Not far from the border of Darfur, a group of girls gather to study as part of an IRC after-school program in Oure Cassoni Camp. Huddled on straw mats in this large, quiet tent, they are protected from the strong winds, blinding sun and swirling sand outside. They forget about the violence that led them to this place and delve into their lessons.

Some 14,500 refugee students, more than half of Oure Cassoni’s population, attend IRC classes at 20 pre-schools, three primary schools and one secondary school at the camp.

“However long these children will be refugees, we will make sure they have access to a quality education,” says the IRC’s education manager, Alphan Massaquoi, himself a former refugee from Sierra Leone.

Mashaira Adam Ali is a teacher at one of the camp’s pre-schools. She is one of 145 IRC-trained teachers who work at Oure Cassoni. Like Mashaira, most were teachers back at home in North Darfur before they fled.

One by one Mashaira calls the little ones up to the chalk board. She gingerly takes their tiny hands and together, gently and slowly, they draw the Arabic alphabet.

In a nearby tent, a primary school class for girls is underway. Boys and girls attend separate classes, which is the custom in some areas of Darfur. The children study a comprehensive curriculum, including literature, history, science, math and Arabic.

In 2006, with no end in site to the Darfur crisis, the IRC became the first humanitarian aid organization to open secondary school programs for Darfur refugees, enabling older students and young adults to resume their disrupted education. More advanced classes, offered by instructors like Mobarak Ahmed Arja, quickly filled up.

Young men, ranging in age from 15 to 36, attentively listen to a biology lecture. One of the students, Mohammed Abdullah Hono, told me ethnic troubles in his village abruptly ended his education 17 years ago. He’s been waiting to go back to school ever since.

Some 40 young women gather in a tent for a history lesson. Moda Abdajala Gasser tells me how happy she is to be able to go to the next level and continue learning, otherwise she would never be able to go to university. “I will become a doctor some day,” she says resolutely. “When there is peace in Sudan.”

Boys kick around a ball on a court outside one of the IRC’s primary schools. The IRC recently hired a coach who runs an assortment of recreational programs at Oure Cassoni, including volleyball, basketball, races and games. The IRC also runs drama programs, quizzes, gardening projects and cultural activities for the kids.

“This conflict has disrupted the lives of too many children,” says the IRC’s Alphan Massaquoi. “Our goal is to keep them playing, learning, and hoping.”

(August 2007) As the Darfur crisis enters its fifth year, more than two million people remain uprooted, including hundreds of thousands of school age children.

In Darfur and neighboring Chad, the International Rescue Committee offers programs that provide critical learning, healing and recreation for more than 30,000 young people who have been forced to flee their villages.

At one refugee camp managed by the IRC in northeastern Chad, children are eager to begin their new school term.  The IRC’s Melissa Winkler recently spent time with students and teachers at the camp and shared these images.