Delivering Education in Armed Conflict and telling the Story

Film screening of BBC Panorama Special: Saving Syria’s Children (55min) followed by panel discussion and Q&A.

There were approximately 6,000 attacks on education in 2022 and 2023, a 20 percent increase compared with the previous two years, according to the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack (GCPEA) in their Education Under Attack 2024 report.

Over 10,000 students, teachers, and academics were harmed, injured, or killed in such attacks in armed conflicts, resulting in the need for medical care. Additionally, attacks on healthcare in armed conflict are also increasing thus those injured in attacks on education will be cared for in hospitals that may also be targeted, or where access to healthcare has been disrupted.

This CRASSH Healthcare in Conflict event, in collaboration with the Wolfson Global Health Hub, Cambridge Refugee Hub and Cambridge Global Challenges examines the urgent need to protect the education of students of all ages in current wars and the relationship with healthcare that results from such attacks.

In the documentary, Saving Syria’s Children (2013), reporter Ian Pannell follows doctors as they care for children gravely injured when a bomb was dropped on their school in Aleppo.  At this event, the doctors, Drs’ Rola Hallam and Saleyha Ahsan and student Mohammed Assi injured in the incident will rejoin Ian Pannell and filmmaker Darren Conway to discuss that tragic day when 28 children were injured and 10 were killed. Also, on the panel we will hear from Nataliia Popova from Kharkiv, and the plight of children seeking education during its current, ongoing war.

The panel, speakers and contributors are:

• Ian Pannell : ABC Chief International Correspondent and reporter for Saving Syria’s Children
• Darren Conway : Emmy and BAFTA award winning filmmaker and cinematographer and director of Saving Syria’s Children.
• Natalia Popova: Advisor on humanitarian issues from Kharkiv. After getting her family to safety she remained in Kharkiv to coordinate civilian evacuation and has been involved in numerous educational projects for children in Ukraine.
• Mohammed Assi: Syrian student who suffered severe burns on attack on Syrian school, education advocate
• Mughira Al-Sharif : Freelance Syrian filmmaker, expert knowledge on plight of children in Syria.
• Dr Rola Hallam: British/Syrian Former consultant anaesthetist, humanitarian doctor featured in Saving Syria’s Children
• Professor Pauline Rose: Professor of International Education and Director of the Research for Equitable Access and Learning (REAL) Centre, Faculty of Education.
• Dr Eolene Boyd-MacMillan Social Psychologist Co-Director, IC Research, Cambridge Public Health, Co-founder, IC-ADAPT Consortium, University of Cambridge

Chair Dr Saleyha Ahsan, International Health Systems Group, Founder and Convenor of CRASSH Healthcare in Conflict.

Limited parking is available at venue.