A very big thank you to all our supporters

I do apologise for the length of time since I last wrote.  I have hardly paused for breath since returning from the UK at the end of March.  I ended up collapsing with chronic fatigue, quite literally unable to move.  However, I am much better now, just in time for the new term at school!

While in England I met up with many people, some of whom were already supporters of Cece Primary School, and some of whom are new.

I want to say an especial thank you to the Catenians in Reigate for their fundraising activities on our behalf last year, and also for their enthusiastic reception of my talk.  I was delighted that they decided to make Cece Primary School their charity for this year as well.  Some of their members have also made significant contributions towards the building work.

I also want to thank Father Rupert of the London Oratory for agreeing to ask the families taking part in this year's First Holy Communion programme to support us in a special project, to supply desks and chairs for all the children.  Up until now the children have been sitting on mats on the floor, which is far from ideal.

A big thank you to St Augustine's in Hammersmith for allowing me to speak at all Masses one weekend and also to their ABC group.  Especial thanks to Peter and Mary Hickson for their great help in organising this.  Collections were taken at both events.

Thank you to good friends of mine, one of whom has given me a laptop, another children’s reading books and another a cash donation which I used to buy some educational games.  Another friend paid for professionally produced leaflets to distribute.  I was offered other things as well, but travelling with too much baggage would have been a big problem.  Thank you anyway for the generous thoughts.

Literally the day before leaving the country I met the founder of a charity called Pencils for All, who have kindly offered to fundraise for school uniforms for all the children.  The children currently come to school in very torn and shabby clothes and have repeatedly expressed the wish for a school uniform.  From a safety point of view, parents have pointed out that if the children should have an accident on their way to or from school, a school uniform will immediately identify them to any passers-by.

I also wish to thank Sean Devereux Children's Fund, who have been kind enough to let our donors funnel their donations through their account so that we could make use of their tax status.  They also made a very generous donation at the start of our building campaign, to kick-start the work.  This arrangement will come to an end soon, as the administration required is now becoming rather too onerous for them as the needs of the school expand.

From my own point of view, I have been very conscious for some time that one fundraiser, based in South Sudan, makes the school very unstable.  It is very hard to communicate long-distance with poor network coverage and a poor supply of electricity.  More seriously, if I am knocked down by a car or become completely incapacitated in some way, that will be the end of all publicity and support for the school.  As the school is a charity school, providing education for the poorest children in the community, that would be the end of the children’s education.  Their families would not be able to pay the school fees demanded by all the other schools.  We now also have several deaf children attending school in special schools in Uganda, who would also have their education and life chances curtailed.

While in England I met a woman who is also supporting the education of some children in South Sudan, fundraising completely on her own.  As in my case, she is very concerned that the support will ‘die with her’ leaving children high and dry.  We agreed to look for a way to start a charity specifically for our projects.  If you are interested in getting involved, please contact me on rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

The main areas currently needing financial support are:

• ·     Daily school running costs such as stationery, firewood (for cooking a meal for the children), teachers, cooks and a guard’s salaries.
• ·    Construction work on new classrooms.  The donations from the Catenians and St Augustine’s have given a significant boost, so that the new block of classrooms is now almost complete.
• ·     Sponsorships for four deaf children to go to school in Uganda.  We now also have a blind boy in the school.  We are arranging to take him for medical assessment in Uganda.  If an operation is not feasible, he will also need a school for the blind in Uganda.
• ·    The project to provide desks and chairs for all classes (through the London Oratory, as mentioned above).
• ·     School uniforms for all children (through Pencils for All, as mentioned above).

If you would like to donate to the school, please contact me on the same email address as above.

I came back to Nimule to find that work on the construction of the new block of classrooms was well underway.  The first classroom in the block is already in use by our Primary 4 class.  We look forward to using the rest of the rooms

The last day of work before the roofing begins

very soon.  The photo shows the current state of progress.  The veranda and disabled ramps were finished today.

