Santukay leaves education

In 2017, a twelve year old girl called Santukay joined our school.  She comes from a tribe called the Lotuku, displaced from their own area by the war.  When originally registered, according to her aunt both parents were missing.  However, the story changed each year.  This year we were told that one parent is dead. 

Santukay (head circled) with some fellow pupils.

When she first joined our school Santukay had a bright and bubbly personality.  She had never attended school before.  Over her first year at school she learnt to read and write for the first time and made very swift progress.  I will always remember a day when I asked her class about their dreams for the future.  Most wanted to be pilots or the next president.  Santukay shouted out with her usual enthusiasm, “I want to be a manager!”  It seemed to me a very sensible choice.  Every break time, she was busy organizing the other children to learn tribal dancing and teaching them very well, demonstrating her natural organizational ability.  I thought, “She will go far.”

Last year, Santukay quietened down and ceased to participate in class as before.  Her school work was not so good any more.  She was often late for school.  This year, the same pattern continued.  She told us that her aunt gave her a lot of work to do before school.  Others told me that she is made to work solidly from morning to night while not at school, cooking, fetching water, selling things in the market… the list was endless.

Santukay has not returned to school this term.  Two weeks into the term, one of our teachers informed me that Santukay’s aunt beat her very badly during the holidays.  Santukay packed her belongings and ran away to Juba (the capital city of South Sudan) to look for another relative to live with.  She is now working in a dobbi (local laundry).  

Santukay's aunt was requesting me to try to get Santukay to come back.   At the same time blaming the school for Santukay's running away.  According to her it is because we have no corporal punishment at the school.  I should mention that Santukay has never given anyone cause to want to beat her at school.  I gave a resounding “No, I will not help the aunt to get her slave back again.”  Santukay is a strong-looking girl who is tall for her age.  I am sure that the plan of the aunt is ultimately to marry her off to get a good bride price.

There is no happy solution at least in the short term.  If Santukay comes back she will be back to the former slave labour and beatings, with the prospect of being married to somebody against her will.  If she stays in Juba, she will have no chance to continue her education as there is no one to support her and there are no free schools there.  Juba is not a safe place.  As it is the seat of government, there is often fighting on the streets between different government factions. 

What I hope is that if she can revive her drooping spirit, she will look for adult education opportunities in Juba and then be able to build on the two years of schooling she received with Cece Primary School.   There are NGOs who run free adult education programmes.  She is a very bright girl. This is possible.  On the other hand, she could end up a prostitute on the streets of Juba, with all her dreams of becoming a manager smashed.

This story is one which is common to many orphaned girls in South Sudan.  The girls are seen as workhorses, with the potential to bring in a substantial bride-price.  Nothing else. 

In one way Santukay has been lucky.  Without a school which would accept her without school fees, she would never have had any education at all.  Her small amount of education may help her yet.  People who can read and write are far and few between here.

This year, we have quite a few older girls, who are suffering in identical home situations.  One girl was married from school last year.  Most have had no previous education.  Even those who have been to school before, have been very poorly taught in huge classes in a refugee camp (sometimes 1,000 to a class!) and never learnt to read or write.

Those of you who pray, please pray for our orphaned girls and especially for Sandukay.

Paul and Lillian join the deaf contingent

Dear friends,

Our children, with one extra child who could not
be left out at the far left.  From left at the back:
 Paul, Aluma, John and Alau.  In front: Alice,
Lillian  and Assumpta

I have just returned from taking two new children to the hearing impairment unit in Budaderi, near Mbale.  Their names are Lillian and Paul.  Both are 13 years old and were attending Cece Primary School previously.  Both are profoundly deaf with no speech, due to meningitis.

Paul lost his hearing through meningitis at the age of 5.  His first experience of school was last year at the age of 12.  At first he was making good progress, so there seemed no reason to uproot him.  However, this year he is struggling in the next class up.  Paul enjoys football very much.  Paul’s father is old, suffers from leprosy and is unable to work, so Paul and his siblings spend their time out of school polishing shoes for a living.

