How the IRC and Sesame Street are supporting education and childhood development in crisis-affected areas

For children who witness conflict or crisis from a young age, it can have a lasting impact on their ability to thrive in educational and social settings.

Philanthropy fuels the IRC’s work responding to emergencies and protracted crises in over 40 crisis-affected countries. We provide shelter, clean water, sanitation, healthcare, education, support for children and special aid for women in the top-ten most fragile states and the world’s most dangerous conflict zones. We stay in a region for as long as required to help revive livelihoods and support broken communities to rebuild. As one of the only organisations that works across the entire arc of crisis—from the warzones of Syria to resettling refugees in dozens of cities across Europe and the Americas—philanthropy helps us provide lifechanging support to millions of people whose lives have been disrupted by crisis. The IRC recognises that women and girls experience crises differently. As a feminist organisation, we put gender considerations at the heart of all our programmes. We also integrate our Climate Action Plan into programme design and outcomes. Helping global communities respond to changing climate now, by mapping hazards and developing early warning systems will save time, money and lives in the long-term.

The IRC’s Healing Classrooms programme trains schools and educators on how to offer refugee and asylum-seeking children a safe place to learn and thrive after experiencing conflict and crisis. Teacher Suzanne travels between schools using the Healing Classrooms approach in her art lessons. She explains how this promotes healing and community through creative expression, helping students to process their emotions and celebrate their identities.