Progress of our sponsored children

Dear all,

I have just returned from Uganda where I have been visiting the deaf children to pay their school fees.  The previous two academic years (2000 and 2001) were heavily affected by Covid so that the fees were considerably less than 2022, in which schools have remained open. Some of the funds were used to pay Alau who (as you will see below) helped our deaf children to continue learning during that time, as well as for general school funds - much needed at that time.

Opportunity through Education are just finishing their financial year and have given me an update on finances.  I am glad to say that the money received for sponsorship is just enough at the moment, but with little to spare.  

I have been forewarned that school fees at Budadiri (where most of the children go to school) will be going up from next year due to inflation.  Once I know the amounts I will be able to inform sponsors.  Currently, children are being supported with £650 per year each, which includes transport, uniform, living necessities as well as school fees.  It is a real bargain, especially when you realise how much individual care they receive.

Budadiri children:
From left to right: Vibrant (far left), Aluma (left
back), Assumpta (front left), Paul (back middle),
Lillian (front middle), Lillian (right) and Alice (far right)

Here is an update on the children.  They are, of course, very much individuals, and two have health problems in addition to their deafness.  For all these young people, this schooling is their only opportunity to access education as there are no schools for the deaf in South Sudan, and most are poor almost to the point of destitution.  Without the chance of learning sign language, being educated and gaining qualifications they face a life of extreme isolation, prejudice in local society and in some cases lack of care within their own families.  This became very clear during the time when the schools in Uganda were shut down due to Covid. 

Assumpta, Alau and Joel already have sponsorship.  There are also two kind donors who pay large lump sums as a general fund towards the costs of all the children.  Thank you so much to all of you.

Alau teaching Alice last year.

Alau is the only pupil at secondary level.  His school is near Mbale.  Apart from the last two listed below, all the others are attending a primary school in the mountains of Mount Elgon, a very beautiful area close to Mbale.  They are very close to the border with Kenya.  It is a very long journey, so these children have to remain at school throughout the academic year.  They are very well cared for and this works well as they are all very isolated at home due to lack of sign language in their home environments.  Alau joins the younger ones during school holidays.  The last two, Joel and Alafi, are at a school in Gulu which is much closer to South Sudan.  This is because their parents are particularly keen to be near at hand.

Unlike the UK where children go to different class levels according to age, in both South Sudan and Uganda children go to classes according to educational level.  Some children start school very late because of financial circumstances, and many never go to school.  In the case of all these deaf children, their disability made it impossible to go to school until the opportunity came.  The same situation affects most children at Cece Primary School.

Alau, 22 years old
Alau was born deaf.  The reason he is still at school at 22 years old is that there was a three year gap in his education after primary school, in which he had no sponsorship and no possibility of going on to secondary school.  He is just about to sit his Senior 4, which is the equivalent of GCSEs.  He is very nervous because he wants to be able to go on to Senior 5 and 6, which is the A’ level stage.  His ambition is to be a teacher for the deaf in South Sudan.  The plan is that after completing school he will go on to a specialist teacher training college for a two year course.  He has told me that he wants to do this because he has seen so many in his position who have no chance in life at all.  As mentioned earlier, during Covid, he assisted at Cece Primary School and it was very clear that he has a real gift for teaching.  After qualifying, I am very much hoping that he will join my school staff and we will be able to start a unit for deaf children.  This will be a great achievement if it happens as it will be the only school for deaf children in South Sudan.  During the long Christmas holidays, if staying with family in Nimule, Alau works in the local transport hub loading vehicles to help support his family.  Sometimes he goes to the refugee camp in Uganda to stay with his mother and assists his brother with his small business there.  He is somebody who likes to be busy.

Alice, 17 years old
Alice is the oldest of the girls and was born deaf.  She is an orphan who was cared for by her grandmother until recently.  Her grandmother has always been very supportive of her but is a subsistence farmer, living far from help.  More recently Alice has been staying with one of her uncles sometimes in Nimule and sometimes in the refugee camp in Uganda.  She is in the penultimate year of primary school and is doing very well.  Next year she will sit the PLE (Primary Leaving Exam).  I am hoping she will then go on to secondary school.  The school is confident that she will do well enough to do so.  She is a very hardworking and responsible girl.  She is a changed person from when I first met her in 2018.  At that time she was constantly sad, but now she is sociable and smiles a lot.  She is very keen on sport and takes part in inter-school competitions.

