The nightmare continues. One year on from the horror of the 7 October massacre and the inhumane seizure of hostages, more than 40,000 lives have been destroyed after relentless bombing, war continues to spread to the wider Middle East and a ceasefire seems as far away as ever. And, yet, amid the rubble and the shattered dreams of peace, we must still look for signs of hope.
A detailed plan for a two-state solution lies gathering dust. Moving it forward will require a globally coordinated effort not just in word but in deed. Most immediately, we need to step up our efforts for a ceasefire and intensify the pressure for the release of hostages. And while today hearts are broken, our promise that we will do everything in our power to support reconstruction must be unbreakable. We may feel akin to watchers on the shore, but we must also think ahead to a time when the guns fall silent, and so we should not delay to plan for and prepare the unprecedented support required for those who have known nothing but suffering, but for whom nothing better is on offer: Gaza’s 1 million children.
Led by the G20, which comprises all the major economies, the international community should announce that it will fund a unique programme of education, health, childcare and essential mental health support for these children who have been born into conflict, and are now, amid the ruins of their destroyed homes, living on the edge of subsistence. Schools are often the first to be shut down and usually the last to reopen after a crisis. And not only that: in every previous reconstruction programme, the one priority that has been neglected is support for early years.
We know that the first 48 months of a child’s life are more critical for brain development than the 48 years that follow. In many parts of the world, early learning is seen not as a luxury, but as a right that every child should enjoy. But early childhood development, which spans many sectors from health to education and play, has no single agency focused on the needs of the world’s youngest boys and girls, and so if we do nothing, children suffering from trauma will face a future as hopeless as the past.
With the proposed plan for reconstruction, we have an opportunity to show the difference that investment in the early years can make. Today, children form half of the 1.9 million displaced population in Gaza. There is only skeletal provision for newborns, infants, toddlers, and pregnant and breastfeeding women. Indeed, Gaza is today short of everything, with one toilet for every 850 people. Eighty-five percent of parents report that their children have gone at least one whole day without food, and now 346,000 children under five need supplementary food and nutrients, with at least 50,000 suffering from acute malnutrition.
More than 40% of families in Gaza have been caring for children who are not their own. In all, 20,000 children have been orphaned, are unaccompanied or are separated from their families. Six out of 10 children in some camps have developed stammering and other communication-related issues. Many who have suffered war-related injuries and amputations need not just emergency medical and surgical care, but mental health services and resilience programmes to cope with their trauma. Children under five will need care centres, care-givers, teachers, psychologists and special provision for those with disabilities.
We can learn from experiences in Ukraine, Bangladesh, Lebanon and beyond about how to implement early years programmes in emergencies. And we can also learn from one of the world’s biggest and most ambitious early years programmes, which I supported during my time in government: the Sure Start programme in Britain. This initiative has been given high marks for its effectiveness. As its first entrants have now taken their final school-leaving examinations, the results are showing that their performance across the curriculum has increased by three grades. Indeed, those children who lived near a Sure Start centre were less likely to be hospitalised and suffer mental illnesses, and experienced lower rates of youth crime. Children with quality early childhood care and education have been four times likelier in Britain and elsewhere to graduate from college. What works in the peaceful environment the UK has been fortunate enough to enjoy can yield even more dramatic results in zones recovering from conflict.
The next step is to listen to the voices of the Palestinian population. As I reported to the UN secretary general, António Guterres, we need to build a coalition of international agencies – including Unicef, OCHA, the World Food Programme, the World Health Organization and Unrwa. Working with international financial institutions and NGOs, and coordinating with local partners, we can create the equivalent of Britain’s Sure Start programme for Gaza. Currently, there are no locations in Gaza deemed safe for children’s education. Not only have 11,000 children and 411 teachers been killed, an estimated 15,394 students and 2,411 teachers have been injured. Almost all schools and many kindergartens have been severely damaged or destroyed. Satellite images captured by the Global Education Cluster in July revealed that 93% of schools have sustained some level of damage, and 85% will need to be reconstructed.
A new report by academics at the University of Cambridge and Centre for Lebanese Studies shows that – because of first the pandemic and now the war – pupils in Gaza have lost the equivalent of almost two academic years of schooling, and there has been a 20-percentage-point increase in the proportion of children unable to read a basic text by age 10, but even this does not account for the effects of trauma, disability and displacement. Before reconstruction begins, temporary early childhood centres should be erected across Gaza as safe places offering children and pregnant mothers nutrition, psychosocial support, care and early learning. None of the educational facilities can ever again be allowed to host any military bases.
Funding will be an issue. Education as a whole is never prioritised in humanitarian appeals; the $3.42bn flash appeal has been launched primarily for food, health and shelter, for example. Only 3.5% of these funds have been allocated to education. In fact, in the absence of bilateral support, Education Cannot Wait, a charity I chair that helps displaced and refugee children get an education, has had to become the third largest donor. Yet surely there is enough worldwide concern for the children of this conflict that a compassionate coalition of interests could raise the necessary cash.
“In the midst of winter,” wrote Albert Camus, “I found there was, within me, an invincible summer.” In the darkest of seasons, we cannot ask the children of Israel, Lebanon or Gaza to find hope where there is none, to find peace where there are no prospects, and to find comfort where there is only discomfort. So it falls to us to change the narrative so that we can offer the world’s most vulnerable children a peaceful tomorrow. And we must, even in these still darkening moments, do our best to keep alive that promise for a better, more secure future, and the peace settlement that enshrines it.
Gordon Brown was UK prime minister from 2007 to 2010
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