War Child Canada’s holistic approach in South Sudan works to eliminate the cycle of violence and poverty through increasing economic opportunity, community based conflict mitigation and education. This work is currently taking place in Upper Nile, Eastern Equatoria and Western Bahr el Ghazal states.

EDUCATION

War Child Canada and partners work to increase the participation of youth in education and improve functional literacy and numeracy. An Accelerated Learning Program (ALP), which delivers a compressed basic school curriculum, is provided, allowing youth to catch up on their education and re-enter the formal system. War Child Canada also works with the Ministry of Education (MoE) to train teachers in child-friendly teaching methods and to assess the capacity of their Teacher Trainers in order to identify and implement the needed capacity building. In addition, through public events, War Child Canada works with local youth groups to raise awareness among parents and local leaders on the importance of education, especially for girls. The organization’s education work has been so successful that the Ministry of Education in Upper Nile State asked War Child Canada to expand ALP programming to all counties in the State.

Through the provision of information and life skills training, War Child Canada encourages South Sudanese youth to protect themselves, and contribute to peace building by reducing violence, exploitation and gender based discrimination in their communities.

Together with local partners, War Child has established safe spaces and the formed youth groups to act as sustainable, community-based conflict mitigation mechanisms.

OPPORTUNITY

War Child Canada’s vocational training work focuses on training youth in alternative livelihoods opportunities through the provision of vocational training and in-kind inputs. Youth belonging to internally displaced persons (IDP) camps and surrounding communities will acquire knowledge and skills which will enable them to gain a sustainable income. With livelihoods work based on local market assessments this will ultimately serve to increase economic opportunities for youth in demand-driven areas. All of War Child’s work is implemented with the support and involvement of local and federal governments. Using government approved vocational training, for example, ensures that the training youth receive is nationally recognized and accredited.

War Child Canada’s food security work focuses on increasing food production through work with both farmers and pastoralists.

The organization supports and trains farmers (male and female) to adopt more effective farming methods, including post-harvest technologies, to increase crop yield and post-harvest management. In doing so War Child Canada assists vulnerable households to become more food secure. War Child Canada also works with vulnerable female farmers to increase their capacity to access markets and market opportunities through literacy and numeracy training. This model of food security programming is built on War Child Canada’s work in Darfur where the organization, over two years, increased food self-sufficiency of vulnerable households by an average of 1.5 months.

The Government of Canada provides funding for this project.