25 August 2015 - UNICEF has launched a campaign to increase school attendance and participation in the Greater Pibor Administrative Area.

The children’s agency says the so-called “back to learning” initiative gives children, adolescents and those who have been forced to drop out of school due to poverty, gender discrimination or conflict a chance to go to school.

Pibor is one of the areas in the country that has been deprived of education due to conflict.

Meanwhile, the U.S. government has announced an additional $6 million grant to UNICEF to provide education to children and youth affected by conflict.

The money, channeled through the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), will enable UNICEF to increase the number of children and youth reached with emergency education services to 200,000.

The grant is also expected to benefit demobilized child soldiers and other out-of-school children in the Pibor Administrative Area.

The grant brings USAID’s total grant to UNICEF for emergency education in South Sudan over two years to $23.5 million.