QAYYARAH, Iraq — The parents at Jad’ah camp for displaced Iraqi civilians were full of mixed emotions this week as they met EU Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management Christos Stylianides. They were overjoyed to see their children toting blue UNICEF backpacks after after two to three years living under the harsh control of Islamic State.
At the same time, parents worried about the unconventional tent classroom where their children now studied. “I saw this agony to see their children to be under national curriculum,” Stylianides told Devex. Their children were still not in government schools — the ones that could certify their graduations and send them on to high school and maybe university.
What would happen, they asked, when they returned home?
About the author
Elizabeth Dickinson@dickinsonbeth
Elizabeth Dickinson is a former associate editor at Devex. Based in the Middle East, she has previously served as Gulf correspondent for The National, assistant managing editor at Foreign Policy, and Nigeria correspondent at The Economist. Her writing also appeared in The New Yorker, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Politico Magazine, and Newsweek, among others.
