“A hope for a better life” is the motto of Cece Primary School. We chose that motto because our students have nothing and have no chance of any change for the better without education. Our school criteria is for children from families with HIV/AIDS, disabilities and orphans. These categories of people are at the bottom of the heap in South Sudan and very much stigmatized. To make matters worse, like the rest of the population, they have been driven here, there and everywhere by civil war, each time leaving everything behind or watching it being looted by their country’s soldiers. Many lost relatives as well. However, many are now returning from the refugee camps of Uganda as the UN is trying to close the camps down. This is because, at least officially, there is now peace in South Sudan.
In fact, things are far from
peaceful. There are frequent ambushes of
civilians on the road between Nimule and Juba, one of which made the
international news because of the deaths of two religious sisters. In Nimule itself, since Covid broke out and
the schools closed, a lot of older youth have joined gangs which destroy
property and people’s lives just for the fun of it. They have not disbanded since schools went
back and the authorities are overwhelmed and unable to cope with them. Our school playground was destroyed by some
of them. For this reason, we are wanting
to build a strong wall around the school buildings.
Looking at the current situation I have
really seen the importance of schools for a country where lives and futures are
so fragile. Schools provide regular
occupation, discipline and the only opportunities for learning and a means of escape
from the vicious cycle of destitution and violence. To help steer our pupils away from gang
membership, we have recently started a girls club and a boys club for the older
pupils. These clubs are following a
Christian curriculum aimed at inculcating respect, responsibility and a lot
more. The idea comes from a network of
schools called Cornerstone Schools, which are spread across several African countries. The sessions are led by a local pastor who is
a youth leader at their secondary school in Nimule, Leadership Academy. He is assisted by one of our teachers, who
attended Leadership Academy herself and is very enthusiastic about this method.
Schools in South Sudan have now been
fully open since May, but there has been a second lockdown of schools in Uganda
which shows no sign of lifting in the near future. This is causing many South Sudanese families
and teachers to return home. The parents
are looking for continuous education for their children, and the teachers are
looking for employment. Coupled with the
refugees returning from the camps, this creates a huge demand for school
places, but also a new pool of trained teachers who were not previously
available.
Our heaviest expense, which goes up
each year as the school grows, is teacher salaries. We now have 13 teachers and lack the regular
income necessary to pay them. We have
recently replaced a teacher who resigned with an excellent new teacher with
diploma-level training who has just arrived from Uganda. He should be of great assistance as the
school advances. While carrying out the
teacher interviews, we found that the general standard of the applicants was a
great deal higher than at previous interviews, which is very encouraging.
Teachers are a major investment in
our school and our children’s future, ahead of anything else. Please can I ask for monthly donations for
teacher salaries. Currently regular monthly
donations come to a total of £115 plus Gift Aid, leaving a shortfall of nearly £500. We also have additional regular expenses such
as fuel for cooking, internet, stationery etc.
The only reason we are able to keep going is because of occasional large
donations from a few generous people, which is an alarming situation if the
school is to be sustainable.
Under normal circumstances I return to the UK every two
years to fundraise and I usually find new donors. This has not been possible during the crisis
caused by Covid. I would be very
grateful if all who read this post can spread the word to potential donors,
whether individuals or organisations.
I would be very grateful if there is anybody who has
experience of crowdfunding, as this might be a way to broaden awareness of the
school at the same time as helping us to build a secure wall around the school
because of the security situation. We
have been quoted $80,000 for the wall, which is a huge amount and well beyond
my capacity for fundraising. If you are
able to assist with crowdfunding, please let me know on the email below.
I am happy to say that our end of term exam results were
our best ever for a first term with a 62% pass rate. This has come as a very pleasant surprise as
the children had all been without education for over a year. It is a very positive start to the year. In past years, the pass rates have gone up
each term to the end of the school year, so we are hoping for a bumper year of
academic achievement.
Another piece of good news is that our oldest deaf pupil,
Alau, has agreed to teach the youngest deaf children Ugandan Sign Language at
our school until they are all able to return to school in Uganda. There are four children who will benefit from
this, one of whom is not yet old enough to go to a boarding school. The other three are among those I take to
Uganda.
Lastly, thank you very much to Pencils for All, who paid
for our school uniform, school playground and various other things in 2019, and
who have agreed to pay for more school uniforms this year. These are much needed because many of our
pupils have outgrown their old uniforms and there are also new students without
uniform. The outgrown uniforms have not
been wasted; they have been passed down to smaller children. See the picture for to see the children in
their uniforms and also their long skipping rope which is completely made of
plastic bottle top seals. Making
handicrafts from bottle top seals is the current children’s craze here.
We were planning to construct another block of classrooms,
but this is beyond our resources right now and has had to drop off the list of
priorities. In any case the classroom
situation has eased because we have adjusted the school timetable so that the school
runs in two shifts, morning and afternoon, to help keep class numbers lower due
to the Covid regulations. This leaves a couple
of empty classrooms which can be used next year for Primary 7 and then for
Primary 8, the last year of primary education in South Sudan. After that we hope to open a secondary
section so that our pupils can get a full school education. All this is reliant of funds however.
What would be terrible if the school collapses
for lack of donations, leaving all these pupils high and dry, without any
possibility of continuing their education to a higher level.
Please let me know if you are able to
help either with donations or with fundraising. Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk
