Sudan, the largest and one of the most diverse countries in Africa, has emerged from a 21-year civil war between the mainly Muslim north and the Animist and Christian south. After a long and bloody war which cost the lives of 2 million people and displaced another 4 million, the North and the South signed the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on January 9, 2005. Unfortunately, while the government and southern faction moved towards a peace pact, a conflict erupted in the western region of Darfur in February 2003 when local rebel groups accused the government of oppressing non-Arabs in favor of Arabs. To date the Darfur conflict has killed some 200,000 people and displaced close to 2 million.

The Salesian Society entered Sudan in 1979 and since then has set up institutions at Khartoum, El Obeid, Wau and Tonj. These institutions include Vocational Training Centres (VTCs), formal schools and primary schools in the villages. The years of the war were an extremely difficult time for the Salesians, but despite all the hardships, they stuck to their ministry among the poor and the young. With the advent of peace, the Salesians are now in the process of expanding their works, especially in South Sudan, where the war has totally destroyed the lives of the people.

The Don Bosco Network (DBN), a consortium of European Non-Governmental Organizations, has also stepped in to support the work of the Salesians in the field of socio-economic development. To spearhead this operation, VIS (an Italian NGO and DBN member) has been nominated as the lead agency within the DBN to coordinate the activities of the network within Sudan. Accordingly, VIS opened a Country Office in Sudan in July 2006. This office now functions as the coordinating centre for all DBN projects in Sudan.

The DBN in coordination with the Salesian Society defines the overall objective of its intervention in Sudan as: To partner the process of building a new society in Sudan, were every person can live in peace and dignity. The principal strategy for its intervention will be Education. Naturally, education is not to be understood in the narrow sense of a ‘formal school education’, but education in its holistic meaning as imparting Literacy Skills, Livelihood Skills and Life Skills.

To achieve its overall programme objective the DBN has decided to launch a major operation in Sudan named: Reviving Education, Rebuilding Sudan. Some of the specific projects to be carried out along with the Salesian Society during the time period 2007 to 2011 are:

1. Upgrade the facilities of the 3 existing primary schools and construct a secondary school in the town of Wau
2. Complete the setting up of the Vocational Training Centre at Wau
3. Construct a network of rural schools in the Tonj County.
4. Commence an Agricultural Training Programme for the farmers in the County of Tonj.
5. Establish a Entrepreneurship Development Institute at Juba
6. Set up a network of schools for the refugees living in the squatter areas of Khartoum
7. Commence new professional courses at the Vocational Training Centre at Khartoum
8. Provide employment oriented vocational training for youngsters from Darfur at the Vocational Training Centre at El Obeid.

As we well know: Peace Supports Development, Development Sustains Peace. Not to press ahead with the development process would result in the collapse of peace in Sudan. After many decades of civil war, Sudan is now looking ahead to a new future where peace is guaranteed and the dignity of every person respected. The DBN is committed to partnering this process of creating a New Sudan.