Maria Romero

Colombian educator who created the first national program to integrate displaced children into formal education during the country's civil conflict.

Maria Romero (b. 1965) is a Colombian educator whose work transformed education access for conflict-affected children. Growing up in Medellín during the 1980s drug war, Romero witnessed firsthand how violence disrupted schooling. After earning a teaching degree in 1988, she worked in schools serving displaced families, noticing systemic barriers preventing these children from re-entering formal education.

In 2002, during the height of Colombia's civil conflict, Romero founded Escuelas de Paz (Schools of Peace), a program that created mobile classrooms in displacement camps. These units provided not just academic instruction, but also trauma counseling and documentation services to help children prove their identity for enrollment. By 2005, the program had enrolled 12,000 displaced children, a model later adopted by UNICEF in Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Her 2007 initiative Educación Móvil developed a curriculum adaptable to different conflict zones, including bilingual programs for indigenous communities. Romero's advocacy led to Colombia's 2011 Law 1448, which mandates schools to accept displaced students without residency documentation. By 2020, her organization had trained 3,500 teachers in conflict-sensitive pedagogy and established 150 permanent schools in former guerrilla zones.

Romero's work is documented in the UN's Education in Conflict Zones report as a best practice model. Her 2015 book 《Learning in the Crossfire》 became required reading at Harvard's Kennedy School. In 2018, she launched the Global Education Fund for Conflict Zones, raising $12 million to replicate her programs in 12 countries. Over 500,000 children have benefited from initiatives inspired by her work, according to a 2022 UNESCO study.