Education in emergencies

Nine school children have been reunited with their families after being stranded at school for two days by the devastating flash floods in Northern Nepal, as rescue efforts continue to reach other students, Save the Children said.

Nearly two-thirds of children surveyed across four districts in southern Yemen are out of school following more than a decade of conflict and displacement, Save the Children said as the new school year begins.

In July 2026, Save the Children convened a two-day Emergency Preparedness, Response and Resilience (EPRR) Workshop aimed at strengthening the organization's readiness to anticipate, prepare for and respond to emergencies that affect children and vulnerable communities.

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