Showing posts with label education is a human right. Show all posts
Showing posts with label education is a human right. Show all posts

Saturday, February 03, 2024

Sudan: University of Nyala, South Darfur looted - Al-Qandul Initiative to remove books from the library

NOTE from Sudan Watch Editor: This copy of a Feb 3 post at X microblogging platform says (translated from Arabic by Google): "University of Nyala... The Tatars of the era (the Janjaweed) were here... they wreaked havoc... searching for democracy in the corridors of libraries and classrooms... they looted everything and left the books on the ground". 

A reply says (translated from Arabic by Google): "A scene that tears the heart. Compensating homes and notables is one thing, but compensating legacies and sciences is another matter. What is even more painful is that there is an upcoming generation that has lost the path of the sound educational ladder related to age and stage. How many children lost years of their lives between Hemedti, Hamdok, and Burhan..10:42 AM · Feb 3, 2024".

A sample of comments are noted here below along with photos from the post and a Jan 25 report published nine days before the Feb 3 post at X containing undated news. They are documented here as an example of misleading news on social media. The widely shared post has attracted thousands of responses across the world. At first glance it is not easy to tell whether or not the post is propaganda designed to sow seeds of disharmony.

Note that the report says "Nyala University faced looting and vandalism by unknown assailants at the onset of the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April last year" and that "Nyala University holds significance as one of the largest libraries in the Darfur region".

Also, Nyala youths are "to join the Al-Qandul Initiative in voluntary work to contribute to the restoration of institutions in Nyala impacted by war, emphasizing the collective effort required ... Samira Suleiman, another member of the initiative, called on the university authorities to relocate the salvaged books to a safer location than their current one".

Media studies ought to be taught in all schools worldwide. Right now, one hopes the university authorities will work in the best interest of the people of Darfur and investigate who is behind the Al-Qandul Initiative to remove the books and restore the institutions of Nyala, South Darfur. It is important to ensure that Darfur's educational materials are not interfered with and disappeared in plain sight. Curiously, Darfur's important library and its books were not torched. The books must be kept safe in the right hands.

“Ok, what is their interest in entering the library?

To plunder it” 

عبودي ماكس @Abdoalraashdy

“Because they are actually mercenary thieves” 

Abdelrahim0409 @abdelrahim0409


"Ignorance is a disaster"

9:07 AM · Feb 3, 2024

“Maybe they don't know what a library means and what a book means” 

Mohieldin @mohimg


“Boko Haram”

6:45 AM · Feb 3, 2024

"The University of Nyala was looted by citizens living near the university, specifically the Musiyah neighbourhood. A committee was formed from the youth of the Musiyah neighbourhood, and they informed the people in the mosques that anyone who removed anything from the university should return it. The attempt failed, and they tried again for the second time, searching almost all the houses adjacent to the university. They were able to return 50 percent."

8:24 AM · Feb 3, 2024

"That's horrible, I'm so sorry." 

Larky McRory @LMcRory

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Report at Radio Tamazuj
Dated 25 January 2024 - here is a copy in full:

Youth initiative restores Nyala University library

(SOUTH DARFUR) In Nyala town, South Darfur state, a group of young individuals has launched an initiative to restore the Nyala University library, which fell victim to vandalism during the ongoing war in Sudan.


Members of the Al-Qandul Initiative, led by Mohammed Al-Tahir Mohammed, are actively collecting and organizing books and references in the central library of Nyala University, located in the Musiya suburb.


Nyala University faced looting and vandalism by unknown assailants at the onset of the conflict between the army and the Rapid Support Forces in mid-April last year.


Speaking to Radio Tamazuj on Tuesday, Al-Tahir described the extensive destruction suffered by the university and highlighted the significant efforts made by the youth in the Qandul Initiative.


He stated, “Through the collective endeavours of our youth, we’ve successfully gathered and arranged books and references from the university library. However, there is still substantial work ahead to restore it to its former state.”


Al-Tahir urged the youth of Nyala to join the Al-Qandul Initiative in voluntary work to contribute to the restoration of institutions in Nyala impacted by war, emphasizing the collective effort required for this endeavour.


Samira Suleiman, another member of the initiative, called on the university authorities to relocate the salvaged books to a safer location than their current one.


Nyala University, situated in the Musiya suburb southeast of Nyala, approximately ten kilometers from downtown, holds significance as one of the largest libraries in the Darfur region.


