How education is helping heal communities in Sudan
How education is helping heal communities in Sudan
Schoolgirls who recently returned to class attend lessons at Al Jabalain Secondary School for Girls in White Nile State, Sudan.
Morning sunshine spills across the yard of the local secondary school in Al Jabalain, a small village on the eastern shore of the river that gives Sudan’s White Nile State its name. The early light catches dust rising from the feet of girls hurrying to class, clutching worn textbooks and chatting in groups before the school day begins.
Only months ago, the school’s classrooms stood empty and dilapidated. Now, new desks are arranged in rows within freshly painted rooms with new windows and doors. For this small village, the reopening of the school means renewed hope, enabling parents to send their daughters not only to learn but also to regain a sense of normalcy and safety.
White Nile State currently hosts an estimated 400,000 refugees and around 460,000 internally displaced people. Enrolment has surged since the school reopened to hundreds of displaced and local children, offering over 700 girls a chance to resume learning.
For these students – comprising refugees from nearby South Sudan, internally displaced Sudanese, and children from the local community – it marks a return to education after more than two and a half years of conflict and interrupted learning. For their teachers, it is a chance to work with dignity and prepare the children for a hoped-for future beyond the current conflict.
“Reopening the schools was like a gift – for us teachers and for the children,” said Headteacher Susan Zein Faisal Allah Al-Kamali. “Despite the many challenges, we found the strength to start again. The interruption meant two years of lost learning for many students, but we are rebuilding step by step.”
“Education is very important for both girls and boys, but especially for girls – it gives them knowledge and awareness of their rights,” she added. “When women are not educated, they are losing those rights.”
Susan Zein Faisal Allah Al-Kamali (centre), headteacher of Al Jabalain Secondary School for Girls, does paperwork in a classroom.
In one classroom, an English class begins with the teacher asking students to conjugate verbs and form simple sentences. Although these exercises may appear basic for their age, many pupils are relearning skills lost during their years away from school.
Sitting at the back of the classroom is 17-year-old Omnia, an internally displaced Sudanese girl from Khartoum. It is her first year back in school since she fled with her family from Sudan’s capital in 2023, and she is determined to make it count.
“When I heard school was starting again, it felt like life was starting again,” Omnia said softly. “Before the war, I was the first in my class. I want to score very high marks this year – I want to study medicine, and I dream of becoming a surgeon.”
Omnia still carries painful memories of her family’s journey from Khartoum, but in Al Jabalain, she is finding hope again – in the rhythm of lessons, the laughter of classmates, and the quiet strength that comes from learning.
Omnia (left) stands outside the main school building with her friends Nada (centre) and Althouma (right).
“When schools were closed, I couldn’t imagine myself not studying, so I asked my family to pay for private English lessons,” she explains. “Since schools reopened, I’ve been so happy. I believe education is very important for girls. One day, when I become a mother, I want to know how to teach my children. Even during displacement, education can help us build skills, adapt, and engage with people – it helps us grow stronger.”
Across Sudan, millions of children and young people lost access to regular education due to the conflict. Schools were closed, with many being used as shelters for displaced families.
UNHCR, the UN Refugee Agency, and its partners – in collaboration with Sudan’s Ministry of Education – are rehabilitating schools where displaced and host community children can learn side by side. The agency also provides support for pupils and teachers, including textbooks, pens, uniforms, teaching resources and other materials.
This work is funded through the multi-year PROSPECTS Partnership, which aims to bridge the gap between humanitarian response and long-term development. By investing in inclusive, sustainable education and advocating for the integration of refugees into national systems, the initiative helps ensure that both forcibly displaced people and host communities can learn, grow and build better futures together. The programme in Sudan brings together the Government of the Netherlands, UNHCR, UNICEF and ILO.
Programmes like this are a lifeline for children whose education has been disrupted. Schools are being repaired and fitted with new furniture and water and sanitation facilities, to ensure learning environments that are safe and fit for purpose. Teachers also have the space, resources and support they need to help students catch up on their schooling.
By investing in public schools rather than creating parallel systems, the project – which reflects the ethos of the PROSPECTS Partnership – is strengthening Sudan’s national education system, making it more resilient and helping it recover and adapt so it can serve future generations.
A teacher gives a lesson in one of the newly refurbished classrooms at Al Jabalain Secondary School for Girls.
Refugee children study the same curriculum as their Sudanese classmates, learning not only mathematics, Arabic, English and science, but also values such as tolerance, trust and mutual understanding. They form friendships that ignore the distinctions of “refugee”, “displaced”, and “host.”
While conflict continues to disrupt education for many children across Sudan, these interventions are restoring government-led schooling in safer states, laying the foundation for stability and recovery.
While UNHCR focuses on supporting secondary schools and teachers, UNICEF leads complementary work on primary education. Together, these interventions create a continuum of learning from the first years of school through adolescence, maximizing resources, building national capacity and benefiting entire communities.
As Omnia continues to learn and heal alongside her classmates, she dreams that every child in Sudan who was forced out of school will one day return to the classroom just as she has.
“I want all girls to come back to school,” she said. “Before the war, Sudan was an amazing country. We can help rebuild it and make it a role model. I hope Sudan will be at peace and even better than before.”
