The Schools of Peace are completely free centers, made of a familiar environment, they facilitate integration into school and provide concrete support to families, while offering a model of education open to others, sympathetic with the less fortunate and overcoming barriers and discriminations.
They are run by volunteers supporting children in their curriculum. Activities of the Schools of Peace are usually taking place several times per week. Tours, day trip, celebrations, excursions and summer holidays are an integral part of it. Every year in the world thousands of children and adolescents are regularly attending the Schools of Peace in Europe, Latin America, Asia or Africa. Many of them can easily be called children “at risk”. Risks may differ: from deviance or social exclusion to failure and school dropout, but also the likelihood of illiteracy, early labour and family removal or abandonment. The fragile nature of the family and social environment would not allow those kids to overcome these kind of obstacles unharmed. Here is where the work of the Schools of Peace integrates: a robust and loyal support to the child's development, a “holistic” approach on different levels and with the following objectives:
- Scholastic rehabilitation
- Deviance prevention
- Socialization
- Academic inclusion for children with special needs
- Cultural integration
- Health education (accident prevention, food education, hygiene)
- Emotional support
- Religious education
- Sympathetic and universal upbringing
- Peace education
- Supplementary feeding (where needed)
Over the years the Community of Sant'Egidio has spread in many parts of Italy, Europe and the world. Often, the service to the children has marked the start of a new Community. In each and every kind of context, the service to the children is always characterized by watchfulness over kids individual needs, with warm and friendly proximity.
