Shoreham teacher's Sudan visit

Katie Moore, 35, who teaches at Shoreham College, flew to Sudan on Saturday, and will be spending the week exchanging experiences with teachers, working in make-shift camps in the war-torn country.

Education resources in the camps are stretched. In some schools, teachers have received hardly any training, have little equipment and are in charge of 100 children.

Speaking to the Herald the day before leaving for the country's capital, Khartoum, Mrs Moore said she was looking forward to her trip.

"I have never done anything like this before," she said. "It will be a different experience."

Education systems in Sudan have been severely disrupted by 21 years of civil war. As a result, only a quarter of adults in the camps are able to read and write.

Now, two years since the war ended, many in the displacement camps want to return home.

Most cannot do so because the progress to provide schools and other essential services in their home regions is slow. Mrs Moore said: "There are some people out there who are going back to primary school because they are illiterate. They were fighting in the civil war as children. It will be quite an eye-opening experience."

After she returns, on Saturday, Mrs Moore is hoping to raise awareness with her school and community of the issues facing children, adults and teachers in Sudan.

She is also hoping to use their experiences to raise much-needed funds to support children who deserve an education around the world. She said: "When you think that only 25 pays for a child to go to school for a whole year, your donations will go a long way."

Mrs Moore embarked on her trip with seven other teachers from across the country, to work with charity Education Action, which works with war-torn communities across Africa and the Middle East to help rebuild people's lives through education.