Spiraling inter-tribal conflict, a massive food shortage and a budget crisis have converged to create a humanitarian emergency in southern Sudan, putting at least 40 percent of the local population at risk, a senior United Nations official warned yesterday.
A “humanitarian perfect storm” is how Lise Grande, the UN Deputy Humanitarian Coordinator in the region, described it during a news conference in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.
“Southern Sudan is facing an almost unmanageable set of problems,” she said. “A lot of good work is being done… despite this, we just can’t keep up.”
Jesuit Refugee Service/USA runs the Kajo Keji Education and Community Development program in Southern Sudan. The program aims to to develop the school, community, and government capacity necessary to ensure that quality education is provided as a basic right to school aged children, with an emphasis on girls’ education, through management and technical support to schools and school officials, teacher training, structural improvements to school facilities, the distribution of school materials, and activities encouraging the involvement of the local community in support of education.
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