This report builds from the premise that the first line of emergency educators during a humanitarian crisis is not international education experts but members of forced migrant communities. Drawing primarily from field research in Burundian refugee camps in Tanzania and internally displaced communities in Colombia in 1998, and secondarily from field research in Sierra Leone and Sierra Leonean refugee camps in 1997 and Rwandan refugee camps in Tanzania in 1994, the report argues that, before international educators either visit a humanitarian emergency site or import assistance there, many refugee and displaced communities are already educating their children themselves. The central focus of “Emergency Education for Children” is primary school-level education activities taking place during humanitarian emergencies. Analysis emerges from interviews with refugee and displaced educators, parents and children, local government officials, and key members of the international humanitarian community that directly impacts emergency education activities.
