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ShelterBox has provided emergency education support for communities affected by severe flooding in parts of Sudan’s White Nile state this summer, distributing SchoolBoxes containing stationery packs to displaced schoolchildren through implementing partner Plan.
Children’s charity Plan Sudan and ShelterBox worked with The Peace Bridge Association (PBA) and Sudanese Development Call Organization (NIDAA) to select the most needy schools and pupils in the area of Sharg Elnil in White Nile State.
Badraddin Al-Sadiq Mohamed Osman, Plan Sudan’s National Coordinator for Disaster Response, said that education is a key development priority for Plan internationally:
‘In Sudan, Plan has been working to promote access to quality education for children for several years through enhancing teacher’s capacity, improving school environments to support safe and suitable learning environment for children, encouraging involvement of parents and teachers associations in school governance activities.’
However since the floods happened this summer, which caused mass displacement for many communities, the education system has been in disarray.
‘Working in partnership with Plan Sudan by providing them with the necessary emergency school aids, we are helping enable the Sudanese school system to resume, bringing hope and a sense of normality to vulnerable children,’ said ShelterBox Operations Coordinator Dave Ray.
Lift of morale
The headmistress of Asmaa bint Abi Bakr School, one of the schools that received SchoolBoxes, said the support represents a lift of morale for those children. She expressed her appreciation for the humanitarian work on behalf of the school pupils and staff.
Mr. Abdel-Hamid Mohamed Osman, Director of Primary Education Department in Sharg Elnil, underlined the importance of effective contributions to reconstruct devastated schools, ensuring children’s schooling can continue. He expressed his thankfulness for the efforts ShelterBox and Plan Sudan have been making to schools’ rehabilitation and reconstruction, hailing all the organisations and parties that have given support to the school children.
Thanks to all of our supporters for helping us bring hope to these Sudanese children.
