Living the Response: Refugee Leadership in iACT’s Little Ripples Program

• In Event: Families, Care, and Resilience in Education Amid Crisis

Proposal

For Darfurian refugees who have lived for more than twenty years in camps in eastern Chad, displacement has meant not only the loss of homes and livelihoods but also the need to create new forms of community and leadership in displacement. Within this context, iACT’s Little Ripples program emerged as a model of early childhood education co-designed with refugees themselves. This panelist, who fled Darfur in 2003 and has since become both a traditional leader and program coordinator with iACT, speaks from the perspective of someone who has lived this crisis while also helping to shape its educational response. This presentation will offer reflections on how iACT’s partnership process unfolds from within the camps, where listening, trust, and community ownership are central but not without tensions.

The presentation will also explore the strengths and challenges of iACT’s training-of-trainers approach, asking what kinds of power dynamics are dismantled and what kinds may be inadvertently reproduced. Drawing on personal stories, the presenter will reflect on what it meant to take on the role of teacher, mentor, and coordinator, and how these opportunities were experienced both emotionally and socially. The speaker will also share lessons about the conditions that allow collaboration to feel authentic rather than symbolic, offering practical guidance for how ECEiE partnerships can more fully honor the knowledge and leadership of displaced communities.

Author

• Alfateh Tarbosh, iACT