Qatar’s Sheikha Moza visits out-of-school children in Sudan

The United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) and a Qatari foundation support the education of tens of thousands of children who are out of school in Sudan.

Her Highness Sheikha Moza Bint Nasser of Qatar visited schools and learning centers in Khartoum and North Kordofan, that provide marginalised children with access to alternative learning programmes, for the foundation Education Above All.

In a statement on Monday, the foundation claimed that the support will benefit 74,000 additional Sudanese children who are out of school: totalling 600,000 children. They will receive 'quality education in Khartoum and North Kordofan state' with the help of Unicef.

'Sudan is recovering from conflict, but numerous barriers to education remain – over 40 percent of the country’s children are not in school,' the press statement by the foundation reads.

The programme is especially for children who have never attended or dropped out of school and need extra efforts to catch up on what they have missed, before enrolling in regular education.

It is funded by the UN agency and Education Above All and has been running since 2012. The World Food Programme has provided about $20 million to Unicef Sudan, partly in support of education centers in Sudan so that more children may gain access to education.

Sheikha Moza also paid a visit to the pyramids in Sudan's historic city Meroe yesterday, which are being restored by the Qatar-Sudan Archaeological Project.

Sheikha Moza in North Kordofan in an alternative learning centre for out-of-school children on 13 March (EAA)