Khalid Mursal emphasized the library's status as a knowledge treasure trove and stated, “Enhancing its appearance signifies progress on the path to recovery.” The restoration efforts are seen as crucial for the revival of this educational institution.


View original: https://radiotamazuj.org/en/news/article/youth-initiative-restores-nyala-university-library


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Friday, December 29, 2023

Sudan: Video on Kassala Youth Emergency Room

Here's the video for those who cannot access the microblogging platform X: 


And here is a direct link to the video at YouTube: 

A description of the video at YouTube says, in Arabic and English:

"Kassala Youth Emergency Room 
At a distance of 625 km from the war-torn Khartoum due to the conflict between the Rapid Support Forces and the Sudanese Armed Forces, the film “Kassala Youth Emergency Room”, documents an initiative by people working in Kassala.

It shows a team of volunteers working for over 102,777 displaced people in Kassala State, noting that this number doubled after the outbreak of war in Wad Madani city on the eighteenth of December. Kassala state and locality are some of the most important destinations in eastern Sudan for survivors of the war in Khartoum, Darfur, and the Gezira.

The film follows the Emergency Room’s volunteers, showcasing their support for those affected by the April 15 war, from evacuation, welcoming and housing in shelters to providing material and psychological support to children throughout the past eight months.

“War is psychological destruction! For us, this is the priority to evacuate people!”

Waad Mahjoub Altahir, Member of the Communications and Public Relations Office Kassala youth emergency room."

ENDS

Saturday, November 18, 2023

South Sudan sends 150 teachers to China for training

Report from Xinhua
By Editor: huaxia
Dated Thursday, 16 November 2023 - here is a copy in full:

South Sudan to send 150 teachers to China for training program


JUBA, Nov. 16 (Xinhua) -- Officials of South Sudan have announced that it would send 150 teachers and school managers to China for training this week under the second phase of the China-Aided Technical Cooperation Project in Education.


Deputy Minister of General Education and Instruction Martin Tako Moyi said Wednesday that the first batch of 65 teachers and school managers would depart for China Friday to undergo a month-long training.


The remaining 85 teachers and school managers would travel to China in two phases, Moyi said, disclosing that the government had appealed to several countries to train South Sudanese teachers, but only China responded positively.


"We have appealed to so many countries to train our teachers in their countries, but nobody has responded, except the people and the government of China," Moyi said during the opening ceremony for the training program in Juba, the capital of South Sudan.


He said that the Chinese government had shown commitment to building the capacity of teachers and school managers, which in turn would improve the quality of learning in the world's youngest nation.


The training will be conducted in both Juba, the capital of South Sudan, and Shanghai by Chinese educational experts from the Shanghai Educational Publishing House. A team of six Chinese educational experts is already in Juba to train some of the teachers at the Rombur National Teacher Training Institute.


Undersecretary for the Ministry of General Education and Instruction Kuyok Abol Kuyok said that under the project, they have managed to review and print textbooks in core subjects like English language, science and mathematics, which have already been distributed to schools across the country.


"Through the project, we have also trained many students and learners in the Chinese language at Juba Day Secondary School. The ministry has received requests from many schools for Chinese language classes. This is a demonstration of the success of this cultural aspect of the project," Kuyok said.


Chinese Ambassador to South Sudan Ma Qiang highlighted the historical experiences and common aspirations for development shared between South Sudan and China. He noted that in the 12 years of diplomatic relations between the two countries, the education sector has always been a prioritized area for exchanges and cooperation.


He said that China has supported the construction of several primary and secondary schools, trained over 5,000 professionals in various sectors, and provided hundreds of scholarships for studying in China.


"The second phase of the project, since its official launch two years ago, has delivered more than a million volumes of textbooks in the subjects of English, mathematics and science," Ma said.


He also mentioned that more than 600 teachers and school managers will undergo training programs under the second phase of the project in both Juba and Shanghai.


The second phase of the China-Aided Technical Cooperation Project in Education involves drafting, printing and provision of textbooks for some primary and secondary schools in South Sudan, organizing capacity-building programs for the teachers and the educational administrators, developing and providing an evaluation system for the usage of the textbooks, and dispatching Chinese teaching personnel to Juba to teach the Chinese language. 


