Private Story
The Forsaken Generation in Iraq
The Gulf War, Saddam Hussein's iron fist's downfall, the defeat of the Caliphate... Iraq has plunged deeper and deeper into the dark ages for the last decades, and the legacy of war has ransacked the dreams of a new generation forced to survive in the crossfire.
Hundreds of schools have been destroyed, and those that still operate are overcrowded, qualified teachers lack, children fall behind in their education, and hundreds of thousands of children barely survive in displacement.
In the midst of devastation and echoes of conflict, a new generation strives for a brighter future.
Thousands of children were forced to drop out of school by years of war. But war does not stop when the final bullet is fired, and its ramifications resonate throughout time. These youngsters have grown into teens, and they are too old to enroll in the education system. They refuse to be part of a forsaken generation wasting days in endless displacement inside camps.
Thousands of children and teenagers have enrolled in non-formal educational spaces, supported by UNICEF, to get access to life skills courses that help them gain professional abilities thanks to international donors like EU humanitarian aid. While the Iraqi government attempts to reconstruct the school system, thousands of students are seeking to rebuild themselves and make their futures better.
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