As the guns in eastern Mosul finally start to quieten, children are starting to rebuild their lives.

The restoration of schools and education is of key importance after conflict. School can provide not just an education but the stability, structure and routine that children need to cope with loss, fear, stress and violence.

In Mosul some schools have been closed for as long as two years and until recently girls were largely banned from attending. Thanks to the kindness of our donors UNICEF is helping reopen over 320 schools, allowing over 285,000 children return to school.

Children line up to receive UNICEF-supplied backpacks at a school in eastern Mosul. Ramadhan/Iraq/2017

 Our donors support is also providing educational supplies including math and science kits to over 73,000 students helping them start or resume their studies.

Noor back in school in Mosul. Anmar/Iraq/2017.

For some students this is a dream come true. They did not believe they would see in the inside of a school ever again. A delighted girl named Noor explained to us, “I am very excited. Now we can come to school. I thought we’d never be able to come back to school again.”

Ahmed hard at work in school. Anmar/Iraq/2017

The kindness of our donors has allowed these children to be safe and back in school. They are returning to normal life and can even start to think about the future. As Ahmed, seen in the picture above, told our team, “Today I feel like I’m back to life.”

None of this would be possible without the kindness of our donors so on behalf of these children we want to say, “thank you!”