View original: http://www.chinaview.cn/20231116/01baf632831b41178807e6303678a4b6/c.html


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Thursday, November 02, 2023

Conflict in Sudan is world’s largest displacement crisis

ABOUT 19 MILLION SUDANESE CHILDREN are awaiting schools to re-open. For children, education is about more than the right to learn. Schools can protect children from the physical dangers around them – including abuse, exploitation, and recruitment into armed groups. Should the conflict result in schools remaining closed, this will have devastating impacts on children’s development and psychosocial well-being. Read more.


News and Press Release 

Source OCHA 

Posted 2 Nov 2023 

Originally published 2 Nov 2023


Sudan: Humanitarian Key Messages (November 2023)


● More than six months since fighting erupted on 15 April, Sudan is experiencing a humanitarian crisis of epic proportions. Civilians are paying the price of the ongoing fighting. About half of the population – 24.7 million people, including 14 million children – needs humanitarian aid and protection assistance.
About 5.8 million people are displaced inside Sudan or have fled to neighbouring countries, half of whom are children. Women make up 69 per cent of the internally displaced persons (IDPs), including those in war zones, and data from Chad indicates that 90 per cent of the refugees crossing the borders are women and girls. Similarly in Egypt, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) has recorded that most of the registered households upon crossing the borders were female-headed ones. The conflict – and surging hunger, disease and displacement – threatens to consume the entire country. It is time to silence the guns.


● Millions of people – especially in Khartoum, Darfur and Kordofan – lack access to food, water, shelter, electricity, education, health care and nutrition. As the humanitarian situation deteriorates, the communities’ coping capacity has weakened. Hunger and malnutrition were already at record levels before the fighting, now, an estimated 20.3 million people – 42 per cent of the population – face acute food insecurity. Of these, 6.3 million people are at emergency levels of hunger, only one step away from famine. Over 18 million people lack access to improved sanitation and around 8 million people practice open defecation. About 3.5 million children under five years are acutely malnourished, of whom 700,000 suffer from severe acute malnourishment and are at 11 times higher risk of death compared with their healthy peers. This adds to the burden of care on women and girls and exposes them to multiple risks in the context of the armed conflict.


● Parties to the conflict must put an end to harming civilians and respect international humanitarian law, as agreed under the Jeddah Declaration of Commitment to Protect the Civilians of Sudan. The parties must allow civilians safe passage. People fleeing conflict – especially women, children and those with special needs – must be able to do so safely. Attacks on hospitals, schools and other essential civilian infrastructure must stop. Access to critical items and services must be guaranteed. All health facilities occupied by parties to the conflict must be vacated. De-escalation, dialogue and a cessation of hostilities are essential to resolve the crisis.


● The spread and escalation of fighting is deeply concerning, especially as the conflict reaches new areas. Hostilities have started to spill over into Aj Jazirah State, Sudan’s breadbasket, which could have grave consequences for the harvest season and agricultural productivity. Shortages of critical inputs like seeds and fertilizers coupled with erratic weather patterns threaten both planting and harvesting. A below average harvest in the coming months would push more people into hunger and others into more severe levels of hunger.


● Protection remains an urgent priority, with an increasing number of reports of sexual and genderbased violence, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, and grave violations of human and children’s rights. Parties to the conflict should not use rape as a weapon of war and those accused of it should be held accountable. As inter-communal tensions mount, the ability to access protection services and support systems reduces. Civilians are at risk of explosive hazards, though the extent and level of new contamination is unknown. Parties to the conflict must protect civilians, including children, from grave violations of their rights.


● The war in Sudan is now the world’s largest displacement crisis. As more refugees flee across Sudan’s borders, host communities in neighbouring countries are struggling. A protracted conflict in Sudan could tip the entire region into a humanitarian catastrophe. Humanitarian partners are working closely with governments in neighbouring countries to respond. New arrivals need protection and assistance.
Moreover, host communities in remote border areas, where services and infrastructure are scarce or non-existent, were already suffering due to climate shocks and food scarcity.


● Outbreaks of diseases pose a growing threat, particularly in overcrowded shelter sites and sites with poor water, sanitation and hygiene. Sudan is already facing outbreaks of cholera, dengue, measles, and malaria. Even in relatively safe locations hosting displaced populations, living conditions are deteriorating. Displacement sites have been flooded during the rainy season, raising the risk of further spread of deadly diseases. Partners must step up to contain ongoing disease outbreaks and mitigate the risks of potential outbreaks. Projections based on Johns Hopkins’ Lives Saved Tool modelling indicate that at least 10,000 children under five years may die by the end of 2023 due to an increase in food insecurity, and disruptions to essential services.


