In 2024, parents and caregivers queued early at Ibrahim Balal School in Sudan's Red Sea State to register their children's births. Rasha, a displaced mother, joined the line for her two daughters. UNICEF explains that for families who lost identification during war, a birth certificate can be a gateway to education, health care, and food assistance.
A four-month catch-up campaign placed registration teams, including a judge, on site. A process that had required court visits and family witnesses was reduced to three to five days. More than one hundred children were registered daily at the school alone.
This queue should not turn wartime loss into an uplifting story. It was an ordered attempt by families to recover, case by case, the official proof of existence that displacement had taken from them.