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In her Education Week blog, Mary Ann Zehr reports by some estimates that four out of five of the Iraqi refugee children living in Jordan and Syria are still not attending school. She observes:

"The longer their exile continues, the more officials worry about the next generation. Back on Iraqi Street, 13-year-old Ussam al-Sharraf ladles steaming bowls of kuba — fried lamb dumplings served in a tomato broth — for customers at the al-Baracka. Out of school for four years, Ussam is delighted to spend his days helping his father, the owner of the storefront restaurant. His father, none of whose eight children are in school, sees childhoods lost. 'Of course I worry about their future without education, but I don't know what to do,' says Nabil Hassom, 60. 'I can't afford to send them to school. I need them to help me in the restaurant.'

"American schools are receiving some of these unschooled children, as displacement from the war for many of these refugees drags on. The United States has accepted about 23,000 Iraqi refugees over the last two years. That's out of an estimated 2 million Iraqis who have left their homeland since the war began in March 2003."

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From Conflict to Peace Building: The Power of Early Childhood Initiatives: Lessons from Around the World contains stories of hope and encouragement and of just what early childhood practitioners can do and achieve in the face of adversity. The book shows us that it is possible to make a real difference in the lives of children and families in societies affected by conflict. Moreover, the stories illustrate the power of the early years sector, not only as a foundation stone upon which to re-build communities, but also as a vehicle for peace building because of its ability to reach across political divides and to encourage the differing sides in conflict to develop alternative visions of the future based around the needs of children.

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