The Quandaries of Registration time

In South Sudan, schools re-register all their students at the start of the school year.  I believe that this is because of the instability of the country.  In past years, we have lost large numbers of children as their families leave for the refugee camps either because of the war or because of hunger.  Some return, but many do not.  However last year, for the first time since we founded the school, there has been relative stability and the majority of children remained with us throughout the year.  This raised my hopes that we would be able to continue to educate the same children two years running.  My hopes have not been disappointed.

The new school year begins on 5 February, so we started registrations last week, beginning with last year’s pupils.  On day one of registrations, 70 children came to register, more than half of last year’s intake.  Over the rest of the week, the numbers registering went down, but we still registered almost all those who attended in 2017.

Depending on their results in the end of year exams and also on their in-class performance, children either move to the next level, stay in their former class or in some particular cases move backwards.  This is in line with the South Sudanese education system and African schools more generally.  It seems harsh, but there is nothing we can do about it.  In my own country, children move up according to age group, not by ability and are given extra help if they struggle.  Here there are no resources for individual catch-up.  Parents are completely illiterate and unable to help their children and schools have limited numbers of teachers.  To make up for this, unlike other schools, we are alert to our children’s performance during the school year and if we find children misplaced academically, they are moved to a more suitable class. 

A major issue that we have faced during the registration process this year is that a lot of the children came without their carers.  We have a registration form which we use to check that our pupils meet the school criteria as well as to collect personal information.  The school gives places firstly to those from families with HIV/AIDS or disability which hampers the families’ ability to pay for their children’s schooling, and secondly to orphans.  Some children informed us that they live with their parents and that there is no sickness or disability in the family, in spite of conflicting information from last year’s registration forms! 

It became necessary to contact the parents.  In most cases, the children had never been told by their carers that they were not their real parents, the parents having died of HIV or other causes when they were still very small.  This is because both HIV and orphanhood are stigmatized in South Sudan, in spite of the vast numbers involved. 

Next week we are inviting new applicants to come to register.  During the past week, many new families came and we asked them to come back next week.  However, there are very few places left as so many of our children of 2017 are still with us.  It is very clear that we are going to be overwhelmed.  It will be necessary to take the details of all the applicants and then categorize them by need for a place.  I hate it, but what else can we do?  In time, maybe there will be enough money to have two classes in each year, but unless we expand the number of children in each class to well beyond the current 35 per class, we will not be able to accept all the children who are in need of a place now.  If we have large classes, the standard of teaching and individual help will go down.  In the refugee camps, schools operate with over 200 children per class and the children learn nothing due to the constant noise.  In other Nimule schools classes often go up to 100, but at the end of the day few children learn even to read or write.  This must not happen to Cece Primary School.  If you look at the previous post for the end of the school year, you will see that the children did very well.  This must continue.

In the meantime, construction work on the new block of classrooms is much delayed due to lack of funding.  Some funding has now arrived, and this coming week work begins again, but the classrooms will not be on time for the new term.  The money is not enough to complete the work.  Fortunately there is a temporary classroom made with tarpaulins, which classes will take turns to use, as it is very hot and uncomfortable.  It would be very unfair to one class if they had to spend the whole school day in it every day, rather than by rotation.

If you can help us by increasing your support for the school, or organizing fundraising activities in support of us, which would have the additional benefit of spreading the word about the school more widely, it will benefit a very deprived community so that the next generation has hope for the future.  Illiteracy in South Sudan is currently at 85%.  Although there are no statistics that I am aware of specifically for the poor, judging by my own observation, illiteracy must be close to 100% because apart from our own school, it is unheard of to have a school with no school fees or other burdensome requirements.

I will be returning to the UK in February while I get a new passport and will be delighted to visit anyone who would like to hear more about Cece Primary School.

