Juba, February 19, 2015 (SSNA) — The United Nations Children Fund (UNICEF) has launched an educational campaign designed to educate South Sudan’s children who were forced out of their schools by the ongoing civil war.
UNICEF’s Representative in South Sudan, Jonathan Veitch, said children could fall behind, noticing that schools in Jonglei, Unity, and Upper Nile States are not functioning.
“Around 70 per cent of the 1,200 schools in the major conflict states have closed, raising grave fears that a generation of children could be left behind by the ongoing civil war,” Jonathan Veitch said.
Veitch disclosed that UNICEF has invested in both supplies and learning and that funding is needed to meet the goal of the campaign.
“We have invested heavily in supplies and learning but we need an additional $12 million urgently just to provide basic education kits to target schools. This initiative will invest $100 in every child’s learning. It’s a small cost for the hope and opportunity it brings,” Veitch added.
UNICEF also stated that it hopes to enroll more than 400,000 children over the next 12 months.