Update from Nimule

Dear friends,

New temporary classrooms

I at last have a chance to communicate with you after months of extremely hectic activity and very limited internet access.  School life continues as described in my last post.  It is a major struggle.  We ended the first term with end of term exams in which 64% of pupils passed.  Holding the exams was very difficult because we did not have enough money to produce exam papers, and had to rely on writing the exam questions on blackboards.

A major issue is the lack of food.  At Cece we had the benefit of food from the World Food Programme.  WFP have now withdrawn from their school feeding programmes in South Sudan because of the ongoing wars in Europe and the Middle East.  This is having a very detrimental effect on the pupils attendance.  Many leave at lunchtime and do not come back for afternoon lessons.  The teachers are also suffering.

According to the headteacher of their secondary school, the former Primary 8 boys are thriving.  This has been confirmed by the students themselves when I have bumped into one or the other of them in the town.  They are particularly enthusiastic about the sciences, which at secondary level are no longer ‘general science’ but divided into physics, chemistry and biology.  Their enthusiasm seems extraordinary to me given that there are no laboratory facilities in their school, or any other Nimule school.  It is a credit to the teaching they are receiving.  I seem to have chosen their secondary school well.  I am very happy about this because it really shows what a good start they had at Cece Primary School with your help over the past eight or nine years.  The girls are also doing well in their different schools.  I really hope that this can continue for those still at primary level, in spite of the difficult conditions since we moved.  However, the funds I am receiving are currently only stretching to continuing to pay teacher salaries, and also supporting the deaf and blind children, with very little left over for other school costs.

Last week I visited the eight deaf students in Mbale and paid for all their necessities.  Their costs keep going up due to the rises in prices and unstable dollar to Uganda shilling rates.  I don’t yet know the full costs for this term as I am still in the process of taking the blind pupils and Alice, the deaf secondary student, back to school.  To give some idea, last term the average cost per child was £275, which makes the annual total £825 for the full year, assuming costs remain similar.

Alau, the oldest of the deaf students, is now in his final year at secondary school.  His keenness to become a teacher for the deaf continues.  I look forward very much to the day when I am able to open the planned hearing impairment unit in Nimule with his help.  This will cause costs to go down for the education of the deaf children, while hopefully acting as a catalyst for changing attitudes to disability.  A couple of months ago I met a deaf boy of roughly twelve years old, moving around the town, barefoot and in rags, clearly completely neglected by his family.  This is a common scenario for those with disability here in South Sudan.  I can’t afford to take him to school in Uganda, but hopefully he and others like him will get their opportunity in the next couple of years.

The day the children were issued
with white canes.

The two blind children completed their first term at Gulu Primary School.  As you will see from their photo they are very different in size.  This is due to the fact that Mary has fetal alcohol syndrome.  Unfortunately this is not a curable condition.  She is in fact the same age as Bernard, but terribly behind both physically and intellectually.  It is very sad.  The school is doing their best with her, but it remains to be seen how she will do.

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.