As mentioned in my previous blog post, Patrick Gore will be taking over as headteacher from me.  He is a very committed teacher who shares the ideals of the school and is already coming up with new ideas to enhance the children’s educational experience, including a potential trip to the nearby national park to bring life to their science and social studies lessons.  I will be leaving the school in good hands while I am away.  Once back, I will teach English and particularly literacy under him as well as continuing to keep contact with donors with news of the school.

To send money to the school:

For UK tax payers, please send through the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund so that we can benefit from 25% tax relief from the UK government. Please contact me by email for the gift aid form, if you are able to donate in this way.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

It is not currently possible to donate from other parts of the world, unless donors decide to donate directly to our account in Uganda.  Clubbing together will save on individual transfer costs.  If you would like to do this, please email me on the same email address as above and I will supply the bank details.

Christmas at Nimule National Park

Patrick Gore, the new headteacher at Cece Primary School also leads the congregation of the local Africa Inland Church.  As a Christmas treat for this church’s youth group, he organized a trip to Nimule National Park.  A national park in war-torn South Sudan?  Yes, in fact it is one of several, as can be seen from this Bradt Guide article. 

In all the four years I have lived in Nimule this has been my first opportunity to visit the national park, even though it is only just outside the town.  Entrance is free of charge to locals, but has to be arranged in advance so that the rangers take groups of people together.  For foreign NGOs a charge is made.  The rationale is that local people are poor but need to be educated about their environment and particularly the harm done by thoughtless littering, tree-cutting and burning.  Foreign NGOs are rich, educated and can afford to pay something towards the sustaining of the national park.  As a local resident who they were well aware was helping the local community, I was allowed to tag along with the church group, but was asked for ‘water’.  ‘Water’ is the local jargon for a tip.  Knowing that all government employees suffer from the government’s poor record on paying them, I was happy to do so.

We were all asked to bring food and drink with us.  I brought bread rolls and peanut butter as well as three bottles of water.  What I failed to realize was that there would be a place to cook and that everyone else’s idea of ‘bringing something to eat’ was to bring cooking ingredients to be clubbed together.  My supply of water was inadequate due to the searing heat.  Live and learn.  Next time I will do it differently.  Another thing I would do differently if possible, would be to wear tough footwear.  I and most of the party only had flimsy sandals, but the way is rough and also wet and slippery right next to the river. 

Two of our group striding out.

In spite of everything the national park has remained open even though there have been very few visitors.  The wildlife rangers are a corps of the SPLA, the national army of South Sudan.  They are trained in conservation issues and facts about the many resident animals, birds and plants in the park, sometimes not very accurately.  I was told that the park began in the 1930s as a game reserve (i.e. the animals were there to be hunted).  In 1945 it was re-designated as a national park (the animals are now there to be preserved from hunters).  The national park is the smallest of South Sudan’s national parks at around 450 square kilometers in area.  This information conflicts with the information in the Bradt guide and I am not sure which is correct.  It is not fenced, so the animals wander freely according to their time-honoured migration patterns.  The eastern edge of the national park is a mountain range on the border with Uganda, so great herds of elephants migrate seasonally through South Sudan, Uganda to Kenya and Tanzania.  Around the national park itself is a buffer zone, which is intended to have the same rules as the park itself.  However, there is an ongoing problem of cattle-keepers bringing large numbers of cattle into the buffer zone.  It is now the dry season, and the cattle-keepers have burnt wide swathes of the area.  The Wildlife Division protests but as the cattle belong to high ranking generals, they are outranked and ignored.

Patrick and I next to the falls.

Our group intended to start our trip at dawn, but the South Sudanese being the poorest timekeepers I have ever met, we did not leave the rangers office until past eight in the morning, when the heat of the sun was already making itself felt.  This was a great shame because it reduced our chances of seeing the big animals, who are most active in the cool of the early morning, and particularly the elephants, which I was very keen to see. 

