Two hundred migrant returnees and other youth in the Nyala locality of South Darfur, Sudan, have started vocational training that is expected to improve their chances of securing employment or starting their own businesses.

The training began on 1 September and will run until December, ending with a 20-day internship. A similar training was held last year in West Darfur, and benefitted returnees and members of host communities.

Sudan is a country of origin, transit and destination for migrants, and many Sudanese nationals find themselves stranded en-route or in destination countries, like Libya. They often have no choice but to return; and then struggle to re-join the labour market in Sudan, with limited skills.

Catherine Northing, the Chief of Mission for the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Sudan, said vocational training was identified as a major need for returnees in Darfur.

The vocational training is one of two new community projects in Nyala, funded by the EU-IOM Joint Initiative for Migrant Protection and Reintegration in the Horn of Africa (the EU-IOM Joint Initiative).

Thanks to a partnership with Nyala Technological College, participants can choose between six courses: vehicle maintenance, home appliance, and mobile phone maintenance, as well as food processing, sewing and knitting.

Sundus Ibrahim is among those benefitting from the training. She returned to Sudan with her family after four years in Egypt: “In Egypt I made and sold handicrafts, now I am working on improving my skills,” she said.

The second Nyala community project funded by the EU-IOM Joint Initiative has been developed in partnership with the State Ministry of Health. It is a garbage retrieval initiative, implemented by the environmental health department and the community in Nyala (North and South), with the aim of introducing waste management in a part of the city where none exists.

The project will be complemented by a campaign to encourage proper waste disposal.

Nazeer Aljazdule, a sanitation and health coordinator at the Ministry of Health, said key to the success of the project is the application of environmental laws and regulations. Until now they have not been enforced due to the lack of a garbage management system.

About the EU-IOM Joint Initiative 

Launched in December 2016 with the support of the European Union Emergency Trust Fund for Africa (EUTF), the programme brings together 26 African countries of the Sahel and Lake Chad region, the Horn of Africa, and North Africa, along with the European Union and the International Organization for Migration, around the goal of ensuring that migration is safer, more informed and better governed for both migrants and their communities.

For more information please contact: Wilson Johwa, email: wjohwa@iom.int  and Fathia Amin, email: famin@iom.int