Lillian joined our school this year but has been making no progress, clearly due to a complete lack of communication.  She comes to life at break-time, when she joins in with the skipping games.  Her father is dead and her mother has serious mental problems, so she is cared for by another of the father’s wives (polygamy is the norm here).  The family were displaced by serious fighting in their area in 2016 and fled to one of the refugee camps.  It was there that Lillian contracted meningitis.  She was very close to death for some time.  Once she had started to recover, the family decided that they would be far better off leaving the refugee camp and moving to Nimule. 

Both families are delighted that their children now have a chance of learning sign language and gaining a good education at a special school for deaf children.  This is something which would not be possible in South Sudan.

Assumpta and Lillian

The children have very different characters.  On our long journey to Budaderi, we stayed in a hotel overnight.  Lillian, in spite of her lack of speech was visibly excited at the prospect of sleeping in a real bed, rather than on a mat on the floor.  She leapt onto the bed as soon as we entered the room with a large grin on her face.  Paul gave the impression that everything was quite normal, which I am sure it was not.  Once we arrived, I bought all their school requirements, such as mattresses, bedding, a metal box to keep their belongings, school shoes, toiletries etc.  Lillian’s eyes were on stalks.  Paul kept his man-of-the-world pose to perfection.

For their first night at school, they went to their respective dormitories.  Paul met Aluma.  Lillian met Assumpta and Alice.  Assumpta and Lillian have immediately made friends, as can be seen from the photo.  Paul, I think, is still assessing the situation, but seems quite happy in his calm way.  Next week term will start, but they are both already picking up some Ugandan Sign Language from the other children and staff at the school.

During the school holidays Alau, who is at a secondary school for the deaf joins the younger children as his school closes completely for the holidays.  This time, he came with another South Sudanese boy called John, who is sponsored by a friend of mine.  John is attending the technical school attached to the secondary school, because his educational level is not high enough for the academic curriculum, due to attending a normal primary school in South Sudan, where he struggled due to his deafness.  He is now learning sign language for the first time at 17 years old and is picking it up remarkably quickly.

The secondary school has a new policy that all their pupils have to have medical tests for Hepatitis B, TB, typhoid, malaria and STDs.  They also have to have dental checks and ear tests.  I took them to the hospital in Mbale and we spent a very long day going around the various departments. 

When John’s ears were checked, he was found to have a severe infection in both ears.  His ears were cleaned and he was prescribed antibiotics.  He immediately started to hear in one ear!  It seems that there are holes in both ear drums, but one is worse than the other.  The doctor said that the ear with less damage may heal completely.  As his ears are still not completely right, the doctor is delaying testing his hearing.  I wait with bated breath!  As soon as he started hearing, John started making experimental noises, but is still unable to control the type of sounds coming out of his mouth.  If he ever had any language, he has long since forgotten it.  When I informed the headteacher, she said that they will be able to help him learn to speak. 

In Alau’s case he was found to have a very small amount of hearing, and ‘may benefit from hearing aids’ according to the report.  I told the headteacher this news too.  She said that they are expecting a hearing aid assessment at the school this July.  Next time I see these boys, maybe they will both be hearing and speaking.  What a fantastic school!

As Paul and Lillian had never had formal hearing checks they were also tested, but have turned out to be completely deaf, which means that hearing aids will not help them.

Alau, Assumpta, Alice and Aluma continue to do well.  Seeing how John’s educational choices have been limited by the lack of specialist primary education in South Sudan, brings it home to me just how important it is that these children get the chance to learn in an environment where they can communicate.  Thank you so much to those who have sponsored them.

Please can I ask for sponsors for Paul, Lillian, Alau, Aluma and Alice?  I struggled to pay for all their requirements.  This was because originally I had expected Paul and Lillian to remain in Nimule for this year at least.  It was the lack of progress that caused me to bring things forward.  I did not want them to be bored to death in the classroom when they still had two more terms to go before the end of the school year.  The medical tests also made a bit of a dent in the available funds.

The initial starting costs for Paul and Lillian are around £480 each.  This includes buying school uniform, bedding and a metal box for all their possessions.  From then on the termly costs will be about £90 per term.  Making a total for this year (in which there is only one more term) of £570.  Next year will be around £270 each child for the whole year. 

Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education, our supporting charity.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Recognition at last!

