai Cares programme, launched in partnership with “War Child UK”, will focus on providing quality education in safe and inclusive spaces to conflict-affected children in 12 schools in western Mosul.

Over a period of one year, the programme will also work with key education stakeholders in the Ministry of Education in Iraq to contribute to strengthening the Education in Emergencies (EiE) response, enabling these stakeholders to better deliver such responses in the future, Dubai Cares said.

Tareq Al Gurg, CEO of Dubai Cares, said: “The plight of children in Mosul starkly illustrates the immediate and long-term fragility of societies riven by conflict and the urgency of addressing their needs, with education being of paramount importance. Not only is education a fundamental human right, it is absolutely essential to the rebuilding of Mosul’s social fabric and to its future. Without swift, focused, tailored, and tangible action, the risk of generations of children and young people missing out on the education that they desperately need intensifies.”

As part of the programme, 12 schools will also be rehabilitated, enabling 4,800 children to return to school. It is expected that some 7,200 community members will benefit from outreach activities throughout the lifespan of the programme. This will bring the total number of expected beneficiaries of this programme to 12,200.

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On 01 November, damage from conflict is clearly visible at a school in Ramadi, Anbar Governorate. UNICEF is currently working to support the clean up and rehabilitation of 100 schools in Anbar. 3.5 million school-aged Iraqi children are missing out on education, which means they are at increased risk of early marriage, child labour and recruitment into armed groups. One in every five schools is out use due to conflict. UNICEF is working to get children back to learning across Iraq, including in Anbar, a Governorate that has been particularly hard hit by conflict and high levels of internal displacement. In Anbar UNICEF and partners are refurbishing and extending school structures; providing desks, textbooks and school bags; and helping children to catch up on lost school time, as well as to reintegrate into the education system. From January to September 2016 across Iraq UNICEF helped get more than 116,000 out-of-school children back into classrooms, installed pre-fab school structures benefitting 42,00 Image Credit: © UNICEF/UN037984/Khuzaie
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