Orphanages – a dirty word? It’s a question of perspective

A friend recently said to me that it takes about two years to adjust to South Sudanese culture.  I think this is very true.

When I first arrived at Cornerstone, I suffered severe culture shock.  I saw the poverty at the children’s home while being aware that they were funded from an American charity.  I saw the poor nutrition, poor hygiene, poor literacy levels, poorly educated adults.  I saw barriers between different types of Christian, barriers between tribes and barriers between the children’s home and the town.  I saw a very strange type of Christianity with large elements of paganism.  I found what I saw as corruption, but was actually not.  I found it hard to find anything positive.  I think if you read my early blog posts this comes across.  I can only say that I am very sorry for my harshness.

Now, after a year and a half, what do I see?  I see people (ex-refugees themselves) at Cornerstone who are doing their best against huge odds and managing amazingly successfully.  I see children who are happy in spite of their extremely difficult circumstances.  The blinkers came off last year when I realised that out of all the orphanages in the country, Cornerstone was top of the league.

There is a huge divide between the western world and South Sudan.  South Sudan has suffered almost continuous civil war since the 1960s.  An infrastructure never existed.  Education barely existed except for the privileged few.  The entire population has been displaced repeatedly.  Healthcare is minimal.  Mortality rates are shockingly high.  It is hard for westerners to appreciate the impact of all these factors when it is beyond their own experience.

The western world responds with quick fixes.  NGOs want to be involved in short term ‘projects’ in selected areas of the country.  They want to be involved in ‘humanitarian’ work.  The range of humanitarian work is again very narrow.  For example, I am finding in my search for donors that orphanages are often not classed as humanitarian work in spite of the vast problem of destitute street children.  I start to suspect that NGOs want constantly changing projects so that they can have constantly changing webpages.  If there is constant change, maybe they feel they will be able to generate more interest from the public.  If so, it certainly isn’t helpful to South Sudan.

Like me when I first arrived, I think outsiders don’t get the full picture. In western countries the words ‘orphanage’ and ‘children’s home’ are loaded with negativity.  At least in Britain, they have a reputation for coldness, neglect, child abuse and institutionalisation leading to future homelessness.  No wonder they are hated.

During my recent efforts to find funding for Cornerstone, more than one NGO employee has told me that NGOs don’t like funding children’s homes because they and their donors believe in home-care.  Yes, of course it would be wonderful if all South Sudanese children had a caring family. 

However, here in South Sudan there are problems which are not faced in western countries.  There are huge numbers of children lacking parental care for various reasons.

Life expectancy is 42 years old and maternal mortality rates are the highest in Africa.  As a result children have a high chance of being orphaned even without the dangers of civil war causing death or displacement.  Orphaned or displaced children are frequently abandoned on the streets, if they have no direct relatives to take them into their homes.  Tribal values mean that even extended family will not treat their orphaned relatives well – their own children come first, leaving the cuckoos in the nest starved and unloved.  This is the norm and nobody feels any sense of guilt about it. 

Here is a prime example of my early culture shock.  On one occasion I was attending a prayer meeting where a woman asked for prayer because she was infertile.  I immediately spoke to one of the pastors because only the week before Cornerstone had started to support a new-born baby whose mother had died.  The foster mother, even though she claimed to be a good friend of the baby's dead mother, was very reluctant to keep the baby and only agreed to keep him until he was a toddler.  Surely this desperate, infertile woman would be delighted with this answer to her prayers?  Not a bit of it.  My suggestion was greeted with shock.  Nobody would consider adopting a baby.  It is totally counter-cultural.  

All large South Sudanese towns have a problem with huge numbers of street children.  Although this isn’t the case in Nimule, which is a relatively new town, there are realistic fears that it will develop a street child problem because the town is growing. 

Another problem caused by Nimule’s expansion is the influx of witchdoctors from elsewhere in South Sudan or Uganda.  These witchdoctors practise child sacrifice on a routine basis.  Imagine the dangers faced by street children in these circumstances.

Next week a government official will be visiting Cornerstone to discuss how Cornerstone can help.  Given the state of Cornerstone’s finances at the moment, this may not be a very productive meeting.

Cornerstone is not at all like the western conception of a children’s home.  The children are happy and very sociable.  Admittedly conditions are very basic compared to a non-African children’s home.  There is no running water.  The diet is very limited.  Apart from the youngest children, the children are responsible for their own washing, mending and ironing.  They help in the kitchen.  They clean their own dormitories and sweep and maintain the compound.  On the positive side, these are essential life skills, so these children will be far more capable of looking after themselves in adulthood than their western counterparts.