Term is now well underway and teaching is going well.  Our four new teachers are excellent and a real asset to the school.  Hopefully they will remain with us and help the stability of teaching.  We are now starting to prepare the children for their first end of term exams of the year.

In early March I went on a trip to Torit (the state capital) to witness the installation our new Catholic bishop.  The diocese has been without a bishop for several years, so this was a major event.  I was lucky enough to get a chance to speak to him personally.  Bishop Stephen was very interested to hear about the school and is going to put us forward to become a diocesan school.  This will hopefully help our school’s development, as the diocese will then be able to point any interested investors or other support in our direction. 

Following my trip to Torit, I continued northwards to Juba, the national capital, to update my official documentation.  I am now the proud owner of a resident’s permit and will no longer have to pay for expensive visas!  Who knows, maybe I will end up with dual nationality! 

While in Juba I met the local MP for Nimule, who was visiting the owner of the home where I always stay while in Juba.  He was much interested to hear about the school and very keen to promote it right up to central government level.  He told me that he would be travelling to Nimule later the same week and would very much like to visit the school while there.  He suggested visiting us on the Friday.  The children rehearsed the National Anthem, but all in vain – he was too busy with meetings and did not come.  School closed for the weekend and I went back home, resigned to the fact that it was not to be.  Then, at around four in the evening he phoned me from his hotel and asked if he could come ‘now’.  I rushed to the hotel, calling Patrick our headteacher as I went.  We arrived to find a bank of journalists and cameras surrounding him.  We went to the school as a large group.  The school was filmed although the children were missing and Patrick and I were interviewed about the history of the school. 

We told the journalists that the school grew out of an idea from Pascalina Idreangwa, who was the founder of a local support group for people living with HIV/AIDS called Cece.  Pascalina had been very conscious that none of the support group members were able to send their children to school.  Many of the children were healthy themselves, but their family’s HIV status caused stigma, inability to work, orphan-hood and sheer poverty, which made it impossible to pay school fees.  All the other schools in Nimule charge school fees plus numerous extra expenses.  When I first arrived in Nimule in 2013, Pascalina buttonholed me in the hope that I could help provide sponsorship.  At that time I was volunteering in a local orphanage and school and it was not possible for me to do anything.  We finally founded Cece Primary School in June 2015, with help from another local community organization called HUMAES (Humans Must Access Essentials), which works to bring the local people out of poverty in various different ways.  We all continue to work together.

When we told this history to the journalists they were very keen to meet and interview Pascalina.  We rushed back to the centre of town and found her cooking in her small restaurant.  She gave a very animated interview.  While she was speaking I ran to the nearest home where I knew some of our pupils lived, and asked the children to put on their uniforms and come to our office as fast as possible.  Word spread and about 20 children came.  The children spoke to the journalists really well, in English, as well as reciting a poem we had composed as a class exercise a few months earlier.  I was very proud of their completely off-the-cuff effort.  The poem is one about peace.

We are all one colour, give us peace.
We are all one colour, give us love.
No more fighting, no more war,
No more tribalism.
Children of Africa, the future of Africa,
Do – Not – Kill – Us!

It was a terrific event for us.  Hopefully something good with come out of it, however, we have heard nothing so far.

Quite separately, we had a visit to the school from officials from the National and State Ministries of Education.  They had come from visiting the local Education Office, where they had asked if there were any schools in Nimule specifically for disadvantaged children.  They were directed to Cece Primary School, where, as mentioned, we educate children from families with HIV, disabilities and orphans.  They explained that the national government wants all children in South Sudan to be in school, even the very poorest.  This is currently a dream, due to the sheer poverty of the country and lack of resources.  There are many areas of the country where there is simply no access to education.  Teachers are not trained or paid.  Schools are not built.  Textbooks are in very short supply.

The officials told us that we are the only school of our kind in the whole country.  They asked if we could accept children from all over the state.  I explained that this is not a possibility, unless the Ministry of Education can step in and find funding for us.  We would need boarding accommodation for the children and a huge investment in expanding the school itself.  Fundraising just to keep the school afloat is already a big struggle.  I left unsaid that in any case, it would be far better for the children to be educated in their home areas, particularly as the roads across most of the country are nothing but rutted tracks, which are completely impassable during the long rainy season.