Lillian, 16 years old
Lillian’s father is dead and she lives with his ‘co-wife’ (her father was polygamous) because her mother is mentally ill.  Unusually for co-wives in the local culture, her step-mother is very kind to her and has always done her best for her.  In 2016, when fighting was very fierce in the family’s home area of Magwi, the family fled to a refugee camp in Uganda.  There Lillian fell seriously ill with meningitis and nearly died.  Her deafness is the lasting result.  Lillian’s step-mother could not afford medical care for her in Uganda and decided to bring the family back to live in Nimule, where there is a hospital which does not charge patients.  She enrolled Lillian in Cece Primary School, where I first met her.  Without teachers trained in special needs it was impossible educate her properly and she became very bored.  I therefore suggested to the co-wife that I take her to school in Uganda.  This was gratefully accepted. 

She is doing very well academically and is now in Primary 5.  She is good at sports and takes part in inter-school contests.  She can still remember some words in the Acholi language, but cannot hear herself speak.  Lillian is a bit of a ‘go-getter’, which can be a bit difficult when it comes to buying necessities for her.  I try to be even-handed with all the children, but she is always trying to point out the most expensive and flashy shoes etc.  I don’t let her get away with it.

Paul, 16 years old
Paul is also a former Cece Primary School student.  He was born deaf.  His mother is dead and he lives with his elderly, disabled father and his siblings.  Because of grinding poverty, Paul and his brother (also a pupil at Cece) polished people’s shoes by the roadside to make a living for the whole family outside school hours.  Like Lillian, he is in Primary 5 and doing very well.  He loves sports and takes part in inter-school contests.  He is growing very fast and has needed new shoes and uniform several times since he started at deaf school.

Aluma, 17 years old
Aluma is the son of an HIV counsellor.  His deafness is due to meningitis.  The same illness has caused paralysis of his right arm and semi-paralysis of one leg, so that he limps.  He also has epilepsy quite severely.  Last term he had to be hospitalized for five days due to severe fits.  He is in Primary 4 but is struggling a bit because of his illness.  The school is taking very good care of him and makes sure he has extra food, including milk from the school cows, because he has lost a lot of weight. In spite of all his problems he is usually a very cheerful character. 

Assumpta, 16 years old
Assumpta was the first of the deaf children to come to my notice.  She was originally a pupil at Cece Primary School.  Like Lillian and Aluma, her deafness is due to meningitis.  Over time it has become obvious that she is intellectually disabled as well as deaf.  She really struggles academically and remains at a very low level.  However, she is very good at handicrafts, in which she is encouraged at school in the hope that she may later make a living with her hands.  Her father died when she was a baby and her mother really struggled to make ends meet by growing vegetables and collecting firewood to sell.  Misfortune has struck.  A few weeks ago her mother died of a stroke, leaving Assumpta completely without parents.  According to local culture a decision was made at the funeral for Assumpta to become the responsibility of one of her uncles.  I am praying that he will treat her well.  I had the task of breaking the news to Assumpta, with the assistance of a sign language interpreter.  She took it remarkably well.  I showed her a photo of her uncle and she appeared to recognize him and accept that she would be staying with him at the end of the school year.  I gave her a photo of herself with her mother as a keepsake.

Jennifer, 12 years old
Jennifer is the newest of the deaf brigade and is the youngest girl.  She became deaf due to a quinine overdose.  She is quite shy but is learning sign language fast and doing well academically.  As she only joined the school last term she is in Primary 1.

Vibrant, 10 years old
Vibrant is the youngest of the children at Budadiri.  He became deaf because of an overdose of quinine.  He is very bright and well settled at school.  He has picked up sign language very fast and signs so quickly that his hands are almost a blur, which makes it hard for those who are not fluent in sign language to follow him.  He has whisked up to Primary 3 within one year.  His parents both work for NGOs in Torit, the capital of the state where Nimule is, but very difficult to reach because of poor roads.  Much to my surprise his mother went to visit him at school last term.  She had been worrying about him as he is so far from home.  The headteacher gave her a guided tour and spent a lot of time talking to her.  She was completely overcome by the excellence of the school and called me afterwards to express her thanks. She said that she had never seen a school like it.

Joel, 12 years old
Like Vibrant, Joel became deaf because of a medication overdose.  He is attending the deaf school in Gulu.  He is doing well at school and is in Primary 3.  His mother is a widow and Joel is her youngest child.  Understandably, she could not accept that he would be away for almost a full year at a time, as is the case with all the previously mentioned children, which is why he is attending a closer school. 

Alafi, 8 years old
Alafi originally went to Cece Primary School where he was in the nursery class.  He was very hard to manage and continues to be quite a live wire at his new school.  He is attending the same school in Gulu as Joel.  He is in Primary 2 and is doing well.  The reason for attending the school at Gulu is the same as for Joel.  Like Jennifer and Vibrant, he is still in his first year at school, so I don’t have very much to say yet.

New sponsors are very much welcomed as I am hoping to assist another deaf child at the beginning of the next academic year and there are also two blind children who are in need of school from next year. If you are able to assist with funding (or fundraising) for any of these children I would be very grateful.  Please feel free to circulate this email to anyone you think might be interested.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.