Update from the school

It is a long time since I last updated everybody about the school.  In that time a lot has happened.

After our initial push to construct the school over the Christmas holidays, we were forced to suspend the work due to lack of funds.  Running costs for the existing school have to be a priority otherwise there will be no school.  As the first three months passed, we received some large donations which we have been able to accumulate to enable work to resume.  We now have enough to roof the school building and are about to start work again.

We are fast approaching the school holidays.  Next week is exam week for the end of the first term, so the children have been revising.  There have been challenges with staff sickness, but we now have most of the papers ready for the children.  I have been typing and copying papers every evening for the past week.

As mentioned in my post called, 'Full of Beans', feeding for the children is even more essential than ever as there is widespread hunger in Nimule.  A local ministry called Far Reaching Ministries has been supplying all local schools with sacks of maize flour and beans each week.  This has enabled us to give the children a far more sustaining meal than previously.  The only problem is that we have had to find an extra cook to cope with the increased workload, buy extra catering-size saucepans and extra firewood and salt and onions, so the cost of feeding has in fact gone up rather than down.

We have had a stroke of great good fortune.  Last week we were told that a national NGO called Junibaid has assisted UNICEF to select Cece Primary School as one of three schools in Nimule to benefit from a large pack of school goods.  The children are so excited.  There are footballs, volleyballs, volleyball net, coloured tabards to differentiate teams, soft balls and skipping ropes.  They have also given us four blackboards, chalk, pens, rulers, slates for the younger children, paper and a long list of other things.  They have also promised to provide a temporary canvas classroom tent and temporary latrines. 

From the children’s point of view the highlight is that we have been promised school uniforms.  The children are particularly excited about the future school uniforms because they have been suffering fromsneers from children from other schools because up until now we have been the only school with no uniform.

We are now looking for help to drill a borehole on the new school site.  This should be possible through one of the international NGOs as provision of safe water is a priority area for humanitarian assistance.  Without a borehole, the cooks will have to walk miles to a distant borehole to fetch jerricans of water for cooking, washing and drinking for over 100 children plus teachers, so this really is essential.  I have been writing to various potentially promising NGOs, so far with no response, but I am sure we will succeed in the end.  Once the holidays begin I am going to visit the Juba offices of CAFOD who I am hoping will help.

The situation here is much the same as it was last time I wrote.  There are continuing difficulties with travel, but the local public transport operators have now agreed to travel in convoy together to avoid the dangers of armed robbery and shootings, which have plagued us ever since last July.  Fortunately day-to-day life continues relatively normally in Nimule, unlike every other town in the area.  Apart from Cece, some other schools are still functioning, although with few teachers and children, while others have closed. 

I am very proud to say that our school is the big success story of the current crisis.  At no point have we closed down, even though every other school closed following the crisis last July.  Our school is currently full to capacity and we have enough teachers and cooks.  We are also the only school which is looking to the future and building for next year.

A very big thank you to all our donors, those known to me personally and those unknown.  Without you, none of this would ever have happened.

If you are a UK resident and would like to donate to the school, please email me on rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk so I can send you the Gift Aid form.  This applies whether or not you are a UK tax-payer.  You will need to set up a standing order to the Sean Devereux account, whose details are on the Gift Aid form. 

If you are a US resident, we now have an arrangement with Children of Africa, who are allowing donors to use their account to channel money to the school.  Please click on https://childrenofafrica-usa.givingfuel.com/cece-primary-school.

Please circulate this post as widely as possible.  I have set up a Facebook page for the school.  It can be found by searching for www.facebook.com/nimule.