Yemen’s displaced children dream of returning to school

More than 137,000 students in conflict zones lose access to education, deepening Yemen’s already dire schooling crisis. Save Share Taiz, Yemen –At sunrise, 12-year-old Ahmed wakes up under the roof of a tent in a displacement camp in the Wadi Bani Khawlan area of Taiz governorate’s Jabal Habashi district. He spends his days playing with other children or retreating to lie down inside the tent. This has been his routine for the past two weeks, ever since he had to flee his village of al-Ashroh, west of the city of Taiz. Life in the camp is “boring”, he says. He misses everything about his home and his village, particularly his school bag and his walk to school every morning. “I left my school bag in the house as we fled the clashes, and I do not know if I will carry it again and go back to my classroom and meet my teachers and classmates,” Ahmed told Al Jazeera. There’s no school at the displacement camp for Ahmed to attend, and even if he were back home in his village, his school there is also closed. Across conflict-affected parts of Yemen, hundreds of schools have suspended classes, disrupting education for more than 137,000 students, according to UNICEF. The United Nations body added that more than 57,000 children had been displaced as a result of the fighting in Yemen in the first two weeks of September, a number that will likely have increased as fighting continues. After four years of relative calm,armed clashesbetween pro-government forces and the Houthis intensified sharply in August and September, dealing a new blow to Yemeni schools and students and further deepening the country’seducation crisis. After arriving at the displacement camp, Ahmed’s family had immediate priorities: securing shelter and meeting their basic needs. “Before the war reached my house and school, my family would care if I completed my school homework,” Ahmed said. “Today, no one cares about education in the camp. Families’ focus shifted to tents, food and water.” Meeting those needs is a difficult task for the humanitarian groups attempting to help the displaced. The UN said on October 2 that more than 150,000 people had been displaced by the renewed conflict, a number that is expected to rise. That is on top of the more than five million Yemenis who had previously been displaced as a result of the war, which began with the Houthi takeover of Sanaa in 2014....