Education in emergencies

In the Afar region, Hayat*, a mother of two, has embraced the Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) at Home initiative to transform her household into a vibrant learning environment. Following regular visits from teachers and participating in school-based parental meetings, Hayat* began creating teaching materials from available home resources to teach her son, Ali*, letters, colors, and numbers through play. This home-based intervention has led to a remarkable transformation in Ali’s* confidence and academic skills; he is now able to identify the English alphabet, handle a pencil to write letters, and read words and phrases—changes so visible that neighbors now remark that Hayat’s* house "looks like a school."

In the Afar region, Senait*, a mother of four, is witnessing a major shift in how her youngest daughter, Helen*, prepares for school. Unlike her older siblings who started primary school without any preparation, Helen* is supported by the Emergent Literacy and Math (ELM) at Home initiative. Through monthly teacher visits and school-based parental meetings, Senait* has learned to use local materials like cardboard to teach Helen* colours, letters, and numbers so she is well-prepared to start school. This "play-based" approach has not only improved Helen’s* literacy but has significantly boosted her confidence and communication skills.

In a pastoralist community in the Afar Region, five-year-old Kedija* is experiencing a different educational start than her older siblings. Through the LEGO Foundation-funded Childhood Development Activity (CDA), Kedija’s* parents, Halima* and Kemal*, participated in house-to-house awareness sessions and monthly parental group dialogues These sessions taught them how to transform their home into a learning environment using locally available materials like sand, sticks, and mud. As a result, Kedija* has developed strong numeracy and literacy skills, improved her social interactions, and now dreams of becoming a doctor.

Millions of children in Sudan have missed nearly 500 days of learning since the war started in April 2023 in what has become one of the world’s longest school closures, surpassing the worst shutdowns during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The armed conflict in Northern Mozambique has triggered a severe child rights crisis, leaving 441,721 children and 5,365 teachers in urgent need of humanitarian education support, with 138 schools closed and 82,800 children having their learning interrupted. Despite the critical scale of this emergency, humanitarian education funding has alarmingly declined over the past four years, dropping from 37.5% coverage in 2022 to just 5.1% in 2025, marking the lowest funding level across all humanitarian clusters. Save the Children, alongside its allies, is therefore demanding urgent action from donors, UN agencies, and government stakeholders to demonstrate their duty of care and commitment to reverse this situation, protect the right of conflict-affected children to safe and uninterrupted learning, and prevent long-term, intergenerational impacts resulting from a lack of education.

Uganda hosts over 1.9million refugees, making it Africa’s largest refugee-hosting country. In Palabek Refugee Settlement alone 90,000 refugees, of whom 83% women and children, face challenges in accessing education and protection services. Today, Save the Children is launching “Strengthening education and child protection services for refugee children in Palabek Settlement, Northern Uganda”, a two-year project in partnership with a Japanese clothing brand UNIQLO/Fast Retailing Co., Ltd. The project is supported through UNIQLO’s PEACE FOR ALL global campaign.

Record numbers of attacks on energy infrastructure in Ukraine in the past two months have forced school closures and also disrupted the remote learning that children have relied upon for nearly four years of war, said Save the Children

The world is recognising the impact of local initiatives’ said one of our local partners, having been involved in an innovative approach to localisation in Education Cannot Wait’s Multi-Year Resilience Programme II in Uganda (MYRP II). As a result of purposefully developing more equitable avenues for funding, 29% of ECW’s investment to Save the Children is now being implemented through local and national NGOs (L/NNGOs). This is a large increase on the MYRP I and more than the global target set by the Grand Bargain. We encourage others to take inspiration from this approach, so that we can drive progress towards our collective commitments to reallocate power, influence and resources more directly to communities.

The growing children refugee influx in Uganda (over one million refugee children) prompted urgent action from Save the Children and partners under the Building Resilient Inclusive Systems for Locally Led Education and Protection project (RISE project). According to the Uganda Comprehensive Refugee Response Portal[1], Uganda currently hosts 1,898,338 refugees[2] and over million of these are children. [1] Country - Uganda, [https://data.unhcr.org/en/country/uga] Accessed on 27th Aug, 2025[2] Ibid. The figures were last updated on 31st July 2025. (They are updated on end of month basis)

On the International Day for the Protection of Education from Attack, the safety and protection of children and education personnel in schools in Mozambique remain a national priority in the face of ongoing conflicts and the increasing impact of climate change. Based on IOM's Displacement Tracking Matrix data, over 600,000 people have been displaced due to conflict in Northern Mozambique, including more than 320,000 children, making the urgency for a collective and robust response greater than ever. Data estimates show that over 110,000 children are not attending school, highlighting the serious threats to their fundamental right to education. The challenges are compounded by frequent cyclical natural disasters, which further disrupt learning.