Working toward peace through education in South Sudan

Refugee Voice Jesuit Refugee Service/USA

October 2015 — Vol 9, Issue 2

Working toward peace through education in South Sudan The

fundamental right of children to education is most at risk during emergencies. Humanitarian crises — including wars, earthquakes, tsunamis, floods and protracted conflict — disrupt education, delay access, and contribute to higher dropout and lower completion rates. When such emergencies result in displacement, the lack of access to quality education can have profound implications for the ability of affected communities to recover and thrive.

“I was born in war, I went to school during war, I got married during war, I raised my six children during war and now I am growing old and raising grandchildren in war. I am so sick of war,” said Lucia, 56, at the Jesuit Refugee Service compound in continued on page 2

A Note from the National Director The refugee crisis underway today in Europe is driven by Syrians, Iraqis, Afghans, and Eritrean, Sudanese and other African refugees fleeing war and oppressive circumstances.

Humanitarian crises disrupt education by delaying access to schools and contributing to higher dropout and lower completion rates. When such emergencies result in displacement, the lack of access to quality education can have profound implications for the ability of affected communities to recover and thrive.

From Syria to Afghanistan, from Ethiopian camps hosting Eritrean refugees to South Sudanese communities hosting internally displaced families, JRS seeks to help refugees and the displaced become self-sufficient via our education programs.

A refugee teacher walks home from a long day of classes in Gendrassa refugee camp in Maban. JRS trains teachers to help improve their skills in the classroom. (Angela Wells / Jesuit Refugee Service)

Through our education programs, JRS has been accompanying and serving refugees and internally displaced people in southern Sudan — now the independent country of South Sudan — since 1992.

Schools provide hope, and education creates a culture of peace that enables refugees to ease their resettlement and integration into their new countries of refuge, or — the hope of so many — to return home as leaders of their communities to help rebuild their countries.

With every good wish and blessing,

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Maban, South Sudan. Lucia has been displaced four times in her life. Violence in her native South Sudan comes in waves, with each new cycle of life.

Four years ago, the international community joined South Sudan in celebrating what seemed to be a new era as it overcame five decades of war and gained independence.

However, the hoped for stability did not follow the earlier joy of independence.

To the north, in Sudan, war continued as the Khartoum government rained bombs down on its own states of South Kordofan and Blue Nile, on the new southern border. These assaults have left 500,000 people in need of humanitarian assistance and have resulted in 130,000 new refugees from Blue Nile state seeking refuge in South Sudan.

Violence also continued in South Sudan, eventually escalating into an open civil war following an outbreak of intensified conflict in December of 2013.

Since independence in 2011, an estimated 50,000 to 100,000 people have perished, and more than two million people are currently displaced.

A new and long-term threat has resulted as well: one-third of the South Sudanese population faces severe food shortages.

camps in northern Uganda, and later expanded its work to increase access to education in four sites in southern Sudan.

Flora was one of the refugees who fled to Uganda, where she resided and received education from 1992 until 1996.

Today she works as the assistant education coordinator for JRS in Maban. JRS has been serving refugees who have relocated to the Maban community from Blue Nile state in Sudan, as well as the local host and IDP communities, with teacher training programs, adult literacy education and psychosocial programming, among other services.

“Refugees are traumatized, they’ve been chased out of their homes, and without assistance and protection they will live in insecurity, and they will never feel at home. But if they can access education they will have hope that their lives will improve once peace comes.

They will make a difference,” said Flora.

JRS is also working to extend education in Yambio, South Sudan, by training teachers, increasing access to education for girls, and constructing schools for returnee and IDP populations.

Operating in both these locations is precarious at best.

South Sudan ranks in the top five most dangerous countries “Education is very important in our life because South Sudan is still a baby. We in the world for want to take this war away from our community and school is very important humanitarian workers. for this younger generation as they grow,” says Rose, headmaster of the JRS In Maban, the JRS “I grew up in war, but nursery school for the host community in Maban. (Angela Wells/JRS) team was evacuated the worst challenge twice in 2014, and I’ve faced has been experienced threats of renewed violence in 2015. Yambio, during this recent one. I was living in Malakal when fighting which was relatively peaceful, recently suffered a bout of came to my home in January. My house was burnt to the violence causing further internal displacement. ground. The next day I found rebels with weapons in what was left of my damaged house. They were the age of my son In both areas, however, JRS remains committed to giving and they wanted to take me as their wife,” said Lucia. space for children and adults to learn, a fundamental way to “I managed to escape. Even though nothing of my home remains, my life did. I have neighbors who lost everything, including people they love. I am lucky,” said Lucia, showing the only thing that remains of her home — a photo on her mobile phone.

The stories of people who are surviving this conflict are filled with hope amidst despair. Across ethnic, religious and regional lines, and despite the tremendous suffering that has become the norm, the yearning for education, based on an unquenchable faith in a better tomorrow, still persists.

Jesuit Refugee Service has been responding to this call for education from refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) since 1992. JRS first established schools in refugee

foster hope for a brighter future.

To further this vision, JRS will soon expand its project in Maban to take over a vocational training center that was occupied, until recently, by armed forces. In this center JRS hopes to provide English, vocational skills training and computer classes — and eventually the Jesuit Commons Higher Education at the Margins program, an online tertiary education initiative.