● About 19 million children are awaiting schools to re-open. For children, education is about more than the right to learn. Schools can protect children from the physical dangers around them – including abuse, exploitation, and recruitment into armed groups. Schools serve as centres for multiple services. Children can be reached with life-saving information, food, water, immunizations, healthcare, and hygiene supplies. Teachers and other education personnel can support children’s mental health, providing children with stability and structure to help them cope with the trauma they experience every day and referring children for any necessary additional support. Should the conflict result in schools remaining closed, this will have devastating impacts on children’s development and psychosocial well-being.


● Humanitarians continue to face immense obstacles to assist people in need. Bureaucratic and administrative impediments must be lifted so that aid workers can move supplies more swiftly. Visas, travel permits, and other procedures required to move staff and assistance inside the country delay the delivery of assistance. Looting and attacks against humanitarian personnel, facilities and supplies further compromise the ability of partners to deliver aid and services. The parties to the conflict must adhere to international humanitarian law and guarantee unhindered access for humanitarian personnel and supplies. Aid convoys face threats, roadblocks, restrictions and bureaucratic impediments, while intensified airstrikes and shelling in Khartoum make safe access almost impossible.


● Despite the challenges, humanitarian agencies in Sudan have made strides in accessing people across Sudan, including in hard-to-reach areas. Through both crossline and cross-border movements, convoys have reached East Darfur, North Darfur, South Darfur, West Darfur, North Kordofan states, Jabal Awlia in Khartoum, and other areas. More than 3.7 million people have received lifesaving food, emergency shelter, health, nutrition, protection, water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and other assistance since 15 April. An estimated 5.2 million people received livelihood assistance. Aid must be scaled up and sustained to reach more people in desperate need. To expand assistance to people in hard-to-reach areas, innovative approaches to working with communities are critical.


● Additional resources are urgently required to support a humanitarian response that was already significantly underfunded prior to the current conflict. Humanitarian actors require US$2.6 billion to provide life-saving multi-cluster assistance and protection services to 18.1 million people through the end of this year. So far, only 33.6 per cent has been received. Additional funds are urgently needed to meet immense needs, including critical funding to national NGOs on the frontlines of the response.


Disclaimer

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA)

To learn more about OCHA's activities, please visit https://www.unocha.org/


View full story and map: https://reliefweb.int/report/sudan/sudan-humanitarian-key-messages-november-2023


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Infographic: Sudan Key Figures (1 November 2023)

Source OCHA 

Posted 2 Nov 2023 

Originally published 2 Nov 2023

Download Infographic(PDF | 518.65 KB)


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Friday, October 13, 2023

There are no better experts on refugees than refugees

Report from The Guardian - guardian.org
By Saeed Kamali Dehghan
Dated Monday, 9 October 2023; 06.00 BST - here is a full copy:

‘There are no better experts on refugees than refugees’: Nhial Deng on why politicians need to listen


At 11, the South Sudanese refugee was forced to flee his Ethiopian village and spent several years in Kakuma camp in Kenya. His work helping others there won UN recognition and a prestigious award – now he’s planning to fund a library


Nhial Deng’s incredible journey culminated last month in receiving a prestigious UN prize recognising 14 years of helping other refugees. Photograph: Courtesy of Chegg.org


The militiamen came early in the morning when the children were sleeping. The serenity of Itang, an Ethiopian village on the Baro River skirting a national park close to the South Sudanese border, was about to be broken.


Eleven-year-old Nhial Deng heard gunshots and screaming as his father woke him up, whispering to him that there was only time to pack a shirt, a pen and a bottle of water.


“He brought me outside the house and pointed to a group of mostly women and children and a few men who were gathering under a small tree and told me that I had to go with them to a refugee camp,” says Deng, now 24, recalling the events of April 2010.


“I couldn’t move. I saw houses burning, I saw someone on the ground bleeding, people were running in all directions,” he says. “Someone came and pulled me to the group – I never even had a chance to say goodbye to my dad.”


That day was the start of an incredible journey for Deng, which culminated in him receiving a prestigious prize from the United Nations last month that recognised his work over the past 14 years in helping other refugees.


Deng was born in Ethiopia, where his father settled having fled South Sudan years before, but “it never came to my mind that one day [the conflict] would be something that would affect me directly”, Deng remembers.


