A recent HUMAES experience

As you may know, one of the two partner organisations who are co-founders of Cece Primary School is a local NGO called Humans Must Access Essentials (HUMAES for short). Without their practical local know-how, help and advice our school would not be possible. Everything they do for our school they do free-of-charge apart from a small charge for the costs of sharing their office facilities (electricity, internet, printer and a desk for me). This shows the level of their commitment.

Youth Peace Group in Magwi

Youth Peace Group in Pajok

HUMAES’s remit is anything which will help to bring the local people up out of poverty and deprivation. They work in the areas of health, gender-based violence, livelihood, environment, human rehabilitation, peace-building and, of course, education. Apart from their work on our school, they apply to various international NGOs for funding for projects in line with their vision. 

 

HUMAES’s most recent venture is a peace-building project funded by UNDP. UNDP asked HUMAES to work with youth on peace-building and reconciliation in an area quite a long distance from Nimule but within the same county (Magwi County). The activities will include peace-building and conflict resolution workshops, football, cultural dancing, drama, peace marathon, supporting local youth in farming activities and art. 

 

Meeting at Opari, in Pageri

The designated area comprises several districts: Lobore, Pageri, Magwi and Pajok. Out of these, Lobore and Pajok are very hard to reach due to lack of roads and mountainous conditions, so this was a very tough assignment. The area is home to three tribes, Madi, Acholi and Langi. The program manager, Charles, is a Madi. He took with him an intern called Samuel, who is an Acholi. The Langi are related to the Acholi and speak Acholi as there have been many inter-marriages. Between Charles and Samuel all linguistic issues were covered. 

The Lobore area is so remote that they had had no communication with the outside world for many months. Covid-19 was news to them. There is no phone network or electricity. Water is fetched from the nearby river and is not very clean; one of my colleagues suffered as a result. At some point the outside framework of a school was built but without partitions between classrooms. It is doubtful if there are any teachers to teach there, and certainly no materials. A church was built but also never finished (see photo below).

 

HUMAES conducted an initial survey some time ago to find out the situation in the designated areas. Last week Charles and Samuel returned to get permission from the local authorities and start to talk to local groups. All went smoothly at first. People in Pageri, Magwi and Pajok were very happy to take part in the project, which will include team games such as football. The problems began on reaching Lobore. This could only be done on foot, crossing rivers and climbing a mountain. There they discovered that some very serious problems have developed since the initial survey. Local politicians have fomented rivalries between the Acholi and Langi villagers. Acholis have been displaced from their homes and forced to move to the foot of the mountain. Two chiefs were killed in the course of the fighting. 

 

Youth Peace Group in unfinished church in Isore

The Acholis from Lobore are now officially in Magwi County, while the Langi are still in their mountain homes in Lobore but under the administration of Ikotos County. This will mean another grueling trip for HUMAES to visit the Ikotos County Offices to get permission to work there. However, it is essential to do this if they are to fulfil their peace-building role. UNDP has agreed this extension of their work.

On their journey home, passing through Magwi Town, they saw three dead bodies including two old women, covered in blood, being transported elsewhere in the back of a rickshaw. A local youth calmly explained that he and others had stoned them to death because they had ‘poisoned’ a four year old child. The youths were still searching for a fourth person who they also intended to kill. It is most unlikely that an autopsy would have been done on the child as there is no hospital, so there is no proof of how she died.

Left to right: Charles and Samuel

Charles, the program manager for HUMAES, commented that there is clearly work to be done in Magwi too if tit-for-tat killings are not going to break out, as the stoning victims’ relatives will definitely be out for revenge. 

I should explain that in a South Sudan context, poisoning does not necessarily mean feeding poison to somebody. It can mean brewing a magic potion, but often means putting a curse on somebody in order to kill them. It is not uncommon even in Nimule for this to happen. 

In April one of our own school children was fetching water from a borehole. A storm blew up suddenly and she was struck by lightning. As in the Magwi case, a witch-hunt took place and a neighbour was blamed for her death. Fortunately, in this particular case, the woman was simply forced out of her home and made to leave the area. She is lucky to be alive. 