As we followed our armed, uniformed guides, the first place we came to was the wildlife training centre.  We were shown it with great pride, but it was quite obviously disused, not surprisingly in the current civil war situation when army resources are going towards fighting, not conservation.  Our own guides received their training in other African countries.  We then came to some ruined buildings.  These buildings were the home and army headquarters of John Garang de Mabior, who was to become the founder and first president of South Sudan, a very important figure in the war for independence.  A battle was fought at a place called Achua in 1995, which was the turning point in the struggle for independence from Sudan.  Operations were directed by John Garang and his officers from the buildings which we saw.  This is clearly a major historical site, but I had not heard anything about it until my visit. 

After leaving John Garang’s headquarters, the path took us through a wide and shallow valley between some of the Imatong Mountains.  The White Nile flows through the same valley.  As it was the dry season, everything was tinder-dry except the area immediately next to the river, which was very lush and green. 

As we walked along the valley the river was on our left and stony mountains were on our right.  There were baboons sitting on the rocks and in the bushes.  My eyesight is not as good as it used to be, so I struggled to see them unless they moved.  I was assured that there were a great many.  Looking towards the river, we saw hippos.  These were much easier to see as many of their mouths were gaping a startling pink against the green background.  I know that there are also a great many crocodiles, but they remained hidden.

Fulla Falls 3

As we walked on the guides answered my questions.  Since arriving in Nimule I have very often seen eagles wheeling over the town, but nobody had been able to tell me what species of eagle they were.  I was told that they are African Black Eagles.  However, on my return home I googled African Black Eagles only to find that they don’t exist!  I believe he meant African Fish Eagles, but I could be wrong.  I also asked about the ball-like nests I saw in some trees.  It was pointed out to me that the nests were only in the thorn trees.  They are built there by weaver-birds.  The sharp thorns protect their young from predators.  How the parent birds avoid the thorns was not explained.

.

We came to several piles of fresh elephant dung right in our path.  To give an idea of the size, imagine a full wheelbarrow.  I have never seen dung like it.  It is not at all smelly and resembles large heaps of compressed grass clippings.  A guide told us that when eaten it is a traditional cure for epilepsy.  Some of the young people put handfuls of dung in their pockets to take home.

Cooking at the fishing village

After walking for around three hours, we started to hear the sound of the rapids.  The Nile is a totally natural river and sprawls in several wide, fast-moving channels around islands composed from dense patches of weeds.  The various channels come crashing together as the valley narrows very dramatically.  We were aiming for this narrow passage, which is a famous local beauty spot called the Fulla Falls.  The name is slightly misleading as really they are rapids, not waterfalls.  However, they are still well worth a visit.

There are three rapids in close succession, imaginatively named Fulla 1, Fulla 2 and Fulla 3.  In order of wildness, Fulla 1 is the mildest and 3 is the strongest.  However all are deadly if someone were to fall in.  Next to Fulla 3, the end of our long walk, is a fishing hamlet consisting of round huts made of stones and ovens where fish is smoked ready to be carried the long distance to market in Nimule.  When we arrived the girls in our party immediately started getting out cooking ingredients and preparing a meal for all of us.  Gender equality is much talked about in the abstract in South Sudan, but has yet to become a reality.  Villagers brought copious quantities of freshly caught fish for the girls to cook.  It was a lovely meal.  The only problem from my point of view was the lack of clean water for drinking.  Everyone else drank straight from the river, but I have had my experience of Nile water before.  My water bottles by that time were nearly empty and the temperatures were going up, not down.  The villagers produced a saucepan and we boiled some water for my use which I decanted into my bottles.  It was a lovely spot to eat, under a shady tree.  The village chief introduced himself and was delighted that I was inadvertently sitting on his grandfather’s grave.  A woman passing by on her way to the next fishing village came to greet us.  I remarked on what a beautiful place she lived in.  She agreed and said that they were never hungry.  It was so nice to meet such contented people.  Before we left, it was announced that it was the twentieth birthday of one of our party.  He gave a charming speech about how he had never had a birthday like it and how happy he was no longer to be a teenager.  I think our trip would be hard to beat for most twenty year olds even worldwide.

