1. In January 2011, the people of Southern Sudan are due to hold a referendum to decide whether to remain as part of a united Sudan or to create a separate nation. CAFOD has been working with partner organisations in Sudan to prepare for the challenges that lie ahead – whatever the outcome of the referendum. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

2. Agnes Avma Onyada, who lives in Magwi district, burns her fields to clear the land for planting. She returned here last year after living as a refugee and is proud to be re-building her home. She fled the area during the devastating civil war that killed 2 million people and displaced more than 4 million Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

3. At Avumadrici primary school, in Nimule, a student carries a blackboard to his outdoor classroom. Schooling shut down during decades of civil war. Now more than 90% of women in the south cannot read or write, and many teachers have themselves not completed their primary school education. If the referendum favours a separate Southern Sudan, a huge task facing the new country will be how to provide quality education to all young people and improve literacy levels Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

4. Learning to sew with pieces of paper, the vocational training students in Magwi district make do despite no cloth being available. Many people have never been able to learn a trade, although they are keen to do so. Though a peace deal was signed in 2005 and opened the door to development, a decimated infrastructure and lack of money leaves an enormous challenge to rebuild the devastated south. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

5. A young girl in Amika village in the district of Magwi pumps water from a borehole. Nine out of ten people in rural Sudan cannot access clean drinking water. Women must walk long distances daily. Humanitarian agencies like CAFOD help build these pumps to help stop needless deaths from waterborne diseases. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

6. Paustino Jada is a catechist at the Palotaka Catholic church, Magwi district. The Sudanese churches are the first place people flock when in search of refuge, and they have been the main providers of health and education throughout civil war and since the peace deal was signed five years ago. Over the next few months religious leaders will have a crucial role in using their influence as peace-makers to maintain calm during the tense moments that lie ahead. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

7. Atooo Joska, with her daughter, Sandy, age two, in Magwi town, Magwi district. With high maternal mortality rates, Joska is one of the lucky ones. Few doctors and rural health clinics have caused the south to have some of the worst rates in the world for women dying in childbirth and losing their children before they reach their fifth birthday. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

8. Nurse Jonas James attends to a patient with malaria in the village of Palotaka. The clinic is in a rectory’s former storage shed. Malaria is the number one cause of death for children under the age of five in southern Sudan. The state of the healthcare system is dismal. According to a 2008 UNHCR study southern Sudan has only 719 health clinics for a population of 8.26 million people and there is only one doctor for every 10 clinics . Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

9. A man walks along the dirt roads of Amika Village in Magwi district. Southern Sudan, an area roughly the size of France, has only 30 miles of paved road. When the six-month rainy season comes, roads such as this one become impassable by vehicles and large areas of southern Sudan cannot be reached. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

10. Sisters sleep outside their father’s home in Palotaka village. Preparations for the referendum are behind schedule, troops are building on the border regions and expectations are high for this historic occasion. Any disputes over the result could lead to a resumption of conflict, and the international community is being called on for assistance to ensure a peaceful outcome. Regardless of the result, hundreds of thousands of people may migrate or be forced to migrate, requiring a quick humanitarian response. Photograph: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD

11. For more info, please see cafod.org.uk/take-action/sudan-peace Picture credits: Karen Kasmasuki for CAFOD cafod.org.uk/take-action/sudan-peace