Additionally, JRS will establish a nursery school in an IDP camp near the capital of Juba, populated entirely with women and children, who have little access to any form of schooling. In early 2016, JRS plans to re-enter Adjumani, Uganda, by first renovating secondary school facilities and

The Refugee Voice — October 2015 later filling education gaps. The impact of programs like these has been made evident through the contributions made by those people like Lucia and Flora who were educated while they were in exile in years past.

“Without education people really suffer. This war is because of illiteracy. If these people were educated it would have never gotten to this point. Educating a younger generation will bring peace to South Sudan,” said Lucia, who despite her difficult circumstances was able to study to become a medical practitioner and is now employed as storekeeper at a pharmacy in one of the heath posts run by an NGO. JRS Maban project director Fr. Pau Vidal S.J. agrees.

Despite the hardships, these refugee teachers use education as their protest to injustice.

“I have chosen to be a teacher because I want to help children and to keep the generation moving forward…

When I teach and see the achievements of my students I feel happy because I know they are going to know their rights,” said Leila, another refugee and teacher in Maban.

“If our grandfathers were educated and they had educated their children, our problems of today wouldn’t be here. We wouldn’t be here as refugees,” she added.

This cyclical violence is likely to propagate to future generations as long as education remains a distant dream for most. According to UNICEF, 70 percent of children between six and 17 years of age in South Sudan have never stepped inside a classroom and 9,000 children have been recruited into various armed groups.

“Because of the war, because of the displacement, the majority of South Sudanese haven’t had access to education, haven’t been able to understand the reasons for the war … therefore it has been In addition to increased access very easy for the elites to education, the South — both of the north and Sudanese government must of the south — to use prioritize long-term structural the people, to send them peace if brutal violence, to the battlefields to be ongoing food insecurity and the killed, to be slaughtered displacement of millions are to without any real reason. subside.

So hopefully, if we The signing of the new peace are able to invest in agreement in August, which education, the future enforces an immediate end could be brighter because to fighting, political power you would have a sharing as well as justice population who are not for atrocities committed Teachers like these in a JRS training class are key to ensuring as willing as they were through a commission for truth, before to hold a gun and to girls attend and remain in school. (Angela Wells / JRS) reconciliation and healing, is one kill other people,” said Fr. step in the right direction.

However, the leaders from both Pau. sides have to commit to the implementation of this deal if While the South Sudanese government has dedicated most lives are really to be protected. Too many peace deals and of its financial resources to funding the ongoing war, they ceasefires have not been honored. have neglected their country’s children, failing to provide “The work before the humanitarian community — as well even basic education to the vast majority of the population. as South Sudanese leaders — is immense. Lasting peace is In Upper Nile State alone an estimated 63 percent of an urgent need to ensure that food can be grown, students schools are occupied by armed forces, and often teachers can learn, lives can be saved and people can return to their haven’t been paid in months. homes,” said Beatrice Gikonyo, JRS Eastern Africa advocacy “Teachers are alone, they don’t have the support of the officer. government… We have to support them, to empower them Although humanitarian agencies and the international and this is the hope of education in Maban,” said Alvar community have mobilized to help mitigate the effects of Sanchez S.J., JRS Maban education coordinator. violence in South Sudan, not nearly enough has been done As a result of the fighting and lack of support, South Sudan to ensure the majority of people receive proper nutrition, has the highest illiteracy rate in the world. Only two education or protection. The World Food Programme is still percent of kids who should be attending secondary school $163.4 million short of their 2015 funding appeal, leading are enrolled in classes. For those with access to school, to a 30 percent cut in food rations for refugees, while other persistent insecurity and severe food shortages often agencies cannot keep up with the escalating and pressing disrupt their studies. For two consecutive years, primary needs of those in despair. school students could not sit for their national exit exams in Upper Nile. They finally managed to do so in 2015, however Jesuit Refugee Service will continue to commit its resources and advocacy efforts to help mitigate the long-term effects those exam papers were burnt in Malakal, a hub of recent of this conflict by enhancing education efforts in South violence, leaving a generation of children with their dreams Sudan today. Schools provide the stability that children need of even completing primary school shattered.

to cope with the loss, fear, stress and violence experienced during times of crisis. Being in school can keep children safe and protected from risks, including gender-based violence, recruitment into armed groups, child labor and early marriage.

Education can also contribute to peace building and foster the development of more resilient and cohesive societies.

With access to a quality education, a child can better fulfill his or her own potential and fully contribute to the growth, strength and stability of their society.

Access to schools and quality education is an urgent priority for all war-affected children and youth, as it is a basic human right and is fundamental to a better future for their communities. For these reasons, JRS advocates for the basic right to emergency and long-term educational opportunities and urges better access to schooling for war-affected children and youth.

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR ACTION: • The warring parties of South Sudan must implement the peace agreement of August 2015, and restore the stability needed to ensure a secure future for the South Sudanese people, including access to basic human rights such as access to education.

• The international community must work to ensure that adequate resources are provided and properly channeled to build up the administrative structures and infrastructure needed to develop and sustain services for the people of South Sudan. This includes providing sustained funding for the activities of international agencies such as the UN Refugee Agency, the World Food Program, and UNMISS, until the government of South Sudan can assume full

responsibility for the safety and welfare of the population.

• The government of South Sudan must make a long term investment in quality education that brings together children of various ethnic groups by ensuring regular payment of teacher salaries, preservation and upkeep of schools and that adequate government funds are allocated to education, especially secondary and tertiary levels of education.

• Governmental and non-governmental international humanitarian agencies must protect IDPs currently living in informal, inhospitable settlements with little to no access to food or water, especially children who are at risk of military recruitment or sexual violence.

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