Dear friends,
Thank you so much to all those who responded to my last
post. I am very grateful to one donor
who has passed on information about the deaf children to others. As a result we now have a new sponsor. I received a good amount of funds in time to
take the deaf children back to school at the beginning of February.
I am now in a better position to write about what has
happened with the move to Liberty Primary School at the beginning of this
school year. As some might remember, I
had planned for Cece pupils to move to two different schools, Liberty for the
lower school and Happy Day for the upper school. This has not worked out. Happy Day started to come up with extra financial
demands, such as funding a full school feeding programme, which would have been
impossible to manage. I therefore asked
all former Cece pupils to enroll at Liberty instead. Over 150 of our former pupils have registered
at Liberty, which is around half of the full enrolment at the school. I have been appointed Director of Studies by
the school and also teach six classes: English to Primary 7, Christian
Religious Education to Primary 5 and 8 and literacy to Primary 1, 2 and 3.
I am finding that the difference in educational level between
the pupils from Cece and those who came from other schools is stark. The Cece pupils have been trained to interact
with their teachers, and are mostly very active learners. Literacy is good, especially among the higher
classes. The other students have come
from various schools around the Nimule area, where they have not been given any
foundation and are almost all illiterate, even those who are in the final year
of primary school. If asked a question
they cower behind their desks, expecting to be beaten for being unable to
answer. Liberty only had one class last
year, Primary 8. Their results were
generally poor; one boy took his 19% score on his results certificate and
attempted to forge higher marks onto it.
The secondary school noticed the forgery and refused to accept him.
The teachers who have come from Cece have commented on the
contrast and are justly very proud of the results of their teaching. It has been a vindication of our approach to
learning, especially teaching literacy, no corporal punishment and interacting with
pupils.
At Liberty, we are back at square one in all other respects. In January there were no school buildings, no
toilets, no storeroom or teachers’ room, no food, very few teachers and large
numbers of cows around the school site.
In short, it has been terribly difficult, but things are gradually taking
shape. There is a small church built of
bamboo and mud on the site, which we received permission to use. We have been using it for Primary 7 and 8,
one class at each end of the room. Until
a few days ago, Primary 1 up to 6 were housed in a loaned building, which was
terribly cramped. Last week the owner suddenly
asked for the building back, so we have constructed temporary classrooms, three
of which are now usable. As a result,
each room has two classes in it. The
nursery classes (in three levels) are all crammed into another temporary
classroom.
I have requested the Local Education Office to highlight the
school’s needs to relevant non-governmental organizations to help us with
permanent structures. This is because I
am not comfortable with asking donors, who gave so generously before, to give
for the same things again. The money for
these temporary classrooms has not come from you; it comes from the founder of
Liberty Primary School, except for some smaller expenses, such as the costs of
blackboards and some of the timbers and metal sheeting.
We held teacher interviews a few weeks ago and have
appointed enough teachers. None of the applicants
were trained teachers but most at least had teaching experience. This is common in South Sudan. We also have some teachers from Cece who have
continued with us. Until the
appointments were made we were without teachers for around half the classes,
which has been very distressing to me. The
main expense that I agreed to is the payment of teachers and I am trying very
hard to make sure that that pot of money is available, as teachers are crucial
to the work of a school, ahead of anything else in my view. The monthly salary cost is almost £800,
which is less than at Cece, where we were also paying cooks and a guard. Right now, every step of the way is about
prioritizing.
Two toilets have been built and are now functional. In combination with the cattle issue, lack of access
to toilets has been a major health worry.
Some parents have volunteered to talk to the cattle-keepers about taking
their animals elsewhere.
Providing lunch to staff and children remains an insoluble problem. At Cece we had the benefit of the World Food
Programme, but WFP have now stopped their operations due to the various crises
elsewhere in the world. Some pupils are
therefore absenting themselves at lunchtime, which is very detrimental to their
education. I have tried asking parents
to provide packed lunches, but this is too countercultural, and I have had no
success at all. I haven’t given up yet. A couple of neighbouring families have
noticed a business opportunity and have started cooking chapattis and mandazi
(a type of sugarless doughnut) so we are not completely starved, even though it
is not a balanced diet.
I have been asked to pay for school uniforms for all the
Cece pupils. This is beyond the money
currently available. The South Sudanese
Pound is in a terrible state and has leapt to record highs against the
dollar. This will make it very hard for
local families whose income is pitifully small (and in SSP), but is in our
favour when bringing money into the country.
The total cost of uniforms, if I am able to pay for all the Cece pupils,
will be around £1,000. If this is
not possible, we will at least contribute towards to the cost.
On the positive side, Cece’s 2023 Primary 8 did
spectacularly well. All passed at
between 70.6 - 88.8%. The girls have
been accepted for scholarships to boarding schools in Uganda and a South
Sudanese town called Magwi. One boy has
gone to minor seminary, while the remaining four boys have been accepted as
planned at Kings College Secondary School.
The downside is that the plan of the secondary headteacher did not work
out. The NGO he had hoped would fund
their places has stopped their sponsorship programme. As the boys are from very poor backgrounds, it
was clear that this would stop them from going on to secondary level, leaving
them little better off than if they had never gone to school. I therefore agreed to use some of the school
funds to pay for their school fees and other requirements. This is another financial headache. I am currently paying little by little as
money comes in. This is not something I
think we can continue to do for every batch of Primary 8 students and I am
going to have to make that clear to this year’s Primary 8 class as gently as
possible.
Please do pass this message on to any other people who might
be able to help either with deaf sponsorship or with the ongoing expenses of
the former Cece pupils in their new schools.
My email address is rebeccamallinson1@gmail.com. Please
do not use my old email address (ending in hotmail.co.uk) or reply directly to
this email. It no longer works and I
will not be able to receive your emails.