We are still reeling from all this unexpected publicity for our school.  Hopefully, there will be some tangible outcome. 

In the meantime, we still have very many needs just to keep going.  Wages have to be paid for teachers and cooks.  The World Food Program recently supplied a first instalment of food for the school but it is now finished, and they have not given us any more yet, with no date given for when more food will be received.  It is back to porridge at the school’s expense.  This is a big drain on our very limited funds. 

A similar structure to the one we hope to build.

We had hoped to start the roofing of the two remaining classrooms, but that has not yet been possible.  The result is that our Primary 5 class is still being educated in our storeroom and the very large Pre-Primary class is crammed into one classroom.  To make matters worse, the year is slipping away, and we need to start work on another classroom for next year’s new class (Primary 6). 

Another local school is in the process of building a multipurpose shelter (pictured), and this has given me the idea of building something similar, which can be used for one of our classes next year, and then as an assembly/dining hall as we build more classrooms.  It will also be very useful for other whole school activities, such as our regular ‘story time’ and debates. 

As you will see from our news, we are at a very exciting stage of our school’s development.  We have never been recognized officially before.  The world focuses so much on negative news, that maybe that is why we have heard nothing yet from the media coverage.  We are at least one good news story from South Sudan.  I am personally very proud to have some responsibility for it, but what about you?  Without your help, it would have been completely impossible.  We hope you will continue to be part of it by contributing to our school’s ongoing work.  Please can you share this news of our school as widely as you can and contribute to the school through Opportunity Through Education.

Our supporting charity Opportunity through Education has registered us through Give as you Live.  This website acts as a portal through which to shop online.  Each time you use it, a percentage goes to the charity of your choice.  Please note that Give as You Live cannot be used for donations. 

It is now possible to donate online by clicking on this link to My Donate.  My Donate will unfortunately be closing at the end of June this year, but please make the most of it until then. 

If you dislike online giving and wish to give direct through our bank account, please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Update on the deaf children at school in Uganda

Thank you to all those who contributed so generously towards the sponsorship of Assumpta, Aluma, Alice and Alau.  I have no need to fundraise for more money for them for this academic year.  Please see my previous post, which shows where money is urgently needed at the moment.

From left to right: Alau, Aluma,
Assumpta and Alice

I took the four children, Assumpta, Aluma, Alice and Alau back to school last week ready for their new academic year.  We returned two weeks early because I was told by the headteacher of the primary school that the Audiology Department of Soroti Hospital had asked for all Hearing Impairment Unit children to come for testing.  This is an opportunity which has never come to Nimule, and very important.  Who knows if there might not be some residual hearing which could be tapped with a hearing aid?

Assumpta wept when parting with her mother.  The brother of Alau, who accompanied us to the border and has been taught sign language by Alau at home, gave Assumpta a ‘talking-to’ in sign language, that it was not right for her to cry; she was going to school so that she can do well in life and help support her family.  I think Assumpta had genuinely not understood why she was going to school previously.  She was fine after that.  For the rest of the journey she was perfectly cheerful.  It makes me very happy that Assumpta at last has a means of communication other than laughing, crying and pointing, and that people can now explain things to her.  The fruits of last year’s sign language lessons are now really showing. 

Aluma was diagnosed with epilepsy while at school last year after having several fits and is now on medication.  Fortunately, his return to Nimule for Christmas coincided with the setting up of an epilepsy unit at Nimule Hospital, so he is now registered there and will receive free medication, which would not have been possible before.  His father Angelo decided to accompany me to Uganda as he wanted to hear directly from the school and medical staff at the local hospital about Aluma’s health issues last year.  Out of all the children’s parents Angelo is the only one who speaks English and is able to communicate in Uganda.  In spite of all Aluma’s handicaps (profound deafness, paralyzed right arm, lameness and now epilepsy) he is always laughing and smiling.  He did very well last year at school, so intellectually he has no problems.

