School children in South Darfur camp suffer from cold

The residents of Kalma camp in South Darfur have requested the international organisations working in the camp to provide them with tarpaulin covers, blankets, and warm clothing, especially for school students. Else, the schools should be closed until the end of the cold period. Hussein Abu Sharati, the spokesperson for the Association of the Displaced Persons and Refugees of Darfur, told Radio Dabanga that last week the camp management during a meeting with World Vision, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in discussed the current situation in which the camp residents are living. They also talked about the problems of the newly displaced people who arrived at the camp from the beginning of this year onwards, and who do not have access to food rations, the spokesperson outlined. The camp management presented a report submitted by the education board of the camp on the current cold wave, Abu Sharati said. “It takes more than an hour on foot for the students of Kalma camp to reach their secondary schools in Beleil locality. They basically lack warm clothing to protect them against the cold winds. Therefore we requested from the international organisations to provide the students with warm clothes for all basic school and secondary schools. If this would not be feasible, we propose to exempt the secondary school students from attendance until the cold wave has ended.” Abu Sharati added that the organisations have promised to consider the matters discussed. File photo