 

 I feel very privileged to work with HUMAES. I don’t think that that there is any other NGO in our area who would have taken their lives into their hands as they are doing. Yes, UNDP will pay them for their work, but it is real work undertaken in sometimes very dangerous conditions. Without a real heart for their country and its people I think they would have found something a little less risky to do.

The school remains closed but doors and windows are now fixed

 Dear all,

Since writing my last post, we now have a date for reopening the school.  Unfortunately, it is not until April 2021.  That means that our poor children will have been out of school for a year and one month. There have been many reports of teenage pregnancies in the community.  Most children are now working for their families (see photo). It is all very frustrating, but we are powerless to do our own thing, without sacrificing the good will of the education authorities by disobeying education directives.  We are just praying for a change of heart.

This is Pachok, who has been
at Cece Primary School since
it started in 2015.  He is now helping
to support his family.

This comes at a time when cases of Covid-19 are on the rise.  Although testing is woefully inadequate, the testing at the border shows that one in twenty-three people are testing positive.  Unfortunately, most of those tested then give false contact details, so that they cannot be given their results and are free to pass the virus to all their friends and relatives.  It is not possible to detain people while awaiting results because of a lack of quarantine facilities.  The general attitude of the public is completely negative and not conducive to stopping the spread of the virus.

Schools which have final year classes are opening just for final examination classes from 5^th October.  They are going to have a six day week to try to catch up.  Their exams will be in February and March next year, which is why the decision not to reopen other classes was made.  As our school does not yet reach to Primary 8, the final year of primary education, we just have to wait. 

What the Ministry of Education seems to have ignored is the fact that there will be no possibility of Primary 8 classes in 2021, as there will be no transition from Primary 7 to Primary 8.  Another issue is that we will only have a two term school year next year, so that the whole curriculum is unlikely to be covered. 

Newly installed windows

In the meantime, the doors and windows are finally in place and the doors are securely padlocked.  Funds have just arrived to allow us to order 125 desks.  As we have taken the decision to divide the school into morning and afternoon sessions for social distancing, this should be enough.  Thank you very much to Gerard Culliford who has made the immediate purchase of these desks possible.  Now that there are doors and windows, the desks will also be secure until they can finally be put to use.

We held a one week literacy training course for our teachers last week, taught by myself.  This was a great success.  All the teachers enjoyed the course and were keen enough to be practicing on each other during our break-times.  Once school restarts, the intention is for all teachers to teach literacy and spelling through their other lessons throughout the school.  This has become necessary as our school timetable has to be condensed to allow for the two separate school sessions each day.

Teacher training in my home compound.

As we have so much time before the school reopens in April I am going to try to organize some more teacher training sessions, to keep everybody thinking forward, and hopefully raising the quality of teaching.  In the meantime, our teachers are teaching small groups of children in their immediate neighbourhoods informally.

In terms of our national campaign for literacy, we organized a local radio talk show on International Literacy Day (8^th September).  A lot of people phoned in to express their support, but also to ask for adult literacy to be included.  This has set us thinking about how this can be done.  It would be beyond our capacity to start an adult education institute.  We are considering offering Saturday classes for parents of Cece Primary School, so that they can learn using the same method as their children.  This would enable parents and children to support each other at home.  However, this does not solve the problem nationwide.  To correct the statistics in my last post: 90% of women are illiterate, but the overall figure is 67% illiteracy, which includes both men and women over 15 years old.

The Ministry of General Education invited me to attend an online meeting of partners concerned with literacy, but unfortunately our electricity was not working.  Hopefully I will be able to attend the next meeting.  Somebody from the Stromme Foundation has contacted us, and may be willing to support our campaign.  Stromme’s work in South Sudan is primarily in teacher training.  Jolly Phonics are also interested to help us.

Thank you all so much for your continued support during this difficult time.  As mentioned in my last post, without your help, we would not be able to continue paying our teachers.  They are all very grateful as they are well aware that all other schools have not been able to do this.  Please can you continue to support us.

Rebecca