LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Here in the U.S., children are already back in school. What about children living in the midst of violence and mass displacement, Gaza, Ukraine, Sudan? We asked three NPR correspondents to get these kids' back to school or not back to school stories.
JOANNA KAKISSIS, BYLINE: I'm Joanna Kakissis at a school called Lyceum No. 153 in Kyiv, Ukraine. And right behind me, children in the first grade are drawing right on the asphalt. They're drawing footballs, Ukrainian flags, flowers.
Hi (laughter).
About 800 students from grades one to 11 attend this school. This past summer, it was damaged when a Russian missile hit a children's hospital across the street. Veteran Alexander Artemenko (ph) teaches English. He has a zigzag scar on his arm.
ALEXANDER ARTEMENKO: Russians attacked, and I was wounded by a tank.
KAKISSIS: He says the dads of several students are on the front line.
ARTEMENKO: It's quite difficult for them to concentrate. They can't study because they're worried about their dads, and they know where they are. I think they found me a person who can understand the problem and the troubles which they have.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCHOOL BELL RINGING)
KAKISSIS: Inside, it's time for lessons. Fifth graders file into English class taught by a teacher displaced from eastern Ukraine.
UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOLTEACHER #1: Repeat after me - pride.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Pride.
UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOLTEACHER #1: Pride.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: Pride.
UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOLTEACHER #1: Thank you so much.
KAKISSIS: Eleven-year-old Mikita (ph) says he hears Americans are helping Ukrainians.
MIKITA: I want to go to New York because this is very big city where McDonald's. I want to see how their McDonald's.
KAKISSIS: In world history class, 16-year-old Elena Tolochina (ph) is taking notes on the Korean War and rubbing her eyes.
ELENA TOLOCHINA: We had an air raid siren, and there was, like, a drone attack- didn't sleep whole night. And then you have to go to school, you have to study, you have to then have your courses, do your homework. And sometimes you get tired a lot.
KAKISSIS: Casius Torojuc (ph), also 16, says air raid sirens often interrupt classes. Students have to run to a shelter underground.
CASIUS TOROJUC: We've been doing it for three years. It is a part of my life. And we don't have a choice.
(SOUNDBITE OF SCHOOL BELL RINGING)
KAKISSIS: She says she's lucky she has a school. Russian strikes have destroyed almost 200 Ukrainian schools since the full-scale war began.
DANIEL ESTRIN, BYLINE: I'm Daniel Estrin, NPR correspondent covering the Gaza war. There are no functioning schools in Gaza now. Most have been destroyed, damaged or turned into shelters. But there is this.
UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOLTEACHER #2: Morning, everybody.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Singing) How are you?
ESTRIN: English class in a tent. There are a few dozen makeshift classrooms like this in displaced persons tent camps.
YAZAN: I am Yazan (ph). I'm 10 years old. My dream is to stop war and back to school soon.
ESTRIN: NPR producer Anas Baba met him with a notebook in the tent.
ANAS BABA, BYLINE: So what is this?
YAZAN: My life's story in words.
BABA: Your life's story in words?
YAZAN: Yeah.
ESTRIN: Some of the kids in this tent lost a parent in the war. Safa Al Arami (ph) is one of the volunteer teachers.
SAFA AL ARAMI: We give each other strength. And I hope to keep the educational process going on and to save our children future.
UNIDENTIFIED SCHOOLTEACHER #2: (Speaking Arabic).
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Speaking Arabic).
ESTRIN: Gaza has about 1 million children, half of Gaza's population - 99% of those children are not going to any of these makeshift classes, according to the U.N. agency UNICEF. Spokeswoman Tess Ingram visited Gaza this year.
TESS INGRAM: There was one boy in particular who said, kind of with shock, well, I can go back, can't I? And that was upsetting because he didn't even know whether school would resume at any point in time and whether that was something that he could return to one day.
ESTRIN: Many children spend their day collecting water and food and have forgotten how to read and write.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Singing in Arabic).
ESTRIN: In the morning, our colleague Anas Baba recorded this singing from a tent class. And in the afternoon, he rushed to the scene of an Israeli airstrike on a United Nations school sheltering families.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: (Crying).
ESTRIN: It's become a common scene. Israel says it's targeting Hamas militants. It says they're increasingly hiding in school shelters. Gaza first responders say it's the fifth time this particular school shelter has been hit.
EMMANUEL AKINWOTU, BYLINE: I'm Emmanuel Akinwotu, reporting from Sudan's wartime capital, Port Sudan. I'm at a school here, but like many across the country, it's now a displacement camp. It's run by UNICEF and hosts hundreds of families. They're among the more than 10 million people internally displaced from the war. After almost 18 months of fighting, the displacement crisis is the worst in the world.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
AKINWOTU: At a tent within the school grounds, aid workers have gathered dozens of children, clapping and dancing to pop music, working on a group performance. Since the camp opened, UNICEF staff have been working to keep the children learning and active.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)
UNIDENTIFIED MUSICAL ARTIST: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: The school term in Sudan would normally start next month, but the war has made this an unlikely prospect. According to UNICEF, 19 million school-aged children here currently have no access to formal education. The war and the prospect of famine has put learning on hold not just because schools have been repurposed, but alongside their pupils, their teachers have also been displaced. An even darker side of the war sees the increasing sexual violence against children and the use of child soldiers.
Several children who were enlisted to fight for the Rapid Support Forces, or RSF, who are at war with Sudan's army, have been arrested by the military. And on the road from Port Sudan towards the capital, Khartoum, our NPR team saw a number of young boys, teenagers, carrying rifles, standing at checkpoints. Several actors have exploited children during the war.
UNIDENTIFIED STUDENTS: (Singing in non-English language).
AKINWOTU: At the former school in Port Sudan, these activities offer a precious semblance of normal life and joy in an otherwise desperate context. But it's not enough to fill the void left by so many school closures. For many in Sudan, the chance of a carefree childhood has vanished in the space of 18 months.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARMAND BECK'S "DUSK")
FADEL: That was NPR's Emmanuel Akinwotu in Sudan. We also heard from NPR's Daniel Estrin, with reporting from NPR producer Anas Baba in Gaza, and NPR's Joanna Kakissis in Ukraine.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARMAND BECK'S "DUSK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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