WFPスーダン南部で学校建設 （英文のみ)

WFP BUILDS SCHOOLS IN SOUTH SUDAN, LAYING FOUNDATIONS FOR FUTURE

Juba, Sudan -- The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) has begun a US$3.5 million construction project to build 25 schools in southern Sudan, where primary school attendance rates are the lowest in the world.

More than 20 years of civil war, which ended in January 2005, destroyed most of southern Sudan’s infrastructure. It is estimated that only 20 percent of children attend primary school. Of those who do, just 35 percent are girls. Out of an estimated population of 7.5 million, only 500 girls in southern Sudan complete primary school each year.

These troubling statistics prompted WFP to add school construction to its list of recovery projects across Sudan, where WFP aims to feed up to 6.1 million people this year in an emergency operation.

The construction project is in line with the UN Millennium Development Goals and policy of the Government of Southern Sudan, both of which name universal primary education as a goal. It complements WFP’s School Feeding Programme, which aims to increase school enrollment and attendance by giving children a free meal when they go to class.

WFP has already signed contracts to build four schools following donations in 2005 of US$ 800,000 from the United Kingdom and US$400,000 from the Netherlands.

In early June, WFP Executive Director James Morris visited the building site of one of the schools near the town of Rumbek, where four large concrete foundation slabs had been laid for classrooms and teacher housing.

“After so many years of war, much of southern Sudan has been reduced to rubble. There are very few school houses left, and of the children lucky enough to be getting an education, most take their lessons sitting on the ground under trees,” said Morris.

“For me, it has been very moving to see the foundations of a WFP school being laid. They also serve as the foundations for the future of thousands of young southern Sudanese lives.”

“I would like to especially thank the Governments of the Netherlands and the United Kingdom for their contributions that have allowed us to make a start on this project, which is vital to provide the sort of peace dividends that Sudan needs,” Morris said.

At the Rumbek school for girls, WFP works in partnership with the Norwegian Refugee Council, a non-governmental organization. The site for the school was chosen because so few exist in the surrounding area. Construction began in February and is expected to be completed by August.

Another three schools are also underway, and are being built in partnership with the German sustainable development organization, GTZ. Two of the schools are being constructed in Eastern Equatoria State and one in Central Equatoria State.

“This is one of the best examples of the humanitarian community working together to improve lives - local authorities, Unicef and the Norwegian Refugee Council,” said Morris.

Each school costs approximately US$140,000 to build and can serve 405 students. The schools will include nine classrooms, a library, a kitchen, a head teacher’s office, a staff room, teacher housing units, 16 toilets, a borehole and an access road.

The 25 new schools will add a total of 225 classrooms to the region. They will employ 100 teachers and cater to 10,125 students. To complete all 25 schools, WFP is appealing to donors for another US$ 2.3 million.

Building the schools is an important step toward achieving WFP’s commitment to helping increase primary education enrollment rates in southern Sudan. Under the agency’s School Feeding Programme, WFP currently provides food to 220 schools in southern Sudan, reaching 130,000 students. This figure is up from 96 schools receiving WFP food last year.

Across the entire country, WFP needs US$746 million for its emergency operation in 2006, which includes school feeding. However, it has only 51 percent or US$380.5 million of that amount, and contributions, especially cash, are urgently required.

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WFP is the world's largest humanitarian agency: each year, we give food to an average of 90 million poor people to meet their nutritional needs, including 58 million hungry children, in at least 80 of the world's poorest countries. WFP -- We Feed People.

WFP Global School Feeding Campaign - For just 19 US cents a day, you can help WFP give children in poor countries a healthy meal at school --a gift of hope for a brighter future.

Visit our website: www.wfp.org

For more information please contact (email address: firstname.lastname@wfp.org):
Simon Crittle, WFP/Juba, Sudanese Mob. +249 912 167 293, Thuraya. +88 2162 111 5219
Julia Stewart,WFP/Khartoum Mob. +249 912179190, Tel. +249 183 248 001, ext 2140
Peter Smerdon, WFP Nairobi, Tel. 254 20 7622 179, Mob. 254 733 528 911
Brenda Barton, Deputy Director Communications, WFP/Rome, Tel. +39-06-65132602
Simon Pluess, WFP/Geneva, Tel. +41-22-9178581, Mob. +41-79-7743821
Gregory Barrow, WFP/London, Tel. +44-20-72409001, Cell. +44-7968-008474
Trevor Rowe, WFP/New York, Tel. +1-212-9635196, Cell. +1-6468241112, rowe@un.org
Jennifer Parmelee, WFP/Washington, Tel. +1-202-6530010 ext. 1149, Mob. +1-202-4223383