john's jogle
John Wilmut is walking again for poor children
In 2012 I walked from Lands End to John O'Groats in support of education for poor children in Sierra Leone and elsewhere. Now I'm on my way back and, from June to late August this year, I will again be walking in support of the work of Christian Aid, but this time from John O'Groats to Lands End
Sudan is an example of the problems faced by a strife-torn country, Christian Aid writes
After 20 years of civil war between Sudan’s North and South ... Sudan’s children and young people have never grown up in a country knowing what it is to live in peace and security. The impact on the country’s children and young people that make up half of Sudan’s 10 million population has been immense:
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Children have been made orphans through losing family members in the conflict which has claimed more than 2 million lives
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Many children have been internally displaced within the country whereas others have spent years in refugee camps
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In terms of education, less than 1 in 5 children in Sudan are enrolled in school
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Most schools have been badly damaged and neglected through the destructive conflict
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Teaching resources such as textbooks, exercise books and pencils are scarce and few classrooms are in permanent buildings
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The lack of basic services keeps people in a vicious spiral of poverty as people are unable to educate their childrenand to provide medicine and nutritious food for their families.
All of which has huge negative socio-economic impacts for this next generation of Sudanse children who face the dilemmas in building a safe future for themselves and their families. Ensuring that people can establish secure livelihoods, that children can gain an education and make choices about their own futures, must remain a priority for any organisation working to end poverty in Sudan and secure a dignified, healthy future for its people.
Despite recent increases in enrollment, education in South Sudan remains particularly poor. Over one million school-aged children, mainly in rural regions, are not in school. Primary school completion rates are less than 10 percent, one of the worst in the world.
Girls are particularly disadvantaged. They are often denied an education because they are required to work at home to support and care for the family. Across the country only 33 percent of girls attend school. Because poverty affects many, the majority of families feel they cannot afford to have their daughters in school, first because the girls are needed to work and then because parents marry girls at a young age in order to get a dowry. The payment of a dowry is still widely practiced in South Sudan so that the family gains money, cattle or other gifts.
Half of all girls in the country between 15 and 19 years of age are married and some have husbands as young as 12. Early marriage is a significant contributing factor to the country’s soaring rates of maternal mortality, which are some of the highest in the world.
The three larger pictures show classrooms in Sudan. They are overcrowded with children sitting on the floor and with only the most basic of facilities and equipment.