Armenia receives $2.9M grant to support teachers in providing psychosocial support to displaced children from Karabakh

The World Bank announced Friday that Armenia has been selected to receive a new grant from the State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund to support the mental health and wellbeing of displaced children and adolescents from Nagorno-Karabakh region in over 200 schools across the country, the World Bank informed in a statement. The grant will finance an upcoming project to be implemented jointly by the World Bank and the Teach for Armenia Foundation, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education, Science, Culture and Sport, the Republican Pedagogical-Psychological Center, and the Armenian State Pedagogical University.The $2.9 million grant will support the social integration of displaced children and adolescents into Armenian schools, and capacity building and mentoring of school staff to deliver tailored mental health and psychosocial support to displaced children and adolescents, their families, and students from the hosting communities.It will provide technical assistance to design a comprehensive approach for the integration of displaced children and adolescents into the education system along with a specialized mental health and psychosocial support program through a combination of change-based learning, engagement with local communities, and robust monitoring and evaluation systems in schools. The grant will also support integrating the provision of mental health and psychosocial support into the new curriculum. The State and Peacebuilding Umbrella Trust Fund (SPF) is a global multi-donor fund administered by the World Bank that works with partners to address the drivers and impacts of fragility, conflict, and violence and strengthen the resilience of countries and affected populations, communities, and institutions. SPF is supported by Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Switzerland.The World Bank is currently financing 10 projects in Armenia totaling $500 million. Since its inception in Armenia in 1992, the World Bank has provided around $2.7 billion from International Development Association (IDA) to which Armenia became a donor in 2023, from the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), and from trust funds. The World Bank is committed to continuing its support to Armenia in its development path for ending extreme poverty and boosting shared prosperity on a livable planet.