Community Support Project for South Sudan(C2-2023)
Sponsor : Joseph Kunnel
The arrival of the Holy Family sisters to South Sudan was a blessing to thousands of people of interior and remote villages especially in terms of educational services to the war affected, orphan and poor children. Having visited many remote villages and having realized that many thickly populated remote chapels and villages do not have any learning centers or schools, the Holy Family sisters in collaboration with the missionary Parish Priest of those chapels and villages Fr. Robert Rufus, decided to open learning centers or temporary sheltered schools in those remote villages. It was very painful to see hundreds of children just roam around the streets throughout the day without having anything to do and very often they involve in small and big crimes situationally which spoiled their whole future. The reality was that they were forced to the streets because they never knew what a school premise is or what a learning center is and they never had the means to reach any of the very far towns to be admitted to the schools. The absence of learning centers or schools in those remote chapels and villages was a real curse that spoiled thousands of children’s futures and the future of the country at large. Hence, the need for learning centers or schools was an immediate, essential, and urgent thing for those interior villages. After sufficient orientation and inputs are given to those remote village people by the Holy Family sisters and by Fr. Robert Rufus the Parish Priest, regarding the essentiality of educating the small and young children in those locations, everyone came to realize that education is a must for a better tomorrow and a better country. Having felt the need for schools and learning centers and having felt the need that the children of those locations should be trained under the guidance of the religious sisters and priests, the people from many of those villages came forward and requested to start nursery and primary schools in some of the most populated locations. Thus Holy Family sisters in collaboration with the Parish Priest started opening temporary sheltered schools one by one in those interior villages like Weel, Nyinrac, Manyang, Luonyaker and Bahr el sherki, Malekalel, Makuei, Gogrial and Ariath. Sufficient number of teachers are appointed but their salaries are still a challenge and with a lot of difficulties, we are managing it. Essentially needed school materials are provided to the children in or der to make sure that the teaching and learning processes are going on well. Even though there are many challenges, difficulties, needs, and struggles, by the grace of God, all these schools are running with a very good number of children.
Nevertheless, now there is a new challenge that is threatening the existence and running of those schools and that is the lack of washrooms or toilets. In the past few years, after the starting of those schools, since there were no toilets, the school children used to ease themselves in the surroundings of those schools but later in the course of time, the whole area began to smell and as a result, it was very difficult for us to run the schools and the atmospheres of the schools were badly affected. At that difficult moment, with whatever was available, the Holy Family sisters built temporary pit toilets with plastic basins, plastic sheets, and timbers which supported the children for a year or two during which the schools were running very effectively. But now with the previous rainy season, out of our nine schools, five schools’ toilets completely collapsed ( Bahr el sherki, Weel, Nyinrac, Manyang, and Luonyaker) and the rest of the four schools’ toilets are somehow prevailing but surely they will also collapse sooner or a bit later because their conditions are like that now. Those five schools are having no toilets or washrooms any longer and as a result, it is now a big question of how to run these schools in this academic year without any washroom facility. Schools without proper washroom facilities can become a place where different diseases can generate and spread and affect the children and the families. Therefore in this very crucial and challenging situation, we humbly request you and your esteemed organizations to support us to construct toilets in those schools in order to continue extending our educational services to thousands of children from the remote villages.
