Moreover, withholding food and essential supplies has become a widespread weapon of war. One evening, while Gabriel and his younger brother eat a meal of sorghum paste outside their hut, two brothers search for edible water lily roots. The remaining siblings are on a five-day walk to town to barter clothes for food. Equally problematic for Sudan's children is the war's disruption of education. In the Leer area, which has few schools beyond elementary level, the dearth of education opportunities threatens to undermine the reunification programme.
School gives children a sense of stability and much-needed routine during times of crisis.
Without it, children not only lose an important source of security but also hope for a better future. They're always talking about it. If we can't address the crisis in education here, the reunification programme will fail because the children will just go away again. In 1994, the training began with 600 teachers. In 1995, it targeted 1,200 teachers and included a section on how to recognize and treat war-related trauma in children.