Think Creative Spring 2024

resuming learning, fostering healing

Left: Students at the Sekota Woleh displacement camp study outside a tent classroom.

The usual calm of his rural village, Wuchale, was ripped apart by the sounds of automatic rifles firing, explosions and screams. He saw neighbors shot. As he and his family fled their home, Abel saw lifeless bodies on the ground. In the daylight, Abel and his family hid from the fighters. At night, they walked. The family trekked 60 kilometers to the urban center of Dessie, where they resettled. Abel’s parents enrolled him in second grade at a public school. But Abel had been traumatized by those sights and sounds. He was too afraid to walk to school, sit in class or go to the play ground without his parents beside him. Even with his parents accompanying him, he was restless and couldn’t pay attention to the teacher. He didn’t interact with his classmates. When he talked about the experiences of war, he burst into tears. He was another victim of a two-year war that cost as many as 600,000 lives and displaced more than 2 million people. Fortunately, Abel’s temporary school was among over 1,100 schools and temporary learning centers receiving assistive services under the USAID READ II Education Recovery Activity. In response to the conflict, the project trained 14,000 teachers, school directors and community leaders to provide psychological first aid and emotional support to students affected by conflict. Abel’s new teacher recognized that Abel needed counseling. The training advised educators to seek a referral when a student’s needs are beyond the school’s capacity, so the school’s director contacted a college instructor who trains school counselors. Applying guidance from the training, teach ers encouraged Abel and other traumatized children to participate in school life through sports and working together. They praised and recognized each improvement in behavior and encouraged parents to do the same. Abel gained the confidence to sit in class with out his parents and then walk to school on his own. He paid better attention to the lessons. By

In the immediate aftermath of emergencies, efforts focus on driving resources that literally save lives—water, food, shelter and medical care. But for children affected by crises, school not only gives them back a part of their life disrupted by conflict but also provides a setting where they can regain stability. That healing role is apparent as Creative Associates International and partners complete the USAID-funded READ II Education Recovery Activity in Ethiopia. “When we say that education can be used as a tool for sustaining life, we mean that it is a process by which individuals are provided with psychosocial support, counseling and advice so that they see a better future. Even though the situation is really bad and challenging at the time, there is still hope in the future,” says Tassew Zewdie, Ph.D., Creative’s Chief of Party for READ II.

Siham Abdulaziz, a student in Kombolcha who lost her mother during the war, receives regular support from her teachers.

“It means trying to help those individuals affected by the conflict to navigate through that

challenging time,” he says. Individuals like Abel Abate.

In 2021, seven-year-old Abel was finishing first grade when war arrived at his home in Ethio pia’s Amhara Region.

16 | Think Creative | Spring 2024