School is critical to ensuring a normal and balanced life for Sudan's children and youth.

Education is an essential component of emergency and long-term response. The people of Darfur have fled their homes, endured violent attacks, and continue to grieve the loss of loves ones and their community. Education helps to bring stability for children and their families in a traumatic environment.

CRS Education Projects in Darfur

By the end of 2005, CRS education projects will reach nearly 15, 000 students in 24 schools in West Darfur. CRS education activities include:

• Classroom construction/rehabilitation. To shelter children from sun and wind, and provide a comfortable environment for learning.
• Improved water and sanitation. To ensure the best health possible by providing clean drinking water and sanitary latrines.
• Teacher Support/ Incentives program. To support the many teachers in Darfur who are volunteers and would otherwise receive no income for their critical work.
• School Supplies and Uniforms. To provide pencils, notebooks and teaching supplies, as well as uniforms to vulnerable students. For example, girls currently make up only 27 percent of the students in camps where CRS works. CRS provides girls with uniforms to encourage their attendance in school.

Why is education so critical in displaced camps?

Education helps to…

• Protect children and adolescents from danger. Children can become targets for forces recruitment into armed groups or militias, or other life-threatening violence; women and girls confront the threat of sexual exploitation and rape; and people of all ages are at risk of acquiring HIV/AIDS and other diseases.
• Save lives by teaching critical survival messages. Lessons such as landmine awareness, health and nutrition, prevention of diseases such as cholera, malaria and HIV/AIDS, and care for the environment help keep people safe.
• Lessons the impact and scars of trauma among children and youth. By providing psychosocial care and trauma counseling, children and their communities have the opportunity to grieve and heal. Their emotional stability is essential to surviving and preparing to begin again.
• Restore a sense of normalcy and hope. With children regularly in a safe, protected school environment, their guardians can concentrate on the essential daily living tasks, such as securing water and food. The routine of school and a more normal family life balances the unpredictable lifestyle, and provides structure at a time when few have answers.