Focusing on the Children: Early Childhood Programs in Conflicts Around the World (review)

Photo: Peace Games (www.peacegames.org)

Wow, what an experience. From Conflict to Peace Building: The Power of Early Childhood Initiatives is not an easy read. It requires all of your attention, your thought, your action. It makes you wonder: Am I a member of the right organizations?  Am I spending my limited resources (time and money) wisely? Am I creating a big enough ripple with my pebble? Why is there still so much violence in the world? And why aren't we all doing more to protect the children?

I first met this book when some other early educators and I used it to enhance an intensive class we were leading. We assigned a reflective writing assignment as homework, asking the students to read the book during a two-week break. That wasn't fair, we should have read the book together and discussed it. This book could itself be used as a curriculum. It requires deep reflection as you read each chapter.

The first chapter of From Conflict to Peacebuilding describes the impact of conflict and violence on children, families, and communities. These effects are common around the world, as are the key challenges for early educators working amidst the conflicts. Following chapters focus on specific conflicts in the world, and describe what communities, educators, and parents are doing to help the children living in the conflict. Each of these chapters includes the voices of people working firsthand with the children and families.

 The conflicts described in this book span the globe. The organization which helped create this book, the International Working Group on Peace Building with Young Children, says it hopes the book will "provide practical support to those working in conflict-affected regions." I think it provides support to early educators working with children everywhere. Not every story we encounter is as painful as the ones in this book, but the effects on the children are the same, even when the exposure to violence is small in comparison.

 I have a 17-year-old son who plays water polo. During one of his weekend tournaments I brought this book with me to read between his games.  I read chapter 5 that weekend, Marta Arango's story from Colombia. There happened to be a team from Medell'n playing in my son's tournament that day. I looked around at these 14- to 17-year-old athletes and their 20-something coaches and wondered at their life experiences. Here I was reading about kidnapping and displacement and other violent acts in the early 90's in the very city these boys grew up in.  I thought to myself:  These are the preschoolers I am reading about! I bought a t-shirt from their fundraiser, and shared the chapter with my son when I gave him the shirt.

 In the final two chapters of the book, everything is gathered together for the reader. The process by which the book came to be written is explained, and the work of the International Working Group on Peace Building with Young Children is described. This gives the reader somewhere to go to take action. And finally, the key lessons learned from the experiences of early educators and organizers around the world are outlined.

As I read through these lessons, I understood that all children deserve these things, regardless of the level of their exposure to violence. What can I do then? I can keep working. We can all keep working in our own communities to spread peace and safety for the children where we live.