Alice was her usual peaceful, sensible self.  She lives with her grandmother as she is an orphan where they work making fishing nets and practice subsistence farming.  According to her grandmother she is very skilled at making nets and was missed during last year’s school year.  Last year Alice made the best progress out of the three children at primary school level, both in learning sign language and academically, and is to be in Primary 4 this year.  This is particularly good news because she is a few years older than Assumpta and Aluma. 

St Philomena’s Primary School is very holistic and will monitor all the children’s progress during the year, moving them to more appropriate classes as necessary.

Alau, the oldest of the children, is starting Senior 2 at Mbale Secondary School this year.  During the Christmas holidays he worked solidly at the local transport hub, loading and unloading vehicles, to help support his family.  Likewise, at school, I have been told by his teachers that he is extremely hard-working.  During school hours he has worked very hard academically and ended last year among the top students in his class.  After school, along with all other students, he does the vocational training of his choice.  He chose welding.  I spoke to his welding instructor, who was full of his praises.  On top of lessons, he spends a lot of extra time working in the welding workshop.  One of the great things about this secondary school is the fact that they expect all their students to leave school with a really good qualification in a vocational skill (of which they have a very good range).  Elsewhere in Uganda and South Sudan, it is very hard to find a vocational training course of more than one year, and most are only for a few weeks.  The courses at Mbale Secondary School are three year courses leading to recognized qualifications.  Parents are expected to make a one-off payment for their tools, but there are no fees for the actual vocational training courses, only for the school.  This makes Alau’s education a terrific bargain.  His tools, which have already been paid for out of the sponsorship raised for him, will remain his own, so that he will be able to take them home and work with them.  He will be a real asset to local society in Nimule, where there are no welders of the level he will reach.  I left Alau with the younger children because we were two weeks too early for the new term.  Before I left he told me very firmly (in writing) that he now knows the way to his school in Mbale and that there was no need for help in getting there, apart from the fare. 

South Sudan does not have the necessary specialist teachers to teach deaf children either in ordinary or special schools.  This applies to other disabilities as well.  The local culture sees disability as a ‘burden’ and sometimes even as a ‘curse on the family’.  Disabled children are hidden from public view and sometimes even turned out on the streets where they either die or become street children.  None of the local NGOs focus on disability, so I am very happy to have been able to help all these children through your help. 

Once again, thank you so very much for making such a difference to these children’s lives. 

Greetings from Nimule!

Dear all,

I have made a New Year’s Resolution.  Last year I was thoroughly overburdened with all my responsibilities, for the school (guiding, teaching and fundraising), for the deaf children (fundraising and taking them to and fro to school) and also for an increasing number of older children being discharged from their orphanage, where I used to volunteer, who are now coming to me asking for help to begin their lives.  By the end of the year I was completely exhausted and ill.   I have realized that I need to step back and look for people to share all this work.  If I do not do so, I will wear myself out, and then the school will collapse, the deaf children will have no school fees, and the former orphans will have nobody to turn to.  In short, my work here will not be sustainable.  The local people in Nimule are by and large without the necessary educational, computer or administration skills to take on my work.

An example of how overstretched I am, is as follows.  Just as we were about to start our school registrations, I had a call from the headteacher of the primary school for the deaf asking me to bring the four deaf children urgently as the hospital had decided to test the hearing of all the deaf children in their area the following Monday.  I therefore had to hurriedly inform the parents of the children that we needed to travel to Mbale two weeks’ earlier than planned.  This entails a ten hour bus trip, with a hotel stay at the beginning to allow us to catch a very early bus.  The headteacher and teachers were left to deal with our school registrations alone.  As none of them are trained administrators (unlike me), the results were that they made rather a mess of the administrative process, all of which needed to be disentangled on my return, exhausted after my ten hour return bus trip.

If you are able to help either from your own country with fundraising, or would like to come and volunteer even for a short time, please let me know.  You may have other ideas of how to help, which have not occurred to me.  In case you worry about coming to South Sudan, a peace agreement was signed last year, and it seems that the warring factions are serious this time.  Nimule, in any case, has not suffered from the war, apart from the resulting hyper-inflation and large numbers of internally displaced people from elsewhere.

In short, if you are able to help in practical terms, I will not be able to thank you enough!

In the meantime, here is my update. 