View of the fishing village with

fishermen in the foreground.

At about 3pm we packed up and started our return journey, seeing the same scenes and animals in reverse order.  This time however, some of our party spotted elephants in the distance.  I was desperate to see them, but try as I might I saw nothing.  My eyesight needs serious checking next time I go back to England.  I start to doubt if I would spot an elephant if it was in the room with me.

One of the guides returned with a large bag of aloa vera which he was going to plant at the wildlife rangers compound.  Apparently it grows wild next to the river.  We discussed the benefits of aloa vera.  He told me that he is the medical officer for the unit, and would be using it for medical treatment for his unit.

We arrived back at the start of the walk, desperately thirsty and footsore, at around 6pm.

Fortunately a boda boda (motorcycle taxi) turned up, otherwise getting back home would have been agonising.

Patrick is hoping to take a party of the older children from Cece Primary School to visit later next year.  That will be a very great excitement for them and help bring to life their science and social studies subjects.  It will also be an introduction to the history of their country to learn about John Garang.

The trip felt like a real holiday and was a great start to Christmas.  Next year, maybe more people will come and experience our lovely national park.  The wildlife rangers want the outside world to know that they are very, very keen for more visitors!

End of school year

I am very happy to let you know that we have come to the end of our most successful year so far.



Children look at their exam results

This year’s end of year examination results are the best since the school began in 2015.  70% of children passed.  There are two reasons for the improvement.  Firstly, the situation this year has been much more stable than last year.  Not nearly so many children have been taken to the refugee camps, so we have been able to teach most of them right through the school year without interruption.  Secondly, we have sub-divided and streamed two of the classes (pre-primary and Primary 3) where there were huge differences in academic levels.  The result was that some children who were really out of their depth at the start of the year have caught up or are at least starting to make headway.

Parents and children with Pascalina, my co-founder (in green cap)

The big news that I shared with parents was that I am stepping down as headteacher in favour of a teacher named Patrick Gore from the end of this term.  Patrick has been with us for two terms and is a very experienced, enthusiastic and committed teacher.  He is also a local pastor, so he has good leadership skills.  I have been on the lookout for a replacement for myself since the beginning as Cece Primary School is intended to be a South Sudanese school, not one which is an entirely foreign intervention.  This will make the school more stable in the long term.  However I will not be leaving.  I will continue as a teacher and also with my fundraising efforts, after a break of one term to allow Patrick to get his feet under the table.

Parents and children leave clutching marked papers

Last Friday we held an end of year celebration, complete with a drama by some of the children on the subject of the importance of taking medicine if diagnosed with HIV, rather than going to a witchdoctor.  This story is very close to reality in Nimule although it might seem a bit fantastic to people in Europe or America.  Everyone enjoyed it very much.  The witch-doctors were very dramatic and the misguided HIV positive parents died with great gusto, flinging themselves on the ground.  This drama was first performed at a local celebration of World AIDS Day, so the children were very well prepared. 

Teachers and cooks at the end of year event

A neighbouring school has recently built a borehole right next to the boundary of our two schools, which they have kindly agreed to share with us.  This will save our cooks from a trek carrying heavy jerricans of water each day.  I am hoping that this is the beginning of cooperation between our schools.

We have received help from several NGOs during the year.  Far Reaching Ministries has continued to feed the school as mentioned in previous posts.  Save the Children has been providing child protection training to staff and children.  Junubaid (a national NGO working with UNICEF) has provided two temporary latrines as well as a lot of teaching and recreational resources.  The local government has organised in-service training for two of our teachers, which is going to continue next year and end with full accreditation.

Pending approval from the local government, we have been promised two stands of four permanent latrines (8 latrines in all) by another NGO called HELP, who are working in the area of sanitation. 

