WTI expansion in Sudan: New field office in Damazine, Blue Nile State
Windle Trust International (WTI) is committed to providing education to conflicted affected or marginalised people in the Sudan including host communities, Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs), refugees and asylum seekers.
To be able to reach communities most in need, the Trustees of WTI recently approved the opening of our first field office in Damazin, Blue Nile State, Sudan. Before establishing the field office, WTI’s Sudan based staff conducted three needs assessment in the region, especially focusing on education provision. With these assessments WTI is well placed to intervene in various education service provision in the region including primary, secondary and higher education for the host community, IDPs and refugees. WTI is in discussions with major players in the education sector in the region including the Humanitarian Aid Commission (HAC) at both the federal and State level, the State Ministry of Education, UNICEF, UNHCR, the Blue Nile University and other partners.
Why Blue Nile State?
Blue Nile State is one of the eighteen States that constitute Sudan. It is located at the South-East part of the country bordering Sennar State and shares international borders with Ethiopia and South Sudan. Blue Nile State consists of seven localities: Damazine, Tadamon, Roseiris,Sennar, Bau, Kurmuk and Geissan and is home to approximately 1,197,623 people. 75% of these live in rural areas with 25% concentrated mainly at Roseries and Damazine urban centres. This concentration creates pressure on the limited resources and services provided in these areas. For example, schools at Damazine become very overcrowded, especially in areas where IDPs live. This has been made worse with the arrival of Ethiopian refugees from the Tigray conflict in Ethiopia.
In addition, Blue Nile is one of the States directly affected by the civil war in Sudan, which ended with the signing of Juba Peace Agreement in March 2021. This prolonged conflict has had multiple effects on the state’s population, economy and social life. For instance, a considerable number of the population were forced to leave their home lands and migrate to other parts within the state or the country to live as internally displaced persons (IDPs), while others crossed the international borders and sought refuge in neighboring countries.
According to UNICEF 43% of children in Blue Nile are out of primary school education and the state is ranked as the worst performing in the country for education. Lack of awareness on the importance of education, poverty, and the over-stretching of limited resources have all contributed to the poor quality and standards of education. There is a huge gap in teacher training with 56% of the total teachers at the basic education level being untrained. With only one Teachers Training Centre in the state, the total number of teachers (across all levels) is 6,322, with 63.8% of them untrained. According to the Director General of the State Ministry of Education in Damazine, the number of teachers is very low compared to the actual need. With the increasing number of refugees and returnees, there is a clear need to employ more teachers to bridge this gap and to provide teacher training.
Since the signing of the Juba Peace Agreement between the Transitional Government and the armed groups in Darfur and Blue Nile there has been relative peace in the region. This has encouraged Sudanese refugees in neighbouring countries to return to the state. However, adding together the influx of Ethiopian refugees alongside the IDPs and returnees has resulted in high education needs in the region. The arrival of returnees and refugees has however brought in new challenges such as the use of multiple languages and multiple-curricular by different groups in the state: refugee and returnee children from Ethiopia have studied the Ethiopian curriculum have want to use Tigray language; returnees from South Sudan have studied the East Africa curriculum use the English language. The Sudanese curriculum itself uses the Arabic language. This situation needs to be addressed to ensure that the quality of education provided is not lowered. Head teachers have highlighted that it is becoming difficult to integrate refugee and returnee students in the schools due to the language problem. As a result, most of these students leave school and go to look for work.
Furthermore, schools visited by WTI are in poor condition, lack clean drinking water and water connections to the main water pipelines. Large numbers of students in mixed schools also share the same latrines. One of the schools visited had no latrines or drinking water at all, needing students to bring bottles of water from home. The local authorities have recommended that all schools in the city should be rehabilitated and free meals should be provided for the school-age children to continue their education, as most of the students are IDPs or returnees and come from poor families.