When not in school or doing their chores, the children play.  They are hugely inventive compared to western children because of the complete absence of toys.  They make their own cars out of pieces of metal, clay mobile phones, balls made of old plastic bags.  Whatever they want, they seem to be able to make.  One very resourceful boy was given two pairs of rabbits by a relative.  He is totally absorbed in caring for them.  He is determined that we will all be eating rabbit soon!

Unlike any other South Sudanese children’s home, Cornerstone has managed to ensure that all children go to school.  Some go for further studies to Uganda.  It is extremely rare in Britain for a ‘looked after’ child to reach university, given the expectation that they will leave care at 18 years old.  What a feather in Cornerstone’s cap!

Also unlike a British children’s home, we have an on-site clinic, capable of treating most ailments, including typhoid and malaria.  In cases of major illness, they get hospital treatment, even going to Uganda if necessary.  Again, no other South Sudanese children’s home has the facilities to do this.

As mentioned previously Cornerstone is the best children’s home in South Sudan.  It is a safe place for very vulnerable children. Over the past year we have welcomed three children whose parents were shot in the fighting further north, two small children whose mothers died giving birth due to HIV and whose fathers are unknown and three street children.  There is nowhere else for children like this.  All these new children have settled in well, welcomed beautifully by the old hands.  They are incredibly fortunate to be here.

Please talk to NGOs about the importance of funding places such as Cornerstone.  It is easy to say, ‘We think all children should be in a home setting’, but it is an ideal too far in South Sudan at the moment. 

It is easy for NGOs to say, ‘We only fund short-term humanitarian projects’.  In what way is helping orphans and street children not humanitarian work?  Certainly it is long-term, but given the huge numbers it is VITALLY important for the future of this country.

If you are able to help Cornerstone financially, please see the link to Fulaa.

What would I do without my friends?

I have been bowled over.

Last year I put up a blog post about the difficulties of our on-site clinic.  My son and daughter-in-law responded by paying for a solar medical fridge to be sent to us.  It is due to arrive in a few days’ time.  It will make a huge difference to the staff’s ability to provide medicines which cannot be accessed in Nimule due to lack of electricity and refrigeration.  We will be able to protect our children’s health far better in future.

Late last year a friend of mine in England suggested that she come back to Nimule with me after my trip home for Christmas.  This came completely out of the blue.  Hazel is a retired teacher who is devoting her retirement to helping raise teaching standards in various African countries. 

She immediately set about collecting materials from her local schools.  By the time I arrived in London she had amassed a huge number of books, jigsaw puzzles, building blocks, posters and other teaching materials.  My daughter Helena, similarly produced a lot of children’s books.

There was far too much to carry as luggage, both from the point of view of the baggage allowance and also because travel through Uganda to South Sudan is not easy.  I had donations from a U.S. supporter and also from my daughter which combined to provide the right amount to be able to send the heaviest items by post.  As there is no post at all in South Sudan, a missionary friend agreed that we could make use of her family’s P.O. Box address in Uganda.  Once the boxes arrive they will bring them to South Sudan by jeep.

Hazel and I travelled back to Nimule together.  Hazel immediately started rounding up the children (literally as they are not at all disciplined) and teaching them in small groups.  I don’t know how she kept it up, but she did.  Living conditions here are a shock to those not used to them and can be very draining.  In spite of obstacles of climate and difficult children Hazel did wonders.  Some children who I have never persuaded to study finally spent one-to-one time, or small group time, learning basic literacy and numeracy through games.  At the end of Hazel’s stay, several children, including some very reluctant learners, were really sad to see her go.  I have promised to keep them in touch using my email address.  The children felt very encouraged.

Then, as you know from recent posts, we had bad news from Fulaa about cuts to funding.  I hate looking for funds!  It is not something I get any pleasure from.  Some of my friends have listened to my embarrassing pleas and responded incredibly generously.  Thank you so much for listening to me.

Since last week several of you have responded in different ways, all very valuably.  One friend has donated $2,000 to Fulaa.  Another has provided funds for exercise books and pens for all those attending school.  Another is holding a meeting at his church to look at sponsoring one of the older students as a group.  The costs for further education in Uganda are huge compared to any other part of the Cornerstone budget.