During this term, we have built the foundations for another block of four classrooms.  Funding allowing, work will continue over the school holidays on permanent classrooms.  If the funding does not allow the construction of all four classrooms, the plan will be reduced to two temporary classrooms to be built on the new foundations.  This is necessary because next year we will have a Primary 4 class for the first time and are also intending to divide our pre-primary section into two classes, as there is a heavy demand for places and we do not want the class to be too big. 

Please can I ask for contributions towards the building work, to enable us to build four permanent rooms, rather than temporary ones? 

Our bank details are:

For UK tax payers, please send through the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund so that we can benefit from 25% tax relief from the UK government. Please contact me by email for the gift aid form, if you are able to donate in this way.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

We hope to have a link for US donors soon.

 

News from the school

I am writing to update you on the school’s progress and also to give you some exciting news.

Cece Primary School is fast approaching the end of the school year.  Next year we will need to have a new classroom to cater for a Primary 4 class.  At the moment we have four classrooms, for a Pre-Primary class, and Primary 1 to 3.  The end of primary education in South Sudan is Primary 8, so we still have a long way to go.  There will be a need to employ more teachers next year to cater for the new class. 

As there is no storeroom or teachers room, and we will again need to build more classrooms next year, we have decided to build a foundation ready for four classrooms (which will be the complete number of classrooms when the primary school is complete).  As funds for that whole block are unlikely to be available at once, we will then build just the first two classrooms on the foundations.  This will allow us to have a spare room which we can use for storage and a teachers room.

I am feeling very happy with the school’s progress over the past two years since June 2015.  We have moved from a very small school of 60 children in two Primary 1 classes in a loaned building, to a school of four classes with stable teaching on our own site, in purpose-built classrooms.  The current teachers are the best we have had, giving stable teaching compared to any other local school.  Those children who have been with us since the beginning of the school are far more advanced than those at other Nimule schools. 

We have a substantial meal for the children provided by Far Reaching Ministries every school day.  I cannot overstate the importance of this, as many of our families struggle to provide feeding at home at all.  I attach a link to a Guardian article which gives the picture of the impossible situation here with regard to feeding.

The big news is that I have decided to resign as headteacher with effect from the end of December.  The main reason for this is that Cece Primary School is intended to be a local community school and to become a stable school which can manage without foreign input as far as possible.  Another reason is that I am not getting any younger.  I want to ensure that the school can be sustained without me and can continue into the future whether I am there or not.  Given the volatile situation here, it is impossible to know what may happen next.

We employed a wonderful teacher two terms ago, called Patrick Gore.  Patrick is a very active, reliable and experienced teacher.  He is very concerned about disadvantaged children and has shown a real heart for our children in the time he has been with the school, even visiting sick children at home to check that they are alright.  Outside of school, he is a pastor with the Africa Inland Church, so he has leadership experience.  I have no doubt at all that he is the right person for the job.

I am intending to take a sabbatical for the first term of next year (from January to May) to allow Patrick to get on with his new role without feeling undermined by me.  I also, will find it hard to put myself under a new headteacher, so that term away will help both of us to adjust.  In June I will return as English teacher.  I will continue with my role as fundraiser.

Please can I ask you to continue to support the school as we move ahead both physically with our construction work, and to support the education of the children. 

Our bank details are:

For UK tax payers, please send through the Sean Devereux Children’s Fund so that we can benefit from 25% tax relief from the UK government. Please contact me by email for the gift aid form, if you are able to donate in this way.  My email address is rebeccamallinson1@hotmail.co.uk.

We hope to have a link for US donors soon.

Trip to Uganda

Early last term, a 12 year old girl followed some of her neighbour’s children to school.  The children explained that she did not go to school because she is deaf and mute.  I asked the children to speak to the girl’s mother and ask her if she would like her daughter to come to Cece Primary School.   The next day she came.  I explained that Assumpta has a right to go to school even with a disability.  Assumpta’s mother Cesarina is a widow and was very surprised that we would accept her child.  Most local people see any severe disability as a burden and it is very rare for families to make any attempt to find ways to improve the child’s situation.

