Helping children outgrow war

Violent civil conflict has become tragically common in recent years. Children are the most vulnerable population affected: They are the first victims of physical, social, and emotional violence. Helping children outgrow war is an overarching goal of educational reconstruction in post-conflict settings.Given the diversity and complexity of such settings, responses must be both highly adaptive and informed by insights gained from interventions elsewhere. This guidebook offers several examples of successful interventions in post-conflict settings internationally, situating them within a framework that emphasizes the ecology of children's well-being and learning. Helping children outgrow war involves helping communities heal from violence and determine their own paths of development. Successful interventions can enable teachers, paretns, and community leaders to engage safely with traumatic events, to articulate their aspirations, and to build trust across multiple levels of society as the infrastructure of a culture of peace. The challenge of post-conflict educational reconstruction, in this sense, is larger and more diffuse than rebuilding the shattered infrastructure of schooling. This guidebook is not intended to address the complex technical, financial, and political issues involved in rebuilding school systems. While it touches on those issues, it is concerned more broadly with creating conditions for constructive learning in te wake of social violence.