My journey last week to Torit and Juba was not fruitless.  A man I met on my travels is going to spread the word in Australia at the NGO that employs him.  I heard back from the director of a very large NGO which I had visited asking for details of our accounts.  That seems to me to be a very hopeful sign.  If they agree to help us, we will be in a much more secure position.

Thank you to all friends who have helped in your different ways.  The children are feeling deeply insecure, but I now have tangible offers of help that I can remind them about. 

Please continue to support Cornerstone either through donations via Fulaa, by spreading the word about our predicament, or in any other way that occurs to you.  If you have contact with any churches or charities that would take an interest on a long term basis, please pass my details on to them.

Precarious times 2

In my post ‘Precarious Times’ I talked about the cuts being made at Cornerstone Children's Home.  Two days ago there was a meeting of the nearest relatives of about twenty of the older children.  They were asked to take the children into their homes on a permanent basis.  The relatives were incredibly grateful to Cornerstone for all the time the children have spent here.  They spoke of how important it had been to them that these children have been fed, clothed, educated and given spiritual guidance for so long.  They pointed out how healthy the children look.  I heard no recriminations or animosity towards Cornerstone, just very humble gratitude and prayers of thanks for God’s goodness to the children in the past and acceptance of God’s will.

The deadline for the children to leave is April, which is when the most drastic cuts in funding will begin.  It is necessary because staffing will be reduced, the food budget will be cut and school fee payments will also be reduced so that only primary and secondary up to Senior 4 will be covered.

This has happened because of reductions in donations and child sponsorship to Fulaa.  As mentioned in my previous blog post, some of these kids are mid-way through training courses or university degrees.  Fulaa is asking individual sponsors to help their sponsored children, but this may not be possible.

At the meeting there was a lot of discussion of the type of life the children will now lead.  The children raised concerns which spoke loudly of their fears and insecurity.  ‘Will we have to carry our cases on our heads, or will there be transport?’  ‘Can we take our mattresses with us?  We are not used to sleeping on papyrus mats.’  Staff have promised to visit if possible and given an open invitation for former residents to visit as often as they like as ‘we are all one family’.  In spite of this reassurance, there are practical problems as many of them will be in very remote and inaccessible places, far from schools or medical help.

Some of the children who will be leaving are still at primary school level even though they are now teenagers.  Funding will be provided for those below Senior 4, but will be subject to progress at school and moral behaviour (i.e. no teenage pregnancies). 

The parents talked about the hard work the children will have to do.  At Cornerstone, children have always done a lot of chores, such as cleaning, cooking, sweeping, cutting the grass during the rainy season, fetching water and minding the babies of staff members.  To a western eye this can seem like real hardship and injustice.  I was shocked and critical when I first arrived and it took some time for me to see the wisdom of it.  After the chores are done, there is still a lot of time for children to play together and study.  One very positive aspect of Cornerstone is that the children are not institutionalised in the way that children from children’s homes can be in western countries.  

Once they move to their new homes the children will all be doing heavy manual labour, without the many hands that make light work that they have been used to.  They will be learning new life skills, such as hoeing fields and building and thatching mud huts.  This will make all the aspirations of Cornerstone for a fulfilling career and future leadership for the country seem like a fantasy.  This morning one of the boys told me how sad he feels that he will not be able to go beyond Senior 4.  He had so many dreams for the future.

It is not too late for these children.  If we can find fresh sources of funding the children can remain. 

I have been travelling around Eastern Equatoria, to Torit and Juba in search of potential help from NGOs who are here already.  It is has been hot, uncomfortable travel, and I am very uncertain of gaining help.

One bright spot in my travels was completely accidental.  Travelling on public transport to Juba, I talked with a fellow passenger, a South Sudanese refugee now living in Australia.  He works for an NGO there who asked him to travel back to report on how their money was being used.  He was very interested to hear about Cornerstone and knows of two unaccompanied children currently in a refugee camp across the Ugandan border who would benefit from our help.  Maybe, just maybe, his NGO will support us.  I see hope in the fact that the NGO employs, and takes seriously, members of the diaspora.  As the South Sudanese diaspora are generally passionate about seeing peace and prosperity in their birth country, they are very important ambassadors.  They should give the organisation which employs them more understanding of cultural differences and motivate them to help more than was evident in these massive and very impersonal NGOs.

Please circulate this post to anyone who might be able to help.  Donations through Fulaa can be made through this link.