UNESCO Chair on Refugee Integration through Education, Language and Arts

This presentation by Blessing Oluchikwu Awamba about her work with students and teachers in Nigeria, was recorded at the online UNESCO RIELA Spring School: The Arts of Integrating in October 2025.

Blessing's work focuses on strategies for integrating global citizenship education into classroom learning to promote peace. She details some of the ways she has used writing and film shows to help students understand peace better, reflect on their daily lives, and take actions to become more peaceful from within. She also shared how her work is helping teachers become ambassadors of peace and create classrooms that serve as incubators for changemakers who promote peace. The presentation offers a compelling case for reforming education to prioritise peaceful coexistence alongside literacy and numeracy.

Blessing Oluchukwu Awamba is a Nigerian peacebuilding educator and champion for Global Citizenship Education. As the Founder and Lead Educator of Change A Child Community Initiative, she works to transform narratives of violence into opportunities for growth by working with teachers and students to integrate peace education into school learning. Her work has been recognised and supported by international bodies, including UNESCO-APCEIU and SIMA Studios. She is the author of the children's book, Building Our Ideal Community, and a winner of the 2024 UNODC-GRACE international essay competition. Blessing’s vision is to reform educational policy to ensure that peaceful coexistence becomes the primary measure of education across Africa.

This episode was edited by Silvana Esquivel Marquez.

Download the E95 transcript here.

---

First published: 22 July 2026