Sudan celebrates the International Day of the African Child

On the occasion of the International Day of the African Child 2021, 12-year old school student Deima El Haj met and interviewed Daniel Weiss, the Charge de Affaires of the Delegation of the European Union to Sudan.

International Day of the African Child has been celebrated on June 16 every year since 1991. The day honours those who participated in the Soweto Student Uprising in 1976, 45 years ago, when over 10,000 school students marched to protest against the poor quality of their education in South Africa and the introduction of Afrikaans as an official language of instruction during apartheid.

During the uprising, heavily armed police shot directly at the children, killing an estimated 700 students of which many were in their early teens.

Today many countries and International organisations celebrate this day to raise awareness of the continuing need for improvement of the education provided to African children.

“Investing in education is investing in the future”

Weiss stressed that, for the EU, “investing in education is investing in the future”. In a press release issued yesterday, he explained that the European Union in Sudan is funding local and international organisations to improve the living situation of children and invest in their education.

Some projects, for example, aim to tackle malnutrition of children, invest in training of teachers, provide school education supplies and solar lighting for reading at home, encourage take-home food children programs, provide child friendly spaces in the camps for internally displaced persons and refugee camps, and promote access to education for girls.

Weiss said that there are around 3 million Sudanese children who are out of education at the moment. He, therefore, stressed that providing access to quality education for all Sudanese children, especially for girls, requires collective efforts and commitment.