Since September 19, 2023, over 100,000 people, including 30,000 children, have been forcibly displaced from Artsakh (also known as Nagorno-Karabakh). For nearly a year, they endured a blockade that harmed their health and disrupted their education.
Teach For Armenia is mobilizing an emergency response to help forcibly displaced students integrate into their new homes and heal. Leveraging experience from our emergency response to the 2020 Artsakh war, Teach For Armenia has formed a coalition of organizations to coordinate wraparound support for displaced students. We will work with the Armenian government to position public schools as community centers where community-based organizations can orchestrate carefully coordinated services, including education, nutrition, health, housing, and psychological support.
OUR APPROACH TO EDUCATION IN EMERGENCIES
When caring for students who are experiencing a crisis, Teach For Armenia strives to leverage wraparound support, ensuring that the physical as well as psychological needs of students are met so that we can build up their self-efficacy. Here are some examples of how Teach For Armenia does this:
BASIC NEEDS
We coordinate with partners to pool resources and ensure that the physical needs of our students are met. For example, in 2020, our team assembled and distributed 500 care packages for students displaced by the war. Teach For Armenia also joined the Artsakh Resettlement Coalition.
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PSYCHOLOGICAL NEEDS
Studies have shown that high levels of stress during formative years of development can literally rewire a child’s brain, making it harder for them to cope and excel later in life. For that reason, Teach For Armenia has worked with psychologists to develop the organization’s approach to trauma-informed teaching, social-emotional learning, and art therapy for students living through crisis.
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SELF-FULFILLMENT
Once the physical and psychological needs of students are met, our team then focuses on filling students with hope for the future by encouraging them to leverage their agency to drive change through Change-Based Learning. Through Change-Based Learning, we provide our students with the space to launch creative solutions to challenges that their community is facing.
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A GLOBAL MOVEMENT
Teach For Armenia is a proud member of the Teach For All network. Since 2020, Teach For Armenia has collaborated closely with Teach For All’s “Education in Emergencies” efforts. In fact, at present Teach For Armenia is co-leading the “Education in Emergencies Community,” consisting of network CEOs, leaders, and specialists from around the world.
