Dear all,
It is time to take the deaf
children back to school in Uganda, but unfortunately there are problems.
The Ugandan Government announced that
schools should reopen on 18th January. However, the information they gave to schools
was confusing so that some schools were expecting all students to resume, while
others believed it was only candidate classes (the final exam year groups). To make matters worse, elections were due to
be held in Uganda on 14th January.
Right across the country there has been a lot of violence during the
campaigning period. Colleagues who went
to visit relatives in Uganda for Christmas and the New Year said that the situation is
extremely tense.
As far as the schools attended by our
children are concerned, the school in Budaderi, which has the largest number of
children, is still very unsure about which children should return, whether it should be only those in the primary leaving year, or all children. Both the secondary school in Mbale and the
school in Gulu were expecting all children to return on 18th January. This makes it difficult for me. If I take all the children on that mammoth bus journey, only to find that I have to bring some of them home again would be very costly and also very disappointing for the children.
The unstable political situation and
also the uncertainty over exactly which children should return prompted me to
call a meeting of all the children’s parents.
The unanimous decision was not to take risks. We are going to wait until the situation has
become calm and for the schools to give us definite information before
travelling. It is very unfortunate that
the children are still delayed in getting back to school after such a long time
away.
At the meeting, parents updated me on
their children’s time away from school.
It has been a major struggle due to lack of communication and the
inability of families to help with home studies. Several children have been working to assist
their families, but others have had completely nothing to do. To give just one example of the difficulties
faced, one girl who tried to play with some other local children, was beaten by
them because of her lack of communication.
I believe that transport costs have
gone up as have learning materials and other items, although the schools have
all said that they are not increasing their school fees. Once we have made the journey I will be able
to let sponsors know how much costs have gone up, or not, as the case may be.
The biggest Covid lesson for me
regarding these deaf children is the need to help their families to learn sign
language. Our children have spent nearly
a year in great loneliness due to inability to communicate with
their families. I suggested to the
parents that I look for a sign language instructor to run a course for
families. The
families all agree wholeheartedly. I
am now looking for a Ugandan sign language instructor who might be willing to
come to Nimule. I also intend to learn!
Our new child, Okumu Vibrant
Once we are ready to go back to
school, I will be taking a new child called Okumu Vibrant to the school in
Budaderi. Okumu is nine years old and
has been completely deaf since he was nine months old, as a result of being overdosed on
quinine which was given for malaria. He
lives in the state capital, Torit, but has relatives in Nimule. He attended nursery school in Torit where he
seems to have done well, but (like all the others) has been out of school for
nearly a year. If you would like to
sponsor him, please email me for details.
Why is it so important to help these
children? South Sudan only has one deaf
school, which is a day nursery in Juba.
They use South Sudan sign language, which is very new and only has a 200
word dictionary – far too few words for any real conversation or studies. SEN training is very rare in South Sudan, so
schools (including Cece) do not have anyone with specialism in sign
language. All other deaf provision is in
other countries, the nearest to Nimule being Uganda. Under Ugandan anti-discrimination law deaf
students can even go to university with a sign language interpreter provided
free-of-charge.
All the parents told me how very grateful they were for
the chance their children have to go to school.
I am passing these thanks on to you, as it would not be possible to help
them without your sponsorships. You are
so important to the futures of these children.
Let us pray that Covid will not again
create havoc with our children’s education during 2021.
