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20 Years of Emergency Pedagogy – From a Pilot Project to an International Network

Children are holding hands and laughing

Wars and violent conflicts are among the most severe causes of humanitarian crises. They often force people to flee their homes and result in shortages of food, water, and medical care. Humanitarian disasters threaten or destroy the lives of countless people, including children, who are often the…

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Ukraine: Vital Emergency Pedagogy Work in Kharkiv

Several children sitting at a table are showing off the candles they have made themselves

From March 2022 through November 2025, the Emergency Pedagogy Department of the Friends of Waldorf Education was able to support children, adolescents, and pedagogues in Ukraine through, among other initiatives, four training cycles, each consisting of eight modules. The participating pedagogues…

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Iraq: “Our expectations were exceeded” – Emergency Pedagogy in Sinjar

Boy is playing in the sand

The Warvin Organisation for Child Rights is a local non-governmental organisation operating in the Iraqi city of Sinjar. It is supported by the Emergency Pedagogy Department of the Friends of Waldorf Education. Warvin was founded in 2024 by project director Sadoon Barakat, a Yazidi who had been…

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Myanmar: “All the heaviness has left my body”

Group exercise during an emergency pedagogy workshop in Myanmar

In April 2026, a six-person team from the Emergency Pedagogy Department of the Friends of Waldorf Education, led by coordinator Lina Bäuerle, travelled to Myanmar for two weeks. Many people there are still suffering from the devastating consequences of the earthquake in March 2025. Added to this is…

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Uganda: Healing Begins with Connection and Compassion

Children and workshop leaders during a workshop in Uganda

A few years ago, Jure Castro Iraguha founded the volunteer organisation Blessed to Bless Life Ministries (BBLM) in the Kyaka II refugee camp in western Uganda. Having fled to Uganda himself to escape the violent conflicts in the Congo, Jure's goal was to support children and young people in…

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“Hope is everything”

A boy looks beaming at the camera

Zoe Besand is a Waldorf kindergarten teacher and has been a regular volunteer with the educational emergency response teams of The Friends of Waldorf Education for over 13 years, taking part in missions around the world. We asked her to share her impressions with us.

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Argentina: Regaining one’s strength – Emergency Pedagogy following the large fire

Several people are painting a picture

Between 22 February and 5 March, the Argentine emergency pedagogy team carried out an intervention in Epuyén, a small town with a population of around 2,400, in the Patagonian Andes region of Argentina. The reason for this was a catastrophic fire that destroyed forests, villages, roads, wildlife and…

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Colombia: Creating Opportunities for Children and Their Families in Sierra Morena, Bogotá

A child makes a house out of cardboard as part of emergenc pedagogy in Colombia

Even years after the peace agreement in Colombia’s armed conflict between illegal groups and state forces, the situation remains tense, and many people continue to suffer the consequences of violence and displacement. In Sierra Morena, a low-income neighbourhood in the Ciudad Bolívar district of…

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Ahr Valley: A Safe Place When Everything Is Shaken – Emergency Pedagogy at the Waldorf Kindergarten Pusteblume After the Flood

Three boys sitting on a bench

The Waldorf Kindergarten Pusteblume is located in Grafschaft-Oeverich in northern Rhineland-Palatinate. Since 1995, children between the ages of two and six have been accompanied here by three early childhood teachers in a small, family-like group of around 25 children. Everyday life is shaped by…

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Iraq: Strong Motivation Among Emergency Pedagogues at "Island of Hope"

Island of Hope team in Kurdistan/Iraq

In early February, Lina Bäuerle and Fabian Krämer from the Emergency Pedagogy team of the Friends of Waldorf Education traveled to Kurdistan in Northern Iraq for a week to visit their project partner, Island of Hope. For over ten years, the core team of Hishyar, Ali, and Hazhar has been working with…

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Empower & donate now
Empower & donate now