Education: A Lifeline for Refugees Fleeing Sudan

Education Cannot Wait and UNHCR call for additional funding to support education for Sudanese refugees and vulnerable host communities in Chad

By Education Cannot Wait

June 20^th, 2023

Burning sun, aching feet, endless terrain, danger at every turn, uncertainty and gnawing fear, soft murmurs of comfort to a frightened, hungry child. This is the reality of refugees fleeing the brutal conflict in Sudan to seek safety in neighbouring Chad.

As of June 2023, over 115,000 newly arrived Sudanese refugees have settled in Chad. Over 90% of registered refugees are children and women. In response to the massive population displacement due to the conflict in Sudan, Education Cannot Wait (ECW) Executive Director Yasmine Sherif visited the border areas in Chad to meet with refugees and partners on the ground, and take stock of urgent education needs.

Makeshift Settlement in Borota

A mother and her children enter their tent in the makeshift settlement in Chad. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

In Borota, a remote location near the border with Sudan, tens of thousands of refugees have settled in makeshift tents – thousands of colorful cloths precariously held up by wooden sticks as far as the eye can see.

The settlement is mostly comprised of women and children. They left their homes in Sudan with nothing but the essentials they could carry – including some clothing, food and some livestock.

In this settlement, refugees are especially vulnerable as they are in an isolated area, exposed to the elements and potential security risks, with no proper structures to provide basic services such as health and education.

Chad currently hosts the 4th largest refugee population in Africa, totaling 1.2 million refugees. During ECW’s mission in Chad, Executive Director Yasmine Sherif announced a $3 million First Emergency Response grant to support both refugees and the vulnerable host communities in the country. The ECW funding will support access to inclusive, quality education, the construction of protective learning environments and reinforce overstretched capacities in Chad’s education system.

ECW met and listened to the stories of refugees along the Chad-Sudan border as they voiced their concerns, needs and dreams for the future amidst crisis – a future that depends on continued education today.

Meet Abu Hanifa*

Abu Hanifa shares his experience about leaving everything he knew and cherished behind. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

Abu Hanifa* fled his home in Sudan amidst the recent escalation of violence in the country. Abu Hanifa is one of the thousands of Sudanese people that have had their lives uprooted as they were forced to flee their homes in search of stability, safety and better living conditions.

He says that he wants to return to schooling as soon as possible.

“I fled Sudan – [we] left our belongings, our education and everything behind us. I want to learn and study. Learning is a priority for us. It is a priority above all else.” ~Abu Hanifa

Abu Hanifa yearns to continue learning and knows it will enable him to thrive and pursue his dreams. For Abu Hanifa, education is also freedom because it allows him to choose and shape a brighter future for himself and his community.

Meet Amina*

Amina firmly believes in the power of education to provide her children with a better future. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

Amina*, 30, and her family fled Sudan on foot. She, her 10-year-old daughter, and 4 and 8-year-old sons walked for weeks before they reached Chad.

Further to this dangerous journey, she talks about how relieved she felt to receive life-saving aid by humanitarian organisations in Chad. She also shares that even before fleeing Sudan, her children’s education had been halted due to violence and conflict.

According to a recent UNICEF report, the violence in Sudan has taken a toll on children’s safety and access to education with more than 3.7 million children in need of education support and 3.8 million children in need of protection services. Education and health services were halted, with schools and hospitals evacuated for the protection of individuals against shelling and bombing.

“We want our children to go to school and learn, and we also want a hospital; our children have no place for treatment.” ~Anima

While Amina didn’t have access to education as a child herself, she always “wished to go to school and learn” so that she could unlock greater opportunities in her life. Today, Amina is a fierce advocate for her daughter and sons’ access to education and hopes that, one day, her “children can become teachers, doctors and successful in life.”

Gaga Refugee Camp

ECW also visited the Gaga Refugee Camp that was set up nearly 20 years ago to host Sudanese refugees fleeing the war in Darfur. UNHCR and its partners are working around the clock to expand the Gaga camp and other existing camps’ capacity so that the new refugees can be relocated there.

Over the years, the Gaga Refugee Camp has been supported by UNHCR and partners, providing a protective environment for refugees to live. The camp has four primary schools and one secondary school, where children born in the camp can study.

With the extension of the camp to host the new arriving refugees, school personnel, teachers and parents stressed the need for additional support to urgently expand the overstretched existing educational facilities. The current lack of resources means that some classes already have over 100 pupils. The lack of qualified teachers is also a key challenge.

The community also stressed that, with only one secondary school in the entire village, there is not enough space to accommodate all incoming students from the primary schools, which is driving high drop-out rates at the secondary level.

Meet Bilal*

Bilal, a Sudanese refugee teacher, shares his experience teaching in Gaga Refugee Camp. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

Bilal* is a Sudanese teacher at Gaga Refugee Camp in eastern Chad. In 2005, when he was just a child, Bilal fled Sudan and settled in the Gaga Refugee Camp – where he was able to continue his education and complete school. Unfortunately, he did not have the means to continue and complete higher education, but his love for education and determination to help others led him to become a teacher at the camp.

“I teach refugee children to read and write and prepare them to eventually go on to university. I try to orient [my students] to choose the right career streams to help them develop and thrive – and for them to positively contribute to our host country.” ~Bilal

Bilal calls for greater international support so that all children and youth, in the camp and beyond, can receive high-quality education, access primary and secondary education and be provided with pathways to continue to tertiary education.

Girls and boys sitting in their classroom in Gaga Refugee Camp. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

ECW’s latest grant brings the Fund’s total investments in Chad to over US$41 million, reaching over 830,000 vulnerable children since 2017. These funds have focused on assisting refugees, host communities, girls, children with disabilities and other vulnerable children.

The new grant, delivered by UNHCR and partners, will be used to expand schools’ infrastructure to enable more refugees to attend classes, enhance school feeding programmes, support mental health and psychosocial services, provide additional school resources, and ensure teacher training and support their salaries. This grant will be implemented over the next 12 months in close coordination with the Chadian government.

Yasmine Sherif and the UNCHR team discussing the camp expansion in-progress. Photo credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

To meet the very real and urgent needs of the newly arrived Sudanese refugee children and adolescents in Chad and other neighbouring countries, ECW and strategic partners call for the international community to step up support and financing.

As this is likely to become a protracted crisis, the safety net of education is more important than ever to empower, protect and safeguard the futures of thousands of vulnerable girls and boys.

Their education cannot wait, so neither must we.

Sudanese refugee girls sitting in front of their mothers in Chad. Photo Credit @ ECW/Denis Sassou Gueipeur

*Names have been changed to protect identifying information

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