Child Protection & Education
IPCA’s Child Protection and Education Unit aims to reduce the vulnerability of girls and boys affected by the crisis in South Sudan as well as to strengthen the country’s educational system to build resilience and long-term security and economic development.
The IPCA Child Protection Program acts to enhance Emergency Child Protection Prevention & Response Services through activities including: comprehensive case management, structured and non-structured psychosocial support, establishment and strengthening of community based child protection structures, sexual reproductive education, programs for children with special needs, advocacy against child labor and recruitment of children into armed forces, and CP-GBV, forced marriage, and post-rape services. IPCA’s Child Protection Program partners with the National Disarmament, Demobilization, and Reintegration Commission, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, the Human Rights Commission, the Ministry of Justice and Constitutional Development, the South Sudan Law Society, the South Sudan Women Lawyers Association, the South Sudan Police Service, the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education and Instruction, and other community-based organizations.
The IPCA Education Program works to strengthen the education system in South Sudan through supporting access to education, ensuring quality education, and building synergy for resilience in Western Bahr El Ghazal, Western Equatoria, Central Equatoria and Eastern Equatoria states for long term development. IPCA established a state-level education strategic programming supported by local partnerships and implemented by national senior and junior education experts. Education Program activities include: awareness raising on girl child education, sponsorship and scholarship for girls of all ages, building and management of girls’ boarding schools, mentorship for girls with a focus on adolescent girls, career support for adolescent girls, management of community girls’ schools, provision of sanitary materials to school girls, and the establishment of girls’ reading clubs in secondary schools. IPCA has built strategic partnerships with the Ministry of General Education and Instruction, the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, UNICEF, Plan International, War Child Holland, the Government of Japan, and local authorities across its areas of operation for coordinated comprehensive education programming.
Our Impact
Project for the Reintegration and Rehabilitation of Children Associated with Armed Groups
IPCA implemented a project to rehabilitate and reintegrate former child soldiers, bring awareness to communities, armed groups and armies about child rights and humanitarian law, and to advocate for the release of more child soldiers by engaging local and international partners on issues of child rights and child protection. IPCA established an interim center for rehabilitation, provided psycho-social services, offered technical and vocational training for reintegration, and conducted a public information campaign on child rights. At the end of the project, 50 former child soldiers were able to graduate with certificates in auto mechanics, driving, tailoring and fashion, information technology, construction and building, and welding and metalwork.
Construction of a Community Primary School in Rejaf Payam, Juba County
IPCA constructed a community primary school in Rejaf Payam, Juba County to ensure safe access to education for primary school students, establish WASH facilities, supply clean drinking water, and to provide psychosocial support services to help children and youth with trauma and social and emotional pressures. Project activities included the successful construction of classrooms and offices, the building of a gender-segregated toilet, drilling a borehole for clean water, and facilitating an external audit of the facility to ensure quality.
