World Down Syndrome Day 2025. Theme “Improve Our Support Systems.”

Blog by GESS 

For World Down Syndrome Day, on 21st March 2025, we call on all governments to improve our support systems. 

This year, Girls’ Education South Sudan (GESS) is shining a spotlight on Down Syndrome and the situation of children with Down Syndrome in South Sudan. Down Syndrome is a condition (birth defect) that causes delays in development leading to intellectual (learning) disability. 

After a consultative discussion with different stakeholders in South Sudan, we have realised that there is a great lack of knowledge and understanding of this condition and that children with Down Syndrome are often not identified and appropriately supported. They are also often excluded from school for a variety of reasons most prominently because of negative attitudes due to stigmatisation. 

Photo Credit: Down Syndrome International.

The GESS disability inclusion team, Disability Champions, and School Officers (members of respective communities championing disability inclusion) are collaborating with the South Sudan Union of Persons with Disabilities and other partners such as Light for the World to identify and mobilise children of school-going age who have Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. As a programme we support Article 24 of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities which guarantees the right of every child irrespective of the nature or degree of their disability to attend and be fully included in his or her neighbourhood school. 

World Down Syndrome Day is celebrated annually on 21 March. To mark this day, GESS is working with radio stations and our Community Mobilisers and Disability Champions to carry out the message of this year to all families and communities. We also encourage people with Down syndrome and those who care for them to speak up in their own ways. 

Children with Down Syndrome should be identified in the communities in which they live and given opportunities to go to school. Families of children with Down Syndrome should not be isolated in the communities where they live. They should be embraced and welcomed in community gatherings. Remember, ‘it takes a village to raise a child’. Children with Down Syndrome who are known and accepted in their community have a better chance of being included in their local schools. 

Support must be given to families of children with Down Syndrome to assist them in giving early stimulation to their child. There are many organizations working across South Sudan who could be approached for advice on early intervention. The development of speech and language development in children with Down Syndrome must be actively fostered so that they can be better understood by teachers and members of the public.  

Over the past few years, GESS has trained Boards of Governors and School Management Committees on how to make their schools inclusive and have positive attitudes towards children with disabilities. School-based Advisory Committees on Inclusive Education have been established and should now be ready to ensure that also children with Down Syndrome are welcomed and supported in schools. There should no longer be any bullying of children with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities. Children with Down Syndrome are naturally kind and outgoing and their presence in schools should be embraced and welcomed. 

The vision of the South Sudan National Policy on Inclusive Education is to “establish an inclusive and barrier-free inclusive education systems. This will enable the active participation of all learners in the same, safe enabling school environments where they can develop their full potential.” 

Schools, therefore, have the responsibility of ensuring that learners with Down Syndrome will be safe and participating fully in lessons. Schools must ensure that learners with Down Syndrome are registered during enrolment so that they can receive cash transfers. Schools must include support measures for learners with Down Syndrome in their School Development Plans and Budgets Packs. Teachers must plan on how to make lessons accessible for learners with Down Syndrome so that their learning strengths are optimised, e.g. by learning through visual prompts and having content simplified and reduced. 

The message from persons with Down Syndrome is: “Stop being biased and give us a chance. We will show you what we can achieve.” 

 More information on Down Syndrome can be found on the website of the World Down Syndrome conference.  

Categorised in: Disability Inclusion, GESS Events, Human Interest Story