We are about to start our new academic year, after a very difficult registration period in which we have been deluged with new children, many of whom we had to turn away.  We accepted 55 new students altogether.  Some of our former pupils did not come to re-enrol, so it is not clear if they are returning or not.  Assuming that all the children turn up on 4^th February (which is likely), we will have an increase in numbers from 180 in 5 classes last year to 228 in 6 classes this year. 

Two teachers left us at the end of last year.  We also need more teachers to cope with the new class.  We advertised for new teachers and have had a good response.  Interviews will be held this coming Friday.  We are hoping for four new teachers, two to replace those who left us last year and two to help us to teach the expanded number of classes.  Altogether we expect to have eleven teachers including myself (unpaid) and our headteacher, who also teaches.

With these increased numbers of students and teachers, there will also be an increase in the need for food for the children and teacher salaries.  We are in serious need of increased regular giving from our donors so that we can continue in a stable fashion.  If you are able to donate a regular amount each month, it will assist us greatly.  If many people donate small amounts, we will be in a much better position.  If you are a UK tax payer, we will be able to claim 25p to each pound, which also makes a very big difference.

We have still not managed to roof the two outstanding classrooms due to lack of funds, so that one of our new classes will have to occupy the teacher room, at least at the start of the school year.  Please, if you are able to help with a larger one-off payment, we will be able to roof at least one more classroom.  If we can roof both, we will be able to divide our pre-primary class, which is currently much too big.  We have come so far, with foundations and walls in place, for which many thanks.  All that is needed is a roof!

As mentioned in my last post, our supporting charity Opportunity through Education has registered us through Give as you Live.  This website acts as a portal through which to shop online.  Each time you use it, a percentage goes to the charity of your choice.  Please note that Give as You Live cannot be used for donations. 

It is now possible to donate online by clicking on this link to My Donate.  My Donate will unfortunately be closing at the end of June this year, but please make the most of it until then. 

If you dislike online giving and wish to give direct through our bank account, please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

The school year draws to a close

Dear friends,

The children are now sitting their end of year exams, which I hope will continue to show an upward trend.  At the end of next week it will all be over, bar the distribution of report cards and marked exam papers. 

On Thursday 6^th December we celebrated a belated World AIDS Day, in which some of our children recited a poem which they had worked on together.  World AIDS Day is a major feature of our school year because HIV/AIDS is the main reason for admission to Cece Primary School.  Nimule is a major hotspot for HIV/AIDS in South Sudan, with a shocking 1 in every 25 people testing positive.  The children wore their smart new uniforms for the first time at that event.  They led the audience in singing the National Anthem.   It was a very small event this year due to poor organization by the NGOs responsible, but those who attended were full of praise of our children’s contribution.  The poem goes as follows:

HIV, HIV, HIV
You came to Africa
You spread to many parts of Africa
You affect many groups of people
Young, elders, families
HIV, you kill many people and still continue killing
Now you have left us to be orphans, widows and sick
Because of HIV.

View of pre-primary class PE lesson with
un-roofed classrooms in the background.

The school closes on 21^st December for the Christmas holidays.  We will begin registration for the new school year, in mid-January.  Last year, we were snowed under with desperate families wanting places and had to turn many away.  It was horrendous.  Most of the applicants who were rejected were for the pre-primary class.  Next year, we really hope to have two pre-primary classes, to try to avoid this situation.  We will also have a new class at the top of the school, as our Primary 4 class will graduate to Primary 5.  This is an ongoing process until we reach the exalted heights of Primary 8, which is the end of primary education in South Sudan.  A secondary school on the same site is a distinct possibility, but is still at the pipe dream stage.

In order for us to house our two new classes, we need to finish the construction work on our two remaining classrooms.  All that is needed is roofing and a small amount extra for creating blackboards in the classrooms.  The cost of roofing two classrooms will be around $3,300 or £2,586. I know this is a large amount of money. If you are able to contribute something towards the roofing of the two, very necessary, classrooms, it will be a very great help to us.

Children complete their planting task.

Mango seedlings in the rubbish heap.

