Moving on

Dear all,

I am now back in England until mid-January.  The hiatus over my bank account has proved insoluble and is also affecting Opportunity through Education, who are having similar problems.  I am sure that Alan Lion will contact you all separately about a new bank account.  The good news is that the funds are not lost and will be refunded to us.

To update you on the very difficult situation I reported in my last post, the problems I was facing did not go away.  In fact, the municipality ended up threatening to close down any school which did not pay their ‘tax’.  I was forced to the conclusion that starting the deaf school would be too difficult given the complete lack of cooperation from the authorities, not to mention the stress of dealing with a mayor whose sole aim in life appears to be squeezing money out of the whole town. 

I called a parents’ meeting at Liberty and explained the situation.  They were sad but accepting.  I talked about the head-start that their children have had compared to any other Nimule school, emphasizing that both Cece and Liberty taught literacy, which is unheard-of anywhere else.  The literacy rate in South Sudan is around 35%, so they are really very lucky.  I advised the higher level students to look for chances to use their skills, for instance by volunteering their help.  I gave the example of reading the readings at church and interpreting for people without English.

Red Cross to the rescue.

As if there weren’t enough challenges, we faced a water crisis for the first month and a half of the term.  The borehole which is the only water source for the school and for the local community broke down.  Despite the fact that the cholera outbreak mentioned in my previous post is still continuing, the municipality refused to ask their sanitation department to assist.  It really seems that their raison d’être is to bring everything down.  We were left unable to cook, wash hands or drink water, so that the school had to close every lunchtime.  I appealed to the local Red Cross, who stepped in and repaired the borehole, so the school was able to resume the porridge cooking and afternoon lessons.

Future plans

The blind children, Bernard and Mary

What I am trying to do now is to ensure that the neediest as well as the most promising students get a chance to continue to go to school.  I have found a local man called Samuel Oyet, who works for the Red Cross as their local director.  I have known him for years and have always found him a very steady, committed person.  Samuel is a qualified social worker and is also trained in trauma counselling.  He has agreed to help me to continue taking the deaf and blind pupils to Uganda as well as liaising with Kings Way Academy, the secondary school attended by my former Cece and Liberty pupils after they had finished primary school.  There are also three very needy pupils who did not get the chance to finish primary school.  One is severely physically disabled in one leg and one arm and is an orphan.  Two others come from a very poor but super-bright family and really need help to continue.  Sam is going to enroll these three pupils in another local primary school.  I will continue to fundraise for all the above, if donors are willing to continue to support them.  What must be avoided for the future is having a formal entity such as a school in Nimule, who would be pressurized by the mayor.

The trip back from school at the end of the school
year.  Next year, a new school.

I had a meeting with Samuel together with the parents of the deaf and blind children so that they could be introduced to him.  They are all very relieved that their children will continue to go to school.  I am going to move the deaf primary children to Lira from next year to make Samuel’s life a bit easier as it will cut down on the travelling.  The deaf secondary school has a sister school for primary level students in the next compound.  At the end of the school year we visited together so I could introduce Samuel to both primary and secondary headteachers.  I have also made sure that the deaf students understood through a sign language interpreter and were introduced to him.

I have had to rethink the situation of Alau, who did informal teacher training this year.  He has now finished.  He had expected to start teaching at the new deaf school, which will now not happen.  I was fortunate enough to receive a suggestion that he could start a formal course in Uganda with a sign language interpreter, where he will end with teacher qualifications.  Samuel is organizing this on Alau’s behalf.  Alau’s sponsor died a few months ago.  Is anyone willing to come forward to sponsor him for the next year or so?

My own plan is to leave South Sudan and volunteer as a teacher for the Salesians of Don Bosco, who have a mission in a refugee settlement about 70 kilometres away in a place called Palabek in Uganda.  The Salesians’ mission is the education of disadvantaged children, so I will be continuing in a similar vein, although their mission is a lot bigger than mine would ever have been and is better resourced.  I will be able to pay the school fees for the students in Uganda quite easily from there and possibly visit them at school occasionally to see how they are doing.

As Liberty Primary School is no more, I removed the desks at the end of term and transported them to Kings Way Academy, where our remaining students are.  Kings Way has been very short of desks, so this is a real help to them as well as avoiding our perfectly good desks, bought with funds from donors such as yourselves, being misused by gangs.

People in Nimule have said that there will be a very big gap.  This is true unfortunately.  Looking on the bright side, I can remember some of last year’s Primary 8 class discussing how they intended to start a school for disadvantaged children themselves when they have grown up and are working.  It showed that they really appreciate the education that they have been receiving and is also a great sign of hope for the future.  As mentioned, quite a lot of children have literacy skills they would never have acquired otherwise.

I hope you will be willing to continue to help the disabled children who are at school in Uganda, the former Primary 8 students who are now at Kings Way Academy, the three who will transfer to another local primary school and Alau to continue his teacher training. 

Please feel free to contact me on rebeccamallinson1@gmail.com.  I am always happy to answer any questions or give more detail.