Ms Sheila Garry:

Yes. Reference was made to the period of 30 years, and during that time the face of the conflict and all the issues in the southern part of Sudan, as it was, have been constantly changing and looking very different. It is difficult to say how much the entire nation of that very large country has improved over the course of that long period. We do what we can among certain targeted communities. We have been working in the Maloote area with Irish Aid funded support. The contribution from the Irish Government has had an enormous impact for that particular population, those people, their families and children. It is one small area of South Sudan but for those people it is everything. As was mentioned, the vast majority of children throughout South Sudan are not in school.

For the past four years in that area of the Upper Nile, it has meant that children have had access to basic primary education. It is challenging to have a permanent presence of teachers who are fully trained and qualified. There are many difficulties in that programme. For those communities who are displaced, who might have travelled from one county to another and who plan to move on to another one as their local situation becomes volatile, it has meant they have been able to return to the normality of the availability of education and their children being able too access schools. In those particular camps, as people are mostly based in a camp situation, we have been co-ordinating at a very high level with other agencies, and thousands upon thousands of children are accessing education who otherwise would not be. Likewise, thousands of the smaller children are able to access a child-friendly space who otherwise would not be able to do so. For that number of children to be able to get that type of counselling and work through the trauma they have experienced is a major achievement.

For us, we always need to be able to bring it back to the fact that these are the communities with which we are working. The large-scale picture is that a great number of issues need to be tackled in that country. Every agency is doing what it can in a particular area, and for that affected population, it is making a gigantic difference. Other agencies may be intervening in other sectors in that area but we are the only agency working in the education field in Maloote county. Without that Irish Aid support, there would not be education for those primary school aged children.

All our staff are trained up to the standard required for their positions. World Vision has very strong human resources, HR, policies and a code of practice in respect of care practices for staff, and we will always prioritise the safety and well-being of staff. We have a mix of local staff with some international staff when some of the required skills cannot be found locally in the areas. For example, an accountant or highly qualified medical staff may not be available locally and those staff may be international, but our approach is always with a view to building up the skills and resources of the local staff we hire. The hiring of staff is always done with sensitivity, for example, to the ethnic group from which they might come. We have an approach which is called "do no harm". That means, for example, when we are engaging in a new area with a new population or hiring staff, we as an agency need to make sure that in whatever way we work with that community, no difficulties are created by the fact that we are there. In addition to that, we always incorporate elements of peace building and are mindful of the way our work can bring different communities together. A part of that is ensuring there is transparency with respect to our being seen to be clear regarding who the people are whom we employ.