Reparative education as a path to healing in Nigeria
Project Update Nigeria 24 January 2025
Date and time
Location
Flagship project provides trauma-informed learning for children in Borno state.
When Boko Haram overran northeast Nigeria in the summer of 2014, insurgents systematically targeted the education system, attacking schools and kidnapping hundreds of pupils. Now schools are being used as a venue for healing for children affected by conflict-related sexual violence.
But what does this look like?
Education as a form of reparation can take many forms; there is no one-size-fits all model. At its core, however, is a learning approach tailored to the trauma, stigma and unique needs of students affected by conflict-related sexual violence. In Nigeria, we see this in action across Borno state, where GSF has partnered with the Neem Foundation to provide trauma-informed education to 200 children.
At the Lafiya Sarari school in Maiduguri, all students have been affected by the insurgency. About 80 percent are children affected by conflict-related sexual violence. Here, they are given the freedom to learn at their own pace, with educational attainments measured over the course of six years instead of having to meet yearly goals to progress. Students follow an interactive curriculum, with classes centred on values including peace, integrity, honesty, respect and tolerance; the same values that were targeted by Boko Haram.
After finding Neem, I started to see that I have a bright future
Since September 2024, 31 children have enrolled at Lafiya Sarari school as part of a six-year flagship project centred on education as a form of reparation. Students receive psychosocial and medical support, treating psychological wounds often overlooked in mainstream schools. In play-based therapy sessions, staff have seen anger and anxiety surface as a result of the trauma they have suffered. Some children select toys associated with violence - a reminder of the brutalities they witnessed.

“When some of the children joined the school, I couldn’t have a session without them crying,” says one school psychologist. “They didn’t feel safe..we had to come up with activities that would make them feel free.”
While the classroom is used as a venue for individual healing, Neem is also turning schools into starting point for wider healing and reconciliation. Parents and pupils, and families of survivors and former insurgents, are brought together to share their grievances and reckon with what they experienced.
Both survivors and Neem Foundation are clear; children affected by conflict-related sexual violence must not be ostracised or singled out. Some are sent to schools in other provinces to escape the stigma from their local communities. Lafiya Sarari is open to all affected by Boko Haram, promoting the inclusion of those affected by sexual violence among other children, while striving to tackle the unique obstacles they face. This includes providing regular medical check-ups, and helping obtain birth certificates; often a major barrier for children wishing to enter mainstream education.

Almost everything we need to progress in life is here and provided by our teachers...this school makes us feel we have hope
Accelerated learning is another form of reparative education underway. Another 89 children, both boys and girls, are enrolled in programmes ahead of attending private schools across Borno state. The initiative, which will be supplemented by trauma-informed after-school activities, lasts for six to eight months depending on their individual learning needs.
A model for change
While the project is still in its infancy, for Medinat Malefakis, GSF’s Nigeria Country Lead and Senior Project Officer, the symbolic value is clear. More than ten years after the Boko Haram attacks, children impacted by the atrocities are reclaiming what they are rightfully owed, and recovering in spaces that were singled out for violence.
“The conflict we’re responding to had an anti-education rhetoric at its heart. That was the biggest part of their ideology,” she explains. They did not believe that children should go to school, that boys and girls could sit in the same classroom, and that formal education was central to societal development.”
What is being achieved in Nigeria can be replicated with survivors elsewhere. In discussions with GSF in other countries, survivors recognise their right to education as a form of reparation, and often list it as a priority for both them and their children.

The project is a “compelling example” of the power of education as reparation, says Zoe Betrand, GSF’s Senior Advocacy and Policy Officer. “It sets a vital precedent for how education can be used as a pathway from trauma to recovery. It holds immense potential to inspire similar efforts worldwide."
Education is also a key part of our wider interim reparative measures project, established with partners Youth Initiative Against Terrorism (YIAT) and the Future Resilience and Development Foundation (FRAD). Survivors who completed primary school are now pursuing secondary and higher education across Yobe and Adawama states, with full financial, medical, and psychosocial support. Others chose financial compensation to purchase land or establish a business.
Here again, we see the survivor-centred approach at play. So far, some 470 survivors have received the first instalment financial compensation, to be used depending on their wishes, including purchasing land and business equipment.
Back in Borno, staff reflect on how informal lessons and therapy have helped students to let go of their past and return to the classroom. Some choose to paint, others to draw or dance.
“When they can’t speak – they draw. They learn to move on,” says teacher Philemon Nyminiba. “It helps in breaking the walls around them.”