SOS Children's Villages Update

Rehabilitation & reunification programme
for former child soldiers, Malakal, Sudan

Located in the south eastern corner of Africa’s largest country, Malakal is a Sudanese town with a population of two million. Twenty years ago it was a beautiful and lively place but it has been haunted by war. The fighting, which officially ended in 2005, has left Malakal scarred and tired. Many people in the town are subsistence farmers but today they cannot grow enough to feed their own families. Children’s health, education and psychological statuses have suffered.



Young children were snatched from their families at the height of the civil war and used as soldiers. Today, many have been dismissed from duty, and even though the killing is over the impact of war remains fresh in their minds. They are lost, scared and cannot find their parents. SOS Children set up an emergency relief programme to support these child soldiers, many of whom are now young adults, and give them back their lives and their families.

Rehabilitation and reunification

Our rehabilitation and reunification programme for each child soldier lasts around ten months. To begin with, the children are reintroduced to everyday life. We give them shelter, food, clean clothes and an education. Many children have never been to school and without an education will never break out of poverty. We help them overcome the trauma of war through drawing, drama classes and counselling. They find that being able to express their feelings eases their pain. To help them develop teamwork skills and make friends, they have helped build the houses they live in while on the programme.



With support from the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), we have been able to reunite families.

2007

339 former child soldiers were on the programme. This is a high number for two reasons in particular. The first is that many people were killed in the war and some of these children may not have any immediate family left. Secondly, some families will not accept child soldiers, their sons or brothers, back. These children have killed and are not welcome at home. Other families discourage their children from returning home so as to protect them from being harmed by members of their community who think those children are responsible for killing or any other bad deeds done in the past.

SOS will support the children who cannot return home until they are fully independent.
Sudanese child soldier
Success
Today, 85 of those former child soldiers hold certificates in a number of different skills studied at the SOS vocational training centre and are able to compete in the labour market.One of the child soldiers has just entered university and has a bright future ahead of him.

Happily, last year, most children were reunited with their immediate or extended families.

Working in partnership

SOS Sudan is a member of the Child Protection Working Group in Upper Nile State and we has a strong partnership with other NGOs and UN agencies.

In 2007, the SOS Sudan National Director:
• contributed and participated in a presentation for the international and national NGOs to shed light on SOS’s role in peace progress and capacity building, which includes assisting child soldiers in South Sudan and running Family Protection Centres in Darfur
• acted as spokesperson for a UNICEF program, ‘Unity for Children Against Aids’, represented the Sudanese Movement for Children and became a member of ‘Education for Girls’ (partnership between UNICEF and the government) supporting the child advocacy program for NGOs and the government in Nyala, El Fashir and El Genana.

2008 Update

There are 200 new former child soldiers on the rehabilitation and reunification programme this year, from the Khorfulus area and Malakal town.

They began by receiving group and individual counselling. Some have already been reunited with their family members and others are being supported to be reintegrated into their home communities.

The young people - mostly boys, but some girls - are now undertaking vocational courses including car mechanics, carpentry, electrics, plumbing, construction and sewing at the SOS training centre, or have been enrolled at school.

The climate of southern Sudan is very harsh from April up to November; there is heavy rain that mixes with the muddy soil to make it difficult to move by car or any other means of transportation except through the rivers. This is just one of the reasons that can lead to young people abandoning their classes. To try to reduce this problem, the young people are provided with rain coats and gum.

The rehabilitation programme includes three environmental days in Khorfulus, whereby the former child soldiers help to clean the town. This new initiative was introduced in 2007 and proved successful in helping to change the attitudes of some community members who perceive the children as ‘wrong doers’ only. This work encouraged community leaders to support the rehabilitation programme and proved helpful in finding employment for those who graduated from the SOS Vocational Training Centre.

Thank you

We are very grateful to our supporters who kindly contribute to our former child soldier rehabilitation projects which are able to give so many vulnerable children the chance to lead a normal life.