In Sudan’s mountains, wartime orphans are raised to be peacemakers

rutlandliving
8 hours ago
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by Sophie Neiman from The Christian Science Monitor, South Kordofan, Sudan

A brutal conflict is forcing many young Sudanese to starve, fight as soldiers, or toil in mines. At Our Father’s Cleft, they are instead provided refuge and education in hopes they will become change-makers who bring peace to the country.

In a dusty courtyard between sepia-colored mountain slopes, bright-eyed children in gray uniforms sing about respecting God and their elders. Their voices are high and clear, but the littlest struggle to clap along in time.

This is Our Father’s Cleft, a school and children’s home in the Nuba Mountains, a vast range spanning some 30,000 square miles in the borderland area between the conflict-racked countries of Sudan and South Sudan. Large numbers of children began arriving at Our Father’s Cleft after Sudan’s third civil war erupted in April 2023 – a testament to how many families have been torn apart as the fighting has spawned the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

Director Ezekiel Ayub, who applauds the singers on this hot February day, works with his staff to provide shelter, education, and care to the children. Operating for more than a decade, Our Father’s Cleft is the only official orphanage in these mountains.

Credit: Guy Peterson. Ezekiel Ayub is director of Our Father’s Cleft, an orphanage in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan state, Sudan.

Teaching with empathy

Our Father’s Cleft is home to 180 children and young adults and is educating some 300 more. Mr. Ayub knows firsthand what these children have endured. He spent his boyhood hiding in the caves of the Nuba Mountains during Sudan’s second civil war, which ran from 1983 to 2005. His family rarely had enough food to eat, and Mr. Ayub watched as other children around him grew sick and died.

He eventually escaped to Port Sudan, where he went to school, then returned to the Nuba Mountains and found the area devastated by conflict. He began working as a teacher in informal classrooms. “I wasn’t a good teacher,” he says modestly, “but at least I tried.”