“Teach Me To Fish”

 Children are Sleeping on Classroom Floors for the Chance to go to School

They come from all over South Sudan for the chance to go to school here. Attending school at all is a coveted opportunity in this country, where lack of education can mean a lifetime sentence to the oppression of poverty. Going to a good school like Our Lady of Assumption opens up dreams that can change everything about a child’s future. Especially for an orphan like Dominic.

Overseen by the Brothers of Christian Instruction in Riimenze, Our Lady of Assumption is one of the few quality schools in the entire region of Western Equatoria – a sprawling state that comprises over 30,000 square miles in the western reaches of South Sudan.

Because there are often vast distances between a child’s village and the nearest school, like many in this country, Our Lady of Assumption is a boarding school. Students will attend class, eat here, and sleep here. They go home on holidays and when school is out of session. Otherwise a quality education would never be attainable for children who are far from a school, or for orphans like Dominic with no one to sponsor them.

This makeshift open-air structure serving as a classroom is still an improvement over other schools, where students often sit on the ground outside.

FAST FACTS ON EDUCATION IN THIS NATION

• Third lowest literacy rate in the world
• 70 percent – approximately 2.8 million children – are not in school
• 84 percent of girls over 15 are illiterate
• Only 8 percent of girls over 15 go to secondary school
• The student-teacher ratio is estimated at 89:1

The number of children hoping for the chance to go to school greatly outnumbers classroom space and school availability.

Not only is the long distance to schools an obstacle to education in South Sudan, but many schools are also crumbling or completely lack infrastructure. It’s common for children to sit outside on the ground because there are no classrooms. Many lack running water.

Political unrest or economic factors can prevent children from staying in school, and a persisting stigma toward girls’ schooling may keep daughters from getting any education at all.

Many of South Sudan’s schools lack even basic facilities, like running water.

As a result, it’s not surprising that demand to attend Our Lady of Assumption, one of the only existing quality schools in this vast region of Western Equatoria, is so high. These stats underscore the importance of such schools to turn around the educational blight in South Sudan.

Nearly 1,000 children attend the Christian Brothers’ school in Riimenze. The staff strive to teach not only academic formation, but also character formation. Dominic describes how the teachers here are more like parents to the students:

“While at school, we have been introduced to community peaceful living. Today even people from different tribes and backgrounds can live together without fighting. The teachers continue to transform and empower us to become better citizens who will be productive and reliable.” – Dominic

School hopes to add dorm space, so more youth can graduate, and not have to sleep on classroom floors.

Need for Facilities

While students at Our Lady of Assumption are fortunate compared to many other places, it became clear during our team’s recent visit that there was a need.

The first was how many children were sitting outside as teachers were conducting class under the trees, because there aren’t enough classrooms for the growing number of students.

We also saw students taking their meals outside, sitting under verandas to stay out of the rain, because there is no indoor space to accommodate them all.

Over 350 girls slept in dorm rooms at the end of the day. But there are no such dorms for boys. So all the male students go to sleep each night on the floor of the school classrooms.

“At the moment we are accommodating these young boys in the same classes where they get their lessons during the day, and at night they lay their heads in these open structures,” says Brother Achilles Kiwanuka, who directs Our Lady of Assumption Boarding School.

Desperate Measures

In the developed world, it’s difficult to imagine children so young going far away from their homes just to have the opportunity to go to school. Or sleeping on the floor of their classrooms at night because there’s nowhere else to go.

But in South Sudan these children will do it because they desperately crave the education that can save them from a life of poverty. Families long for their children to have that chance to achieve a better life, building better futures for themselves and their communities.

According to a UNESCO study, if all young adults completed secondary school, the global poverty rate could be reduced by more than half, and by nearly two-thirds in sub-Saharan Africa. Even if students in low-income nations like South Sudan could master basic reading skills, it could save them from the trappings of extreme poverty.

Says Dominic, “Orphans like me never dreamed of attending post-primary school, given the fact that we do not have parents and we live with so many challenges. These difficulties even posed threats to our lives. We used to only strive to survive each day. But, today, with attending secondary school, we are already living beyond our dreams.”

Education proves time and again to be one of the strongest ways out of poverty’s vicious cycle. It’s the adage of “Teach me to fish and I eat for a lifetime.” Education offers hope. A tangible way forward. This couldn’t be illustrated more clearly than by a student like Dominic, whose life has been transformed by the opportunity to attend Our Lady of Assumption.

Going to school here literally changes children’s lives – saving them from a lifetime sentence of poverty and illiteracy.

Help the Children of Riimenze

The Brothers of Christian Instruction are grateful to provide high quality instruction to their burgeoning student population. But they desperately wish to get boys off the classroom floors and sleeping in dormitory beds at night. And there is a great need to expand their secondary school so more children can finish high school.

“Sudan Relief Fund’s dedication to promoting education to improve the quality of life for orphans like me, and to combat inequalities in the world’s youngest nation of South Sudan, is something we have so much pride in, and for which we shall live to thank you. We reassure you of our dedication to our education, with which we shall together build a strong and self-sustaining nation of South Sudan for ourselves and all the people to come after us.” – Dominic

Orphans like Dominic would never have a chance to complete high school without a place like Our Lady of Assumption.

Every child deserves the chance to go to school to learn, to discover, and to gain basic skills to escape a life of abject poverty – a scourge that follows generations if not stopped. Nelson Mandela said, “Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world.”

With your partnership, we can make that happen for the children of Riimenze. And for more children like Dominic, whose lives are valuable and whose minds and hearts deserve the opportunity to learn.

Would you invest in an impoverished child’s future? Your gift will mean little boys here won’t have to sleep on school floors at night. Your gift will help finish the secondary school project underway so many more children can graduate from high school – giving them a chance to rise from poverty. The results from that transformation are passed on through future generations.

That’s an effective way to make a difference.

Sincerely,

Neil A. Corkery President