Still on the subject of the development of our school compound, our watchman has found around sixty (60!) self-seeded mango seedlings growing in our rubbish tip, clearly sprouted from the children’s discarded mango stones.  We very recently planted five neem tree seedlings, so a couple of days ago the children were set to work before going into their exam rooms planting ten of the baby mango trees.  The only problem is freely roaming goats and cows, which will eat any saplings they find, so we have surrounded each seedling with brick walls to keep the animals at bay.  The dry season is almost here, so it will be necessary, at least for the first few months, to mulch and regularly water the seedlings, otherwise they will not survive.  We are living in a very fertile area, so we are fairly confident that the mango trees will be bearing fruit in five years time.  Both the neem and mango trees will give very welcome shade for children and teachers and stop our compound from looking so desert-like.  The remaining mango trees will be planted around the edge of the compound.  We already have a self-seeded pawpaw sapling, which we are hoping will prove to be a female and produce fruit.  We are planning to plant some more.  A pawpaw is about the size of a honeydew melon so each one will feed several children. There is also a lemon tree sapling.   If we can end up with several types of fruit which ripen at different times of year, it will be very good for our children’s general health.  In spite of the fertility of the soil here, very few people eat fruit regularly.

Last week I went to Uganda to fetch the deaf children and bring them back to South Sudan for their first Christmas holiday.  It is the first time they have seen their families for ten months.  Some of the parents have come to thank me for their children’s schooling.  They were very impressed by how well-fed their children look and how much more disciplined they are.  All are now communicating in Ugandan sign language.  The children’s report cards show how much progress they have made academically. 

A big thank you to those who responded to my last appeal for help with sponsorship.  This will enable me to pay the children’s school fees and get them back to school next year.  There is another deaf child who is currently in our school called Paul.  Depending on his exam results this term and on his family’s wishes, I may well take him to join the others next year.  He is a very bright 12 year old, who communicates incredibly well with his own version of sign language.  He is completely mute.  In spite of his communication difficulties he is very sociable and particularly keen on football.  Our problem is lack of expertise in communicating all the school subjects to him.

Our supporting charity Opportunity through Education has registered us through a website called Give as You Live.  This website acts as a portal through which to shop online.  Each time you use it, a percentage goes to the charity of your choice.  Christmas is coming!  It would be lovely if you could to do at least some of your Christmas shopping through Give as You Live.

Please note that Give as You Live cannot be used for donations.  However, Opportunity through Education is currently applying to join another site called MyDonate, which will allow donors to donate online.  Once this has been activated, overseas donors will also be able to help our school.

I would be very grateful if you could share this post widely with anyone who might be able to help us with donations.  Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  Rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk . 

Everything has changed! shouted the children

Since I last wrote, all the promised work has been done on the school within a remarkably short time.  This is a fantastic achievement and we are all very thankful to those who have donated to make this possible.

I appealed in my last post for sponsors for the deaf children at school in Uganda.  One person has very kindly responded and agreed to sponsor one of the children, Assumpta.  There are still three more.  The new sponsor recommended that I put a figure of how much it will cost for one year.  The amount I paid for each child last year was £623 including school fees, uniform, living expenses and travel.  I know this is a lot.  It is too much for me in the long term too.  If people would like to contribute something smaller on a regular basis, that is fine and will help.a

Doors and windows being put in place

Doors and windows have been put in three more classrooms so that we now have five lockable rooms.  This is a fantastic achievement.  It will enable desks to be put in them securely, and avoid the constant necessity of removing everything to the storeroom at the end of each day. 

To give you a side view of why this is necessary, there are huge problems with organized gangs of thieves in Nimule.  Anything not welded down, goes.  A few nights ago, there was a jointly planned robbery of many homes all over the town.  One of our neighbours is a policeman.  Not knowing this, he jumped out of bed and chased the thieves who were attacking his home.  He followed them to the local football ground, where he was set upon by many more thieves, who were all working together there.  He was severely injured. 

View of the new classroom block including
the newly roofed classroom - worker perched on top

This time last year, we built a new block of four classrooms, but were unable to roof them due to lack of funds.  Earlier in the year, one classroom was roofed and fitted with door and windows and desks.  This classroom is now used by Primary 4.

