Darfur: Walking and talking with children of conflict
Tania McBride, UNICEF Communication Officer
Donate now to support UNICEF's relief efforts for Darfur's children.
© UNICEF/2008/McBride
Nomad children collect water from a hand pump installed by UNICEF near Abu Shouk camp for Internally Displaced People (IDP), El Fasher, North Darfur.
EL FASHER, North Darfur, (November 24, 2008) — At the water pump she tentatively walks over to me, past the other boys and girls, and takes my hand. The small four-year-old girl seems surprised and perplexed by the fact that my hand is soft like her own, and she beams with delight as she bravely entwines her fingers around mine. At her tender age there is no doubt that the life she has experienced so far has been that of an internally displaced person in one of El Fasher's three main camps.
Abu Shouk, Al Salaam and Zamzam camps now have the infamous honor of accommodating approximately 140,000 internally displaced persons. It is estimated that half of these are children who having survived the fighting of the past five years and sought with their families the relative security of a town and a camp that provides much needed humanitarian assistance.
UNICEF's role
UNICEF's role in all three camps is significant and visible. Around the water points where many women and children pump liters of valuable clean water every day, children surround the UNICEF vehicles during monitoring visits, and give my colleagues a big thumbs up—the universal sign for "everything's ok."
UNICEF's role in providing clean water for both displaced and rural communities in Darfur is significant—access to clean water amongst conflict affected populations in 2005 was 63 percent; now it stands at 76 percent access to clean water amongst conflict affected populations in 2005 was 63 percent; now it stands at 76 percent.
© UNICEF Sudan/2007/Georgina Cranston
A young girl plays with a skipping rope in a camp for internally displaced persons in West Darfur.
Children clamor to shake your hand—humbling and embarrassing at the same time—as for me, it is these same children who are the source of inspiration, who keep your feet on the ground in the whirlwind environment of Darfur, and who make me get out of bed every day, make me feel proud to be a part of an organization whose mandate exclusively advocates on the behalf of these children and women.
Opportunities for children
Throughout the camps children are given opportunities that, ironically, they may not have had in their villages of origin. Education and access to schooling have become priorities for many parents who have fled with their families to the El Fasher camps. UNICEF has responded to those priorities, through building schools in all the camps, training teachers and providing much needed textbooks and student teacher kits to partner organizations and the State Ministry of Education, who manage the day to day education programs in the camps. Today, UNICEF estimates that there are more children in school across Darfur than before the conflict—more than 873,000 students, more than 40 percent of them girls, are now attending classes.
The youth are not forgotten either. Drama competitions with themes around key issues such as HIV/AIDS and gender-based violence are supported by UNICEF and implemented by partner organizations. These competitions always draw a large audience from the very young to the most elderly—exposing them to a number of messages around key issues in an entertaining and humorous way. Last year alone, a UNICEF-supported awareness campaign on HIV prevention reached an estimated 3.2 million people through local radio, while more than 36,000 young people took part in peer education projects on the subject.
© UNICEF Sudan/2007/Edward Carwardine
A young girl holds up the school bell outside her newly renovated classroom in the village of Yara, South Darfur. UNICEF is working with community leaders to deliver essential services in the village, prioritised by community members themselves.
Restoring a sense of normalcy
It's the small children who pull at your heartstrings; those who have the nightmares and whose young eyes are etched with fear. The need for psychosocial support for children who have been the victims of this conflict has been recognized by UNICEF. Child-friendly spaces established by UNICEF in the camps are safe havens for some 147,000 children across Darfur, aged from 2½ to 6 years. Here, they play, draw and are entertained by "theater for life" troupes—themselves selected and trained from the current displaced population.
The smiles and laughter of the children that I see every day—albeit sometimes fleeting—demonstrate that at least for now we are helping creating some notion of normalcy in a situation that is, for all purposes, far from normal for any child.
