Climate Change is a Reason for the Decline in Education

Story by: NADRA ALMAHDI

Location: SUDAN BASE IN EGYPT

Nadra is a Sudanese journalist and activist on gender and human rights issues and climate change . She is a TV presenter on Alhiwar, an Egyptian channel. She is the deputy of Gender Secretary in Sudanese syndicate as well as a contributor with many European webs and magazines related to my field. She is also poet. She launched her first poem book - Alhawa Alazab in Egypt.

Raise your hands high...

Bang... Bang...

Can't you hear, boy? Raise your hands high! And the whips lashed down on the back of ten-year-old Osama Ahmed Al-Imam.

He groaned in agony, but a flood of memories washed over him.

What could he possibly do to make it to the morning assembly and avoid being whipped in front of the other students?

He wakes up in his village of Al-Ahmirat in the Bara locality of North Kordofan at the first call to prayer, unable to eat anything because their livestock have perished. His mother has no milk left to feed him, a consequence of the desertification that has devastated the village and its vegetation.

He walks for nearly two hours to reach the Maliha Primary School, yet he arrives late to be whipped in the morning assembly. And the whip lashed down on his back again...!!!

May God curse this village! What makes him endure all this hardship? He returns home at six in the evening to rest a little and begin studying his lessons. Then he sleeps... to go to school... What's the point of all this trouble amidst this overwhelming poverty, sand, and misery?

Besides, he can't find anyone to pay the school fees they demand—8,000 pounds every year. His other brother dropped out of school a while ago, and his sisters are still studying. They're struggling to make ends meet, and his mother works as an office worker to support them. Is it reasonable that I endure all this suffering for the sake of school, hungry, with an empty stomach and exhausted, only to be rewarded with a severe beating? And then the next thought came to him in haste!

What do I lose if I leave school? Damn it! There's no point in this suffering; school is pointless and futile. Osama Ahmed Al-Imam left school at the age of ten. He and a group of other villagers decided to move to Omdurman to work and help their families with expenses after the rains stopped, the crops died, the livestock perished, and the village land became covered with small red sand dunes that destroy them day by day. Ajab Ibrahim Ismail, the director of basic education in Bara locality, says that the Al-Ahmirat area is a desert encroachment zone with shifting sand dunes, and that they rely mainly on herding, with agriculture not being a significant source of income for them.

However, he refutes Osama's statement regarding the fees, explaining that they are not school fees but rather a contribution to running the school by mobilizing community efforts in the field of education. He adds that no official state body set them; they were set by the local educational councils. Young people who leave school and head to the cities do so for quick profit and income. Some parents even forcibly take their children out to help with the cost of living.

He pointed out that they have clear directives against expelling students due to tuition fees and against corporal punishment, with teachers receiving training on this matter. This is an established educational policy.

Many methods are being implemented to help students develop a love for school and teachers and continue their education.

Osama says, "Although I'm 17 now, and I've been out of school for 7 years, I regret leaving it."

Osama abandoned his education and started selling socks in Omdurman with a capital of 40,000 Sudanese pounds. He then worked various odd jobs before leaving Omdurman and moving to Port Sudan, where he buys vegetables from the Omdurman market and sells them there. Sometimes he loses money, sometimes the local authorities confiscate it, and sometimes... he can't even afford to bring it to a guest with his own hands. Consequently, he can't send anything to his family after being accustomed to sending them 150,000 or 200,000 Egyptian pounds monthly.

The bitterness is evident in Osama's words, and he sighs deeply. "Perhaps the main reason for my education is the sand that has recently descended upon our village... We lost our livestock and depended on them. Agriculture was thriving, and there was plenty of food, but as soon as the environment changed due to desertification and the decrease in rainfall, the livestock perished, and my mother couldn't support us anymore. So I decided to help her bear the burden of the household, but I always wished I had become a doctor to heal people's ailments!" I wish I were a messenger of mercy, easing the suffering of the wounded and injured.

Then, reflecting on the bitter reality, he sighs deeply. "What's done is done. But I still remember the weekend at school, especially Thursdays, when we played football inside the school. Even though the classrooms were made of straw, the walls of the school were made of wood, we sat on the ground, and we suffered from a shortage of textbooks, Thursdays were still special for us." The head of the primary education department in Bara agrees, stating that there are many ways to encourage students to attend school, including fostering a positive relationship between students and teachers, like that between father and son .

They have made a profession of migrating to the cities. Even if an official were to come and ask them about their needs, they wouldn't be able to present their case to him. They are uneducated and wouldn't be able to convince him with a strong argument that could help the villagers and support them in combating desertification. The land is covered with the dung of the few animals that remain. The well is used by the villagers and their animals for drinking, and the villagers suffer from low income and meager livelihoods. They are plagued by diseases caused by dampness. The women struggle to fetch water from the well morning, noon, and night, then they go to collect firewood from the valley, burn it, and sell it for a thousand pounds a bag just to make ends meet. Oh, if only he were educated, he would have benefited them and himself before them. But such are the twists and turns of fate. He will never forget the days when their village was lush and green with acacia and tamarisk trees, and the straw was thick, providing grazing for the cattle and cows.

The wise woman (1) used to say about the milking cow, describing it as a light:

The neighborhood of Al-Kahila (2) came.

The sense of Noura (3) (4) The straw of the thorny bushes are bundled. Or when you say, describing the camel: “The night, the trustworthy one tightened his grip. Above (the generous one) he knelt. The day he intended to extend his hand, (the fortunate one) came to them.”

The wise woman: She is the rural woman who composes poetry. The milk-producing cow. Noura: The cow that grazes amidst the grasses.

The sound of the cow is called “tatarzam.”

By “al-Samih” he means the camel, and by “al-Saeed” he means his sheikh, whom he calls upon to protect him with the secret of God that He bestowed upon him. All these things ended, and the sands consumed everything green and dry, causing the people to abandon their village and their nurturing mother.

The Director General of Drinking Water in North Kordofan State, Mohamed Al-Obeid Ahmed, stated that water is the fundamental factor in human stability, even more so than education and health. He emphasized that wherever water is found, stability is achieved. He pointed out that the well in Al-Ahmarat village is shallow, resulting in insect infestations due to its proximity to the surface and its vulnerability to contamination. He explained that the insects come from the surface due to animal and human waste, a consequence of the villagers' own actions and the surrounding environment. He stressed the need for the villagers to establish a direct relationship with the Commissioner of Bara locality to report their problems and have them escalated to higher authorities. He further noted that development projects often require funding that is not readily available and needs to be secured well in advance. He emphasized the importance of health awareness campaigns for the residents to protect their health, adding that water was previously provided through grants and loans, but the dissolution of the Rural Water Authority has left the government unable to continue funding water projects due to the high costs. Osama came to his village this season to wait for the planting season and then return to Port Sudan. Although he still wanted to continue his studies, he and all the children of his generation made a firm decision that all the village children should learn, regardless of the circumstances, so they could improve their lives and contribute to a better future.

Osama sees himself in every child carrying his school supplies and books. He is pushing the children forward!

He instills in them a spirit of resistance and defiance, a fight against the encroaching desert so that it doesn't destroy them, as it destroyed his own future!