Children growing up in communities facing intense conflict and hardship creates a mental health crisis that particularly affects refugees and those with disabilities.

This makes it critical that their schools, families, communities and national organisations are able to support them with their mental health, but a lack of knowledge and experience means that this isn’t always possible. This was the inspiration for a groundbreaking project by the Carnegie School of Education at Leeds Beckett University.

The team, led by Professor Anthony Maher and Rachel Bostwick, was commissioned by the British Council. They worked to develop a framework including training materials to empower education leaders to better meet the needs of students and staff in schools as well as their families.

To make sure the materials were user-led, culturally sensitive and contextually relevant, the team worked alongside locally-based school ambassadors, supporting staff, leaders and officials from eight participating countries:

• Lebanon
• Jordan
• Yemen
• Iraq
• Palestine
• Tunisia
• Morocco
• Egypt

The resulting materials were distributed via online training events and via social media groups offering peer-to-peer support.

Children at schools in places including Gaza and the West Bank have benefitted from the additional support, helping them become mentally more resilient and able to speak about their emotions.