Everything has changed! shouted the children

Since I last wrote, all the promised work has been done on the school within a remarkably short time.  This is a fantastic achievement and we are all very thankful to those who have donated to make this possible.

I appealed in my last post for sponsors for the deaf children at school in Uganda.  One person has very kindly responded and agreed to sponsor one of the children, Assumpta.  There are still three more.  The new sponsor recommended that I put a figure of how much it will cost for one year.  The amount I paid for each child last year was £623 including school fees, uniform, living expenses and travel.  I know this is a lot.  It is too much for me in the long term too.  If people would like to contribute something smaller on a regular basis, that is fine and will help.a

Doors and windows being put in place

Doors and windows have been put in three more classrooms so that we now have five lockable rooms.  This is a fantastic achievement.  It will enable desks to be put in them securely, and avoid the constant necessity of removing everything to the storeroom at the end of each day. 

To give you a side view of why this is necessary, there are huge problems with organized gangs of thieves in Nimule.  Anything not welded down, goes.  A few nights ago, there was a jointly planned robbery of many homes all over the town.  One of our neighbours is a policeman.  Not knowing this, he jumped out of bed and chased the thieves who were attacking his home.  He followed them to the local football ground, where he was set upon by many more thieves, who were all working together there.  He was severely injured. 

View of the new classroom block including
the newly roofed classroom - worker perched on top

This time last year, we built a new block of four classrooms, but were unable to roof them due to lack of funds.  Earlier in the year, one classroom was roofed and fitted with door and windows and desks.  This classroom is now used by Primary 4.

Over the past few weeks we have roofed a second classroom, which now houses our Primary 3 class, who were previously in our storeroom.  It is lovely for them not to have people constantly coming in and out, disturbing their lessons as they fetch textbooks, cooking pots and other things.  This is particularly important as all our children are hyper-inquisitive and very easily distracted!  Their new classroom does not as yet have a door or windows or desks, but they are at least in a better position to learn.

We still need to roof the other two classrooms, ready for next year’s intake.  One classroom will be for our first Primary 5 class.  The other classroom will make it possible for us to divide the pre-primary class in two according to level.  This is important because the current class size is far too big (49 children).  Based on past experience, there is always a big demand for the pre-primary class, which we were totally unable to meet this academic year.  We ended up being forced to eliminate all 5 year olds at registration time, which was a great shame as we expect our school to cater for children from 5 year old upwards.  Many desperately needy families were so desperate for their children to come, hence the over-large current class.

These new classrooms will also need doors and windows, but more urgently, blackboards to be made, as we only have five blackboards.  We are intending to make the blackboards by plastering a section of wall and painting with blackboard paint.  We did this in our old school building very effectively.

The London Oratory has paid for twelve more desks, making a total of twenty four.  The desks were made and are being used by our Primary 2 class in their newly secure classroom.  The London Oratory has very kindly agreed to continue to fundraise for desks in the other classes.

School shirts being made on Singer machines

Pencils for All fundraised during the year for school uniforms for all the children.  The children have all been measured and are waiting with bated breath for their uniforms.  Some children who were absent on the measuring day were told to go directly to the tailors.  They came back to school excitedly clutching off-cuts of the school shirt material, running around the compound shouting, “Our kitenge!  Our kitenge!”  Kitenge is the local word for cloth.  Uniform is going to make a huge difference to the children.  Most of them have very few, and very ragged, clothes.  To have something new is a huge experience for them and will really boost their morale.  All the other schools have uniform, and our children are often taunted on their way for the lack of uniform.  Shamefully, it has on one occasion led to discrimination against our school by the local personnel of an international NGO who were running a schools’ event.  Our children, although they had prepared a lovely poem, were not allowed on the stage.  Parents have pointed out that uniform will also make our children identifiable outside school, so that if there is any incident involving them, passers-by can contact the school. 

The downside is that from now on, there will be a need for new uniforms as the children grow and as new children are accepted.  Help!  However, I think you will see that the positives far outweigh the negatives, regarding school uniform.

We have a new nursery teacher, to help with our over-large class.  She is a young, lively and very well qualified Ugandan called Nataleen.  Very shortly afterwards one of our primary teachers resigned, which will leave an unfortunate gap, which we are not planning to fill until next year’s new recruitment.  We also have engaged two watchmen to look after the school after hours and also do any handyman jobs around the compound.  Next year as we will have a Primary 5 class for the first time, there will also be a need for more teachers. 

When the children arrived at school on Monday two weeks ago, they were stunned.  "Everything has changed!" they shouted.

I mentioned the problem of feeding in my last post.  This problem is ongoing as the World Food Programme, who are supposed to be taking over from Far Reaching Ministries, have still done nothing for any of the schools.  In the meantime, we have been supplying maize porridge to the children.  This is not as substantial as oatmeal, but is at least better than nothing.  The problem is made worse by the fact that under the South Sudan education system, although children up to Primary 3 have lessons only up to lunchtime, Primary 4 and upwards are supposed to remain in school up to 4pm.  Both teachers and Primary 4 are really struggling.  Bear in mind that our children are the poorest and most vulnerable in Nimule who cannot rely on being fed at home.

To sum up, things are moving on very well indeed at the school at the moment, with the exception of the food situation.  We need to continue fundraising for the roofing of two more classrooms, for staff salaries, for uniforms for next year’s intake, and for the various small items needed in the running of the school, such as chalk, pencils and pens etc.  We also need to fundraise for doors and windows for the newly roofed classroom and the two classrooms which should (I hope) be roofed this term. 

Please don't forget our deaf children.  Sponsorship is very important so that they can continue their education.

I would be very grateful if you could share this post widely to anyone who might be able to help us.  Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk .