The intention with this anthology is to create a frame of reference concerning the educational art of supporting childrens and adolescents’ socio-emotional well-being, learning and development. Special focus is on children living in the shadow of wars and other large scale disasters, but also on traumatic experiences and crises related to individuals and more limited groups, such as a school, a family of or a group of friends. 21 articles describe and discuss theory, research and practical-professional innovation, emphasising on the following aspects: • How to support socio-emotional well-being, mastery, learning and development • Revealing phenomena leading to socio-emotional barriers • Traumatic consequences of war, disasters and severe suppression • Systematic work to decrease and overcome barriers and establish positive coping, learning and development in and after conditions detrimental to basic trust and self esteem • The school as an arena for socio-emotional support • The relationship between socio-emotional growth and development of learning strategies exemplified through acquisition of language and reading. The book is an international contribution with representatives from different countries, universities, research- and professional disciplines. Thus it contains authors from “the land of the velvet revolution”, Georgia, to the east, stories from pupils in Ethiopia to the south, and peer reviews from Fairbanks, Alaska to the north-west. It is, however, based on a cooperation project between two universities in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Universities of Tuzla and Sarajevo, and the University of Oslo in Norway. The anthology aims at updating researchers, lecturers, students and professionals within the fields of ordinary and special needs education, psychology and social welfare, within poverty eradication and long-term development, and also within discourse theory and other fields with related interests. It is financially supported through the Norwegian University Cooperation Programme with South-East Europe (CPSEE) 2002-2004: Institutional Competence Building and Cooperation with Two Bosnian Universities: “Special Needs Education towards Inclusion”.