During an English lesson, 13-year-old Aya walks to the blackboard with confidence and, in no time, writes three sentences.

After being out of school for more than a year and a half, Aya takes pride in how far she has come. Not even an earlier failed test will deter her from achieving her dream of learning English and becoming a doctor one day.

Two years ago, when her life was disrupted by the conflict in Khartoum, Aya never imagined she would return to school – let alone continue learning English, her favorite subject.

While the war has robbed her of many things, her love of education remains a beacon of hope for a better future.

The journey to the unknown

Aya and her family were living in Khartoum when the war began. When bullets struck their neighbor’s house, they had no choice but to flee for safety.

With only a few belongings – including the wet clothes they had just washed – the family embarked on a journey to the unknown.

The sight of fighters, the sound of gunshots, and the numerous checkpoints terrified her. The rainy season made the journey even more dangerous, with thunder, lightning, and poor visibility on the road, but after several hours they eventually arrived in Kassala.

Leaving behind her childhood memories, including treasured family photo albums, fills Aya with sadness: “I always intended to share my childhood photos with my children one day. I wish I had taken those albums with me.”

A new chapter in Kassala

In Kassala, the family has started a new life. Together with her siblings, Aya is forging ahead and has quickly made friends. However, as a result of the war, her father, a former cab driver, lost his livelihood, deeply affecting their well-being.

“Food was scarce. When my mother served breakfast, she always kept some leftovers for dinner,” Aya recalls of those first difficult days.

Access to a variety of foods was a luxury they couldn’t afford. Water was also a challenge. In Khartoum, clean water was readily available with the turn of a tap, but in Kassala, Aya and her siblings had to walk through the streets looking for donkey carts to buy water.

“Life was very hard,” she says. “Even harder because we were not going to school.”

The fear of never returning to school

While schools remained closed, Aya often worried she might never return to class. With little to do at home, her thoughts often gravitated towards the continued fighting with no end in sight and the significant impact on her family.

“The war is all I thought about,” she says. “The days were long, and I was always nervous.”

“Will I be able to go back to school?” she asked her father.

Uncertain himself, he said, “We will stay here for 15 days, then return home, and you will go back to school.”

But 15 days turned into a year and a half without school. Along with 17 million other children in Sudan, Aya remained home, part of one of the largest education crises in the world.

A teacher in the neighborhood would later volunteer to help children, including Aya and her siblings, with catch-up lessons, but it wasn’t enough.

“We had no textbooks. My father couldn’t afford more than one exercise book for each of us,” she recalls.

A new school, renewed hope

Aya found a second chance at education at Hai Alarab School for Girls in Kassala State, which operated as a safe learning space while many schools were closed.

Safe learning spaces are established in places where it is not safe or feasible to reopen schools.

They are child-friendly, inclusive spaces set up using existing community structures where possible or by establishing new spaces as needed. A GPE grant of US$10 million (2023–2025), managed by UNICEF, has funded the establishment of 365 safe learning spaces.

Kassala is one of the states targeted by GPE funding, and safe learning spaces operate in communities with some of the highest numbers of internally displaced people.

When Aya's parents learned that displaced children could enroll, they quickly signed up Aya and her sisters.

The safe learning space, established with GPE support after the conflict erupted, initially provided 200 children with access to education. With the reopening of the school, enrollment has now expanded to over 700 students, including 278 displaced children.

Almost two years into the war, many Sudanese children are out of school, with girls at a higher risk of being excluded from education.

Safety concerns, economic difficulties and displacement are some of the reasons children drop out of school, and girls face additional gender-specific barriers to education, such as social norms related to child marriage and domestic work.

The GPE-supported program aims to keep all children safe, well and learning, as well as help mitigate and address the growing number of out-of-school children.

In addition to opening safe learning spaces, the program has helped reopen over 180 schools.

The safe learning space at Hai Alarab School for Girls has benefited from school grants funded by GPE, which has helped integrate refugee and displaced children into the learning system.

Aisha Albukhari, the school principal who supervised the safe learning space, confirms that the grants facilitated renovations of school buildings previously occupied by displaced families, as well as repairs to school furniture before reopening.

The dedicated teachers and facilitators at the school have received specialized training in child-centered teaching methods and life skills, critical for managing large classes. They also receive some incentives for their work.

GPE support has also provided learning materials, including exercise books, pencils, bags, geometry sets, chalk and teaching guides.

Aya has received all the education supplies she requires for learning. Her favorite is the geometry set full of pencils and pens.

“The children here are so kind,” she says. “When I first arrived, the class was full, but they made space for me.”

Returning to school has not only created a sense of normalcy and a routine for the young girl but also supported her gradual healing from dark and uncertain times. Every day, she looks forward to tomorrow.

In the extreme circumstances of the conflict in Sudan, education is providing hope for the future for Aya, her family, her peers and their school principal.