Back to Learning: Community resilience in urban settings of South Sudan
Covid-19 closed schools in South Sudan for 15 months. This alone increased the number of out of school children there to 4.3 million – this is 2.1 million additional children whose education has been disrupted. Many of these children will never return to school.
About the project
Girls have been particularly affected by Covid-19 school closures. They have seen an increase in gender-based violence, a rise in child marriage and a corresponding explosion in early pregnancies. In these circumstances and against a cultural background with an ingrained disdain for girls’ education, the challenge to bring children back to education is significant.
On behalf of UNICEF, Windle Trust International now implements a Community Resilience programme to advocate for the safe return of children to education.
Working in the states of Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria, Eastern Equatoria and Northern Bahr el Ghazal, the project focuses on Back to School Learning Campaigns and features activities to:
Mobilise and gain support for education from the local community
Provide additional teacher training and support in Literacy and Numeracy
Train Parent-Teacher Associations to enhance school leadership and community engagement
Distribute school supplies, including student kits, dignity kits, “school in a box” and recreational kits
Form Peace Clubs to ensure that schools are zones of peace and free from conflict
Through these efforts we aim to improve access to schools and bring both girls and boys back to education. We work with those who dropped out due to Covid-19 challenges, but also help those who have never before set foot in a school to enrol.
How do our projects make a difference?
Projects like this contribute to increasing access to and the quality of education for conflict-affected communities in eastern Africa and the Horn of Africa. Find out how this makes a difference below:
