Aims of our partnership

The Knights of St Columba's partnership with Aid to the Church in Need aims to help give children life-changing opportunities in Sudan.

The focus of the project is to provide curricular education, as well as catechesis, through the Save the Saveable schools programme.

Although Christian education is permitted in government-run schools, it is subject to very severe restrictions. An intolerant form of Islam is said to pervade the government run schools’ approach. These schools operate on Sunday and Christians are not allowed out to go to church.

The Save the Saveable Schools foster the Christian Faith as well as provide essential education – the key to a better future for children in Sudan.

The partnership is also an opportunity for us, through joint events, Masses and pilgrimages, to celebrate our faith together and to forge enduring friendships.

What we want to achieve

Offer hope to children in Sudan, especially girls

The schools cater for children from primary through to secondary level. Girls are educated alongside and to the same level as boys, which is not always the case in the state-run schools.

In the face of considerable opposition, Cardinal Gabriel Zubeir Wako of Khartoum insisted on the schools being co-educational. In Sudan, many girls are not educated, but rather are kept at home.

Education is not free in Sudan and in the Save the Saveable schools parents pay what they can. In many instances that is nothing at all, so Aid to the Church in Need helps to make up the balance.

In addition, a few schools provide breakfast each day for the children that attend – sometimes their only meal of the day.

Provide a brighter future for the Church

A typical home in a displacement camp near Khartoum is made from mud and sticks, has no running water or electricity and provides no shelter from the weather when it is wet or hot.

With the basics of living so hard, the need for education is paramount. But access to any education is difficult for all, but especially so for Christian families. 

 Life in Sudan is hard and conflict is never far from the surface. It is the Faith which sustains so many and gives them hope.

Today more than 20,000 children are studying at 200 schools. By providing them with a good education, the Church is nurturing a generation of future leaders who know the importance of their Faith.

Pass on the Faith to a new generation

Christianity is not allowed to be taught in schools run by the Islamist government.  Without the Save the Saveable schools, children would not get a Christian education.

Here, they learn a range of subjects including English and religion. Education ‘saves’ children from hopelessness by giving them skills that can help put food on the table.

And Christian education ‘saves’ children by nurturing strong roots of faith to sustain them. So the schools are essential to help keep the Faith alive in Sudan.

The faithful in Sudan are looking to us to help build up faith and hope for the future.

Children in Sudan are like children everywhere: they are ambitious and they have dreams. Working with the help of Knights of Saint Columba, we hope to reach out to more children in Sudan by giving them an education.