UNICEF Press release

KHARTOUM / RUMBEK, 27 January 2005 ? Building on the groundswell of hope
that is being felt throughout Sudan, Africa?s largest country, UNICEF is
stockpiling tents and classroom materials, training teachers, building
schools and assisting education officials to enroll thousands more
children in the first academic year of the post-war period.

Anticipating the return over the next several months of thousands of
internally displaced Sudanese and Sudanese refugees who fled to other
countries, UN agencies, local officials, and NGOs are preparing for
increased enrolment of children in primary schools throughout the vast
region of southern Sudan.

With a peace agreement signed on 9 January, authorities from the Sudanese
People?s Liberation Movement (SPLM), which controls much of the southern
part of the country, and from the Khartoum Government, which controls part
of the south and most of the north, have been working out modalities to
ensure that basic services, including education, are expanded.

Education authorities in southern Sudan are planning the re-opening of
schools at the end of March, after a three-month vacation period. UNICEF
is working to ensure that safe and clean teaching space is available and
classroom supplies are in place.

In the southernmost regions of Sudan ? Equatoria, Bahr el Ghazal and Upper
Nile ? UNICEF?s assistance in the construction of new classrooms is vital
to the reconstruction of the country. Over 70 schools have recently been
built in northern Bahr el Ghazal state in anticipation of large numbers of
returnees.

?The importance of education in post-conflict Sudan cannot be overstated,?
said UNICEF Representative in Khartoum, JoAnna Van Gerpen. ?With the
lowest rate of access to primary education in the world, southern Sudan
needs to build capacity for its children, and for future generations.?

The chief of UNICEF?s Operation Lifeline Sudan program, Simon Strachan,
noted that in SPLM-controlled areas, over 200,000 more children attended
primary school in 2004 than in 2003. In some districts in which UNICEF
focused its efforts, enrolment of girls increased up to 45 percent between
2003 and 2004.

Strachan noted that in addition to material assistance, UNICEF is training
school principals, teachers and community leaders in school management and
planning. ?Parents and community leaders often take the lead in building
classrooms and organizing enrolment drives when they are provided with the
supplies and the know-how,? he said. Classrooms in UNICEF-supported
schools will receive adequate supplies such as blackboard and chalk,
textbooks, exercise books, rulers and pencils.

In Juba, capital of Bahr el Jebel, additional teachers are being recruited
in anticipation of the expected surge in students whose families are
returning after years of displacement in the north or other countries.
Education authorities have indicated their willingness to integrate
teachers who fled the conflict in the south and have been living in the
northern part of the country. Displaced by long years of conflict, some
400 teachers in and around the capital, Khartoum, have indicated their
willingness to teach in communities that have been deprived of adequate
education for years.

The SPLM?s Secretariat of Education is being supported by UNICEF to expand
the numbers of schools and teachers. ?UNICEF has redirected resources to
returnee areas,? Strachan said. ?Even if we don?t know exactly where, when
or how many people will return, we are procuring education, water and
health supplies for the sake of the children.?

In the vast IDP settlements in Khartoum state, UNICEF and partners are
supporting IDP teachers to undergo an intensive course to upgrade their
English language skills. English is the language of instruction in much of
southern Sudan. They will also receive instructions on issues such as
conflict resolution, HIV/AIDS, landmines, and malaria so they can act as
educators and promote awareness of these issues among children and the
wider community.

Transportation remains a challenge in this massive country with poor
infrastructure. Most people and supplies travel by barge on the Nile
River, a slow and often risky means of returning home. While airlifting
is possible, it is expensive. A large percentage of education supplies
are flown into the SPLM areas. More supplies need to move soon in order
to be in time for the new school year.

Expectations are high among the people and communities most affected by
the war that peace will bring a better life, and in particular, an
education for their children. So far, few donors have come forward with
funds for recovery in Sudan. UNICEF has received US$ 2.1 million of the
$19.6 million it needs in 2005 to support primary school education for
children in the war-affected areas of southern Sudan.

Meanwhile, today in Geneva UNICEF launched its global appeal for children
in emergency situations, seeking some $763 million for 33 countries and
territories in crisis, including $289 million for Sudan.