Over the past few weeks we have roofed a second classroom, which now houses our Primary 3 class, who were previously in our storeroom.  It is lovely for them not to have people constantly coming in and out, disturbing their lessons as they fetch textbooks, cooking pots and other things.  This is particularly important as all our children are hyper-inquisitive and very easily distracted!  Their new classroom does not as yet have a door or windows or desks, but they are at least in a better position to learn.

We still need to roof the other two classrooms, ready for next year’s intake.  One classroom will be for our first Primary 5 class.  The other classroom will make it possible for us to divide the pre-primary class in two according to level.  This is important because the current class size is far too big (49 children).  Based on past experience, there is always a big demand for the pre-primary class, which we were totally unable to meet this academic year.  We ended up being forced to eliminate all 5 year olds at registration time, which was a great shame as we expect our school to cater for children from 5 year old upwards.  Many desperately needy families were so desperate for their children to come, hence the over-large current class.

These new classrooms will also need doors and windows, but more urgently, blackboards to be made, as we only have five blackboards.  We are intending to make the blackboards by plastering a section of wall and painting with blackboard paint.  We did this in our old school building very effectively.

The London Oratory has paid for twelve more desks, making a total of twenty four.  The desks were made and are being used by our Primary 2 class in their newly secure classroom.  The London Oratory has very kindly agreed to continue to fundraise for desks in the other classes.

School shirts being made on Singer machines

Pencils for All fundraised during the year for school uniforms for all the children.  The children have all been measured and are waiting with bated breath for their uniforms.  Some children who were absent on the measuring day were told to go directly to the tailors.  They came back to school excitedly clutching off-cuts of the school shirt material, running around the compound shouting, “Our kitenge!  Our kitenge!”  Kitenge is the local word for cloth.  Uniform is going to make a huge difference to the children.  Most of them have very few, and very ragged, clothes.  To have something new is a huge experience for them and will really boost their morale.  All the other schools have uniform, and our children are often taunted on their way for the lack of uniform.  Shamefully, it has on one occasion led to discrimination against our school by the local personnel of an international NGO who were running a schools’ event.  Our children, although they had prepared a lovely poem, were not allowed on the stage.  Parents have pointed out that uniform will also make our children identifiable outside school, so that if there is any incident involving them, passers-by can contact the school. 

The downside is that from now on, there will be a need for new uniforms as the children grow and as new children are accepted.  Help!  However, I think you will see that the positives far outweigh the negatives, regarding school uniform.

We have a new nursery teacher, to help with our over-large class.  She is a young, lively and very well qualified Ugandan called Nataleen.  Very shortly afterwards one of our primary teachers resigned, which will leave an unfortunate gap, which we are not planning to fill until next year’s new recruitment.  We also have engaged two watchmen to look after the school after hours and also do any handyman jobs around the compound.  Next year as we will have a Primary 5 class for the first time, there will also be a need for more teachers. 

When the children arrived at school on Monday two weeks ago, they were stunned.  "Everything has changed!" they shouted.

I mentioned the problem of feeding in my last post.  This problem is ongoing as the World Food Programme, who are supposed to be taking over from Far Reaching Ministries, have still done nothing for any of the schools.  In the meantime, we have been supplying maize porridge to the children.  This is not as substantial as oatmeal, but is at least better than nothing.  The problem is made worse by the fact that under the South Sudan education system, although children up to Primary 3 have lessons only up to lunchtime, Primary 4 and upwards are supposed to remain in school up to 4pm.  Both teachers and Primary 4 are really struggling.  Bear in mind that our children are the poorest and most vulnerable in Nimule who cannot rely on being fed at home.

To sum up, things are moving on very well indeed at the school at the moment, with the exception of the food situation.  We need to continue fundraising for the roofing of two more classrooms, for staff salaries, for uniforms for next year’s intake, and for the various small items needed in the running of the school, such as chalk, pencils and pens etc.  We also need to fundraise for doors and windows for the newly roofed classroom and the two classrooms which should (I hope) be roofed this term. 

Please don't forget our deaf children.  Sponsorship is very important so that they can continue their education.

I would be very grateful if you could share this post widely to anyone who might be able to help us.  Please let me know if you are able to help by email so that I can send a gift aid form for Opportunity Through Education.  rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk .