Overview
This proposal offers a Sudanese-owned framework for addressing one of the war’s least visible
casualties: the psychological wellbeing of a generation of children who have witnessed killing, fled
their homes, and lost years of schooling. Rather than launching a new, standalone project, it
connects the government structures, UN agencies, and community networks already responsible for
children’s welfare into one coordinated national system for trauma recovery.
Key Findings
- A Hidden Epidemic Among Children — A 2024 clinical survey of displaced children in White
Nile State found that 14.3% met the criteria for probable PTSD and two thirds showed measurable
anxiety. A separate survey found that 87.6% of children studied had directly witnessed an act of
armed conflict. The true scale is almost certainly higher, since most affected children are never
reached by anyone able to screen them. - A Collapsed Care System — Sudan entered this war with only 34 psychiatrists and fewer than
one mental health worker per 100,000 people. Today just two certified child psychiatrists remain in
the entire country, and only 79 psychotherapists are known to be working, spread across nine of
Sudan’s eighteen states. - Education and Protection Systems Are Also Broken — Sudan now has more out-of-school
children than any other country in the world, with nearly half of school buildings no longer functioning as classrooms. The UN has verified over 5,700 grave violations against children since the war began. - The Response on the Ground Is Fragmented — Community volunteers, teachers, and camp-based initiatives are doing real work, but with no shared standards, no referral pathway to clinical or social welfare support, and no system for tracking who has been reached. Humanitarian funding for child protection and mental health remains a fraction of what is needed.
The Framework’s Four Pillars
- Community-Based Psychological First Aid — one shared national curriculum, delivered by
trained volunteers, teachers, and camp focal points. - School-Based Trauma-Informed Support — trauma-informed teacher training built directly into existing return-to-learning programmes
- Primary Health Care Integration — task-shifted, WHO-standard (mhGAP) training for health workers, extending the reach of Sudan’s few remaining specialists through supervision rather than direct caseload.
- Specialised Referral and Case Management — led by the Ministry of Social Affairs for the most vulnerable children, connected to every other pillar by one shared referral form. These four pillars are held together by a single National Child Trauma and MHPSS Coordination Committee, co-chaired by the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Social Affairs, with WHO and UNICEF providing technical support — designed to feed directly into Sudan’s national mental health strategy, currently under revision
The full proposal sets out a three-phase, 36-month implementation roadmap (emergency stabilization months 1–6; system building, months 7–18; institutionalization, months 19–36) with an estimated $82 million budget, built on the conviction that Sudan’s children should not have to wait for the war to end before someone helps them carry what they have already seen.