From left to right, me, Cesarina, Assumpta and Teacher Izaru

The term was a difficult one.  As Assumpta had not been to school before and was incommunicado, she would rush in and out of all the classrooms, disturbing the teaching and doing exactly as she pleased.  Gradually she adjusted and started to stay in her own class, Primary 1.  However it was difficult to know what to do with her, while teaching a class of thirty children, all of whom are very easily distracted and many of whom are also new to school discipline.  I tried asking teachers who were not in class to remain as her assistant, but this did not work, as culturally it is unacceptable for an adult to go down to a child’s level.  The only method of teaching that South Sudanese teachers know is ‘talk and chalk’ in front of large classes with no interaction with the children.   I was rushed off my feet and had no time to train the teachers in how to assist an individual pupil.  The result was that Assumpta was neglected and I felt very guilty about it.  

By Assumpta’s behavior I suspected that she might not be deaf, but have a communication disorder such as autism, but there are no facilities in Nimule for any sort of assessment of special needs.  Then, by a happy chance, I was invited by Global Giving to go to Kampala for some training in fundraising on their website.  At the workshop I met a lady who works in a special needs organization in Gulu, a town in Uganda, easily accessible from Nimule.  I swooped on her and told her about Assumpta.  She said that she couldn’t help herself, but knew somebody in Gulu who could.  We exchanged contact details.  

Very shortly afterwards I had an email putting me in contact with Lois, a British speech and language therapist in Gulu.  Lois told me that there would be a visiting teacher of the deaf coming to visit her centre from 4^th September.  She invited us to come for an assessment of both hearing and speech that week.

The appointment was yesterday, so I, a fellow teacher, Assumpta and Assumpta’s mother, travelled to Gulu on Monday so we could be on time.  It was a very expensive journey.  Apart from myself, none of us had travel documents or ID.  This meant that we needed a letter from the local Head Chief explaining that we needed to travel to Uganda for medical reasons.  At the border, emergency travel documents were issued, at a cost of 1,500 South Sudanese Pounds (the equivalent of around $10).  I know this seems a small amount in Western terms, but in South Sudan that is the combined monthly wage of three government –paid teachers.  Then we had to get visas for Uganda for all four of us, costing $200.  The hotel costs and transport were far cheaper, around $8 altogether.

This is money which would otherwise have gone towards the building work of the new classroom block.  However, as you will realize, it is extremely important not just to have buildings, but to be able to help our children educationally to the best of our ability.

The appointment went very well.  Assumpta was assessed using various toys by the teacher for the deaf while we spoke with the speech and language therapist.  The result of the two hour assessment was that she is profoundly deaf and does not have a communication disorder.  She is very bright but has lacked any stimulation.  She uses a home-developed sign language and managed to communicate very well with the teacher for the deaf.   

The two professionals recommended that she stay at Cece Primary School.  They think she is too old to learn lip-reading effectively.  Instead we are going to learn Ugandan Sign Language, which will give Assumpta a much wider means of communication than at the moment.  The materials are going to be sent to me by email.  Then I am to organize teacher training in USL for both teachers and Assumpta’s mother.  I was told that it is most important that we all use the same signs all the time and that we encourage Assumpta to sign as well, instead of just reacting (as is what happens at the moment).  There is a unit for deaf children in Gulu but they thought it would be better if she could stay in her home environment rather than moving to a boarding school far from home.  The unit would also be a very big expense compared to keeping her here.

I am hoping that now we have some special needs contacts in Gulu, we will be able to assist more children in future, who would otherwise be without any chance in life at all.  This whole experience has brought it home to me, how necessary Cece Primary School is to Nimule.