The Health Education and Reconciliation (HEAR) project worked closely with education officers, school administrators, teachers and communities to improve school management and teaching methods, as well as addressing the psychosocial needs of pupils. It reached nearly 93,000 children in its seven years.

Originally designed to support the implementation of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement through community-based health and education services in the three areas of Abyei, South Kordofan, and Blue Nile States, HEAR shifted its focus to serving internally displaced persons and returnees in Agok, Warrap, Unity, and Northern and Western Bahr el Ghazal States after South Sudan gained its independence in July 2011.

The USAID-funded project taught more than 1,500 school teachers from 201 schools to provide psychosocial support and incorporate student-centered lessons on conflict resolution and violence prevention in addition to health, hygiene and English—South Sudan’s new official language.

It trained 195 parent-teacher associations to make school development plans, write funding proposals and recognize their responsibility for school management. These groups have made huge contributions of local materials for classroom construction and local development projects like latrines, fences and water storage facilities.

HEAR also provided Vitamin A and deworming tablets to nearly 28,000 school children, and insecticide-treated bed nets to more than 22,000, drastically reducing the number of pupils who missed school due to illness.

HEAR laid the foundation for strengthened education systems and increased community capacity and engagement with an eye toward promoting peace and reconciliation in a country strained by decades of war. It achieved these results despite encountering infrastructure, logistic and security hurdles common in conflict-affected areas.