Education is an essential, lifesaving intervention

A World At School’s Bethany Ellis has written an editorial on the necessity of education intervention in humanitarian situations.


Ensuring that children get back to school and learning during and post-disaster protects them. It keeps them out of exploitive working conditions, can prevent child marriage and provides them with a safe place to socialise, cope with their trauma and plan and hope for the future again.

Schools can provide immediate lifesaving information to children – which is easily disseminated back to their families as well – on how to stay safe from spreading disease, on their rights, on recognising and preventing human trafficking etc.

Education must be prioritised in humanitarian emergencies to ensure that children do not lose out on their right education – an education that can provide them with essential skills and knowledge to build a future full of opportunities, not one condemned to poverty and marginalisation.

Education is lifesaving. It is generation-saving. It is essential to any successful, comprehensive humanitarian response and it must be funded.

Please visit A World At School to read the full article.