It took the group two days to get to another village south of their own, where people divided into two groups. Deng’s group headed to the Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya. After a two-week journey on foot and on the back of trucks, he eventually made it to the camp in north-west Kenya, which today is home to more than 200,000 refugees.


Deng says he was scared and shivering throughout the journey but had hope because “my dad told me while he was holding me that I would be able to go to school – from a very young age my dad told me that education was a tool that I could use to transform my life.”


A pastor took Deng in as part of a fostered family programme and within a few months, he was registered at school.


“I felt at home when I started going to school,” he says. “The school was more than a place of learning for me, it was a place where I was able to find solace, where I was able to find hope, where I was able to find healing.”

Refugees from South Sudan register at Kakuma camp in Kenya. Photograph: Thomas Mukoya/Reuters


Kakuma refugee camp was set up in the early 1990s when thousands of Sudanese children, known as the “lost boys of Sudan”, flocked to safety after a civil war.


The sense of community that I experienced in the refugee camp is something that I have not seen anywhere else


“Life in the camp was just incredible,” Deng says. “The sense of community that I experienced in the refugee camp is something I have not seen anywhere else. You’ll see people who have their own challenges who would struggle day in, day out, but would hold on to each other.”


The Red Cross family-tracking programme managed to locate Deng’s family after four years – a two-minute phone call reunited him with his parents in 2014. Initial attempts to find his father failed because he had relocated to South Sudan, but the Red Cross found the family after they returned to Ethiopia.


It was only last year that Deng was able to meet with his mother and six siblings, who now live in Kenya. He has yet to see his father, who is still in Ethiopia, in person.


In 2017, Deng set up the Refugee Youth Peace Ambassadors, a group that started as a Wednesday club at his school and then expanded to other schools providing mentorship and creating workshops.


In 2018, Deng – who identifies as a South Sudanese refugee – graduated from the school, and later took a one-year online course with Regis University in the US, before being admitted on a full scholarship to Huron University in Ontario, Canada, where he moved in 2021 to study global studies and communications.


Deng went back to Kakuma refugee camp in 2021 to set up a new initiative called SheLeads Kakuma, aimed at empowering women and girls through a six-month leadership, advocacy and mentorship programme.

Nhial Deng speaks at the UN’s Transforming Education summit. Photograph: Jaclyn Licht/UN Photo


The UN has recognised Deng’s work helping other refugees. He was invited to speak on the sidelines of the UN general assembly in New York last month, where he was named the winner of a global student prize worth $100,000 (£82,500). The judges of the Chegg.org Global Student Prize chose him from almost 4,000 students in 122 countries.


“Nhial has overcome unimaginable adversity to keep fighting for a better future, not just for himself, but for thousands like him. In times of crisis, we need innovation and resilience, and Nhial’s commitment to tackling the global refugee crisis is truly inspirational,” said Heather Hatlo Porter, the chief communications officer of Chegg.


Deng has promised to donate half of his prize money to build a library at Kakuma refugee camp.


The UN refugee agency said in June that an estimated 108 million people were forcibly displaced worldwide by the end of last year – the number of refugees rose by a record 35% to reach 34.6 million. Politicians and media, Deng says, “need to talk more with refugees than about refugees”.


“I think no one can tell your story better than yourself. There are no better experts about the refugee issue than refugees and that’s why we need to listen to refugees.”


Deng is critical of how some developed countries disregard “the underlying principle of responsibility sharing” in the UN refugee convention.

Deng now helps young people in refugee camps to improve their lives through education and sport. He is particularly passionate about gender equality and misinformation. Photograph: Courtesy of Chegg.org


“More refugees are staying in countries neighbouring them. Over 70% of refugees actually stay in the developing world, in the global south,” he says, adding that Kenya hosts more than 600,000 refugees and Uganda more than a million.


“They [developed countries] don’t see the bigger picture, but also politicians turn refugees into a political football. They use that for their own gain. Numbers are often manufactured or they are exaggerated in some way. The reality is that a big number of refugees live in the developing world and [host] countries are not getting the credit at all.


“It’s incredible that from the first time in 1991 when the first group of refugees arrived in Kenya, Kenya has not closed its borders to refugees. It’s been open throughout.”


Asked about the potential of refugees, he says: “I think everyone has something to do. Everyone can contribute in some small way.”


View original: https://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2023/oct/09/there-are-no-better-experts-on-refugees-than-refugees-nhial-deng-on-why-politicians-need-to-listen


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