Education Can’t Wait for a Crisis to End

During a crisis, immediate needs become painfully pronounced. Food, water, shelter and acquiring the basics for life becomes an all-consuming process, requiring inordinate amounts of time, energy, courage, and, if we’re honest, luck. Once the comforts of life are stripped away, it becomes obvious what constitutes a necessity.

And yet, amid this urgent struggle for survival, one essential need is too often overlooked: a child’s right to an education.

At first, education may seem like a luxury, something that can wait until the emergency is over. But it can’t. Children do not stop growing during war and displacement. Their minds are still developing, even as they absorb the trauma unfolding around them. In fact, the circumstances they live through are actively shaping the way their brains grow. A child who learns, again and again, that food, home and even family can disappear in an instant will carry that fear for the rest of their life.

This kind of prolonged strain is known as toxic stress. In war, children endure it daily leaving lasting scars on learning, health and emotional well-being. It often shows up in nightmares, withdrawal, aggression or hypervigilance. If nothing is done to counteract those moments of profound instability, stress and fear will become the foundation on which a child’s worldview is built, a worldview defined not by curiosity or creativity, but by survival and scarcity. A mind that could once be open and malleable becomes rigid, attuned only to danger.

Without early support to build resilience, toxic stress can shape not just a child’s future, but the future of an entire generation and society.

Making Learning Accessible

As I write this, children across the world are going back to school. But here in Palestine, and across many parts of the Middle East, things are heartbreakingly different.

This marks the third consecutive year that more than 645,000 Palestinian children have been denied the right to return to school. Without access to safe places to learn and play, children lose core competencies and vital developmental opportunities. A recent University of Cambridge report warns that some children could lose as much as five years of education. Five years of missed lessons. Five years of delayed growth. Five years of deferred dreams.

Education is critical to survival, and often one of the most effective early interventions in an emergency. It provides structure, safety and the chance to process trauma. It gives children the tools to understand the world around them and imagine a different one.

At Anera, we understand that the crises in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon and Jordan are interconnected, but the solutions must be deeply local. That’s why we employ staff from the communities we serve: educators, counselors and community leaders who understand the unique challenges facing families and know how to respond. We meet young learners where they are – emotionally, geographically and developmentally.

In Gaza, where most schools have been destroyed or turned into shelters, Anera is establishing learning spaces in safe zones and equipping them with educational kits and psychosocial support. In Lebanon’s refugee camps, we offer vocational education to provide job skills that prepare youth for a future beyond crisis. In the West Bank, we’re strengthening the early childhood development sector to support learning during the most critical years of a child’s life, when the brain is growing rapidly and foundations for lifelong development are being laid. In Jordan, we partner with community centers to reach Syrian and Palestinian refugee youth with digital literacy and foundational learning.

Education doesn’t just offer hope. It builds resilience, nurtures healing and lays the groundwork for recovery. With your support, we can make sure that no child’s future is defined by conflict alone. Make a gift today to help students in Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, and Jordan begin the school year with the tools they need to learn, grow, and thrive – even in the hardest of times.

Without education, the gaps in learning and social development widen into chasms, leaving children without the skills to rebuild their lives and communities. But with access to classrooms, teachers and safe spaces to learn, those same children can transform despair into possibility. Education is not a luxury to be postponed until peace arrives; it is the foundation on which recovery and a more just future must be built.