UNDP| United Nations Development Programme-Sudan

Until Thursday December 7, 623 Sudanese girls, students of Omer Elokhtar girls school, one of Khartoum’s oldest establishments, were crammed 50 to a classroom, huddling together on rickety metal benches. Without safe electrical wiring, the rooms were dimly lit, and the students did not have access to fresh drinking water, let alone a playground. The school was built by the British in 1953 and has rarely undergone since a major rehabilitation work.

Thanks to a fine exhibit of volunteerism and partnership, all the students are now enjoying a school with freshly painted walls, safe clean water and electricity wiring, spacious classrooms, and even a playground.

Volunteers of all ages, joined by professional plumbers and construction workers, installed modernized water and electricity systems, repaired and cleaned-up sanitation pumps and facilities, painted walls and new classroom furniture, in addition to installing the school’s first playground.

“I never imagined that in one day our school would be so nice and so many people will come to help us. We’re so happy. Now we have a playground”, said the 11 years-old student Sumaya.

Khartoum State’s Ministry of Education, Qatar Airways, PCM pumps, and Shelter Association, responded to the United Nations Volunteers’ call for rehabilitating El-Mukhtar’s school in celebration of the International Volunteer Day, commemorated worldwide on 5 December 2006. They provided the necessary funds, and equipments for the renovations work.

The girls at Omer El-Mukthar primary school were not the only students to benefit from the renovations. Adult students at the nearby St. Joseph’s Technical and Vocational School contributed to the welding, electrical wiring, plumbing, and construction, giving them much needed work experience, and letting a helping hand to their own community.

Over 500 volunteers gathered to celebrate the Volunteer Day, including 120 parents, 20 teachers, and about 60 United Nations volunteers.

Drici Toruko is a 29-year-old United Nations volunteer from Nimul, in Southern Sudan. Immediately after the signing of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), he reunited with his parents in Khartoum, where he saw an advertisement to volunteer with the United Nations in civil affairs. As a Southern Sudanese volunteering in the North, Drici reaches out to communities to discuss the CPA with them: “I wanted to be a volunteer to share and develop our country, to see that the CPA is brought to access, and that we have peace. The CPA has many development aspects, and education is one of them. It is good to participate in rehabilitating this school and see tangible development the CPA promises.”

Ruth De Miguel, a 28-year-old legal expert from Madrid, Spain, recently joined the UN Volunteers (UNVs) at UNDP. Before volunteering in Sudan, she used to work in the private sector as a legal and technical advisor for health and safety at work. “I’ve always wanted to serve with the UN as a Volunteer and work with a development organization. For me, the UNDP is the only organization that could help me achieve these two goals at the same time. Volunteering as a legal and contract management specialist in Sudan, makes me feel useful everyday”, Ruth said on Thursday while painting a classroom. “The schoolgirls were so excited. All day they would come up to us with a big smile and hold our hands while we were painting and fixing the playground area. By the end of the day, when we finished renovating the school, they all went home to put on their best dresses, and came back to sing and dance for us. What a day! It felt fantastic to be a part of this.”

In the past year alone, the number of the UN Volunteers working in Sudan has doubled, and growth is expected to continue at this rate through 2007. With some 300 UNVs including some 30 Sudanese volunteers, from more than 40 countries around the world, the UNVs Programmeme in Sudan is one of the largest and fastest growing corps of enthusiastic volunteers in the world.

The United Nations Volunteers Programmeme is the UN organization that supports sustainable human development globally through the promotion of volunteerism, including the mobilization of volunteers. It serves the causes of peace and development through enhancing opportunities for participation by all peoples. It is universal, inclusive and embraces volunteer action in all its diversity. It values free will, commitment, engagement and solidarity, which are the foundations of volunteerism.

The United Nations Volunteers is administered by the United Nations Development Programmeme.