The Italian Government’s commitment to protect vulnerable minors continues with the launch of the initiative: “Integrated protection of childhood for abandoned and unaccompanied minors in the State of Khartoum and in the States of the East”. The programme, financed by the Italian Agency for Cooperation and Development (AICS) with 1,000,000.00 euros, will be implemented by UNICEF in close cooperation with the AICS Khartoum office.

On the one hand, the initiative aims to strengthen childhood protection mechanisms in the favour of unaccompanied migrant minors exposed to the risks connected to the migratory phenomenon and to human trafficking. On the other hand, it seeks to improve living conditions of abandoned children, with special attention to disable children in the Mygoma Institute, as well as to strengthen the hosting system (Kafala) in the areas of Khartoum, Port Sudan and Tokar, thereby promoting the de-institutionalisation of orphan minors. The programme is in line with AICS initiatives in Sudan and with strategies adopted by the Sudan authorities, which are strongly focused on protecting children.

In thanking the Italian Government and the AICS for their generous contribution, and UNICEF for its commitment in implementing the initiative, the Secretary General of the National Council for the Protection of Children, Suad Abdalaal, stressed the importance of the awareness raising and advocacy activities envisaged in the programme that aim to bring about a change of mindset in the way abandoned and unaccompanied migrant minors are perceived, as well as to develop a shared commitment of institutions and civil society to include the protection of children as a transversal, inter-sectoral matter of priority in the development of public policies.