Unamid, UNDP, Sudan Government provide vocational training for North Darfur prisoners

Inmates from Shallah Federal Prison in El Fasher, the capital of North Darfur, graduated on Tuesday from an intensive training course during which they acquired various vocational skills, including in welding, masonry and electrical work, in two workshops organised by Unamid in cooperation with with UN Development Programme (UNDP) and the Government of Sudan. Staff members from Unamid’s Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) section guided the programme, while the Sudanese police conducted the training.  As part of Unamid’s approach to support peace at the community level, its DDR section has implemented similar workshops across Darfur. In addition, DDR has been working on a violence-reduction strategy that has taken several forms in practice, most notably in community-based, labour-intensive projects.  These community projects are designed to support the efforts of the Government of Sudan in addressing the needs of at-risk young people and other vulnerable groups in the communities and in camps for the displaced. The projects focus not only on building vocational skills, and in many cases facilitating infrastructure development, but also on fostering reconciliation across Darfur. File photo: Two female prison police officers show tools during the Vocational Skills Workshops in Shallah Federal Prison in El Fasher (Albert González Farran/Unamid)  Related: Unamid provides vocational training for more than 1000 youth in Darfur (1 November 2013)