Teachers Helping Teachers is an International Forum convened to raise awareness of the trauma experienced by children living in areas of extreme poverty, armed conflict, natural disasters and public health emergencies.

The forum is part of an international effort to provide teachers with an opportunity to work actively on behalf of children to improve the social conditions in which they live, and to provide them with the opportunity to participate in educational initiatives which are sensitive to the importance of their local heritage and culture.

The forum is grounded in the belief that teachers and researchers who work with children and their families in schools and communities must work together internationally, nationally and locally to establish working partnerships and collaborative initiatives to support children living in areas of armed conflict and natural disasters and to increase their potential to recover from trauma.

Speakers who teach in areas of armed conflict will be invited to work together with researchers and teachers from around the world whose work focuses on language, literacy and learning in families, schools and communities. Particular emphasis will be placed on conversations about the situated literacy activities which are embedded within the local/everyday experiences of children and the multiple ways in which language and literacy, as naturally occurring social and psychological resources within the families, schools and communities, can be used to increase the resilience of children who have experienced mass traumas and live in areas of armed conflict.

The intended outcome is the development of working partnerships and collaborative initiatives which can be undertaken by teachers and researchers from the international community work with teachers and researchers who live and work in areas of armed conflict around the world.

Each of us must work for peace in anyway that we can because the lives of our children depend upon it.