Term now underway

The school term is now well underway.  We were inundated with families arriving desperate for school places at the beginning of term.  This is understandable as Cece is the only non-fee paying school in Nimule.  The need is bottomless.  Coupled with this, we are short of teachers because two teachers have had to leave for Uganda for various domestic reasons. 

The local education office has stipulated that all primary teachers must be qualified or have reached Senior 4 level (equivalent of GCSE level).  This is sensible, but not easy to achieve due to the generally poor standard of education in South Sudan.  A major challenge is that some international NGOs have been enticing qualified teachers from Nimule to teach in refugee camps across the border in Uganda at greatly enhanced rates of pay.  This has left all schools, not just ours, very short staffed.

We have managed to recruit one replacement teacher.  The new teacher, Peace, and one of our original teachers, Sabina, were both trained by the Jesuit Refugee Service who were active in Nimule in the 1990s.  When the JRS is mentioned, people’s faces light up with memories of how they helped provide skills and training at a time when the locals were being terrorised by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Arab aerial bombardment.  Sabina and Peace were officially trained in teaching adult literacy, but their training was so thorough that they can teach anybody, young or old.

I have been delighted to find how well the majority of my class from last year have retained their previous lessons and are speaking and understanding increasing amounts of English.  They are also starting to read.  However quite a few of last year’s intake left for the refugee camps due to food shortages over the holiday period and we have a lot of new faces who have replaced them. 

Of those who have officially reached P2 level in other schools, all are actually at beginner level with no oral, written or number skills at all.  They can recognise the alphabet but cannot read.  Such is the level of teaching in most schools here, fees not withstanding.  However the majority have never attended school before and are in P1.

In the new P2 class one new boy stands out, literally, as he is the tallest in the class.  He is around fifteen years old, with some spoken English.  He suffers from epilepsy, untreated because of lack of money.  Before the money ran out he was in P2 in another school, but was unable to sit his exams due to epileptic fits, which I am sure were due to exam nerves.  In spite of his spoken English he cannot read or write at all.  Last week he mastered writing his name.  He was overjoyed, to the point of staying behind after school to write his name again and again on the blackboard with a wide smile on his face.  It is children like him who so urgently need to catch up on an education and have a chance in life.  I have taken some very quick training from a local nurse in what to do if he has a fit and have passed on that training to the other teachers too.   

We are now feeding 90 children at break time.  Our new teacher Peace commented on how disciplined the children are.  Apparently in her previous school, there was always a scrum as the children all tried to be first for the porridge.  The teachers did not involve themselves at all in organising the children.  At Cece, we make the children line up to say grace and then wash their hands in order of size, smallest first.  Then they join a second queue to be served porridge by the eldest children.  Children who push in are sent to the back of the line.  Then they all sit down to eat together.  Peace was very impressed.  She could see immediately how important this queuing system is for orphaned children who have very little adult guidance or discipline in their lives, so that they can develop into civilised members of society.

At lunch time we all go home.  After lunch and a siesta during the heat of the day, I go to the Cece office where we (myself together with HUMAES and Cece staff) are busily planning for the future of the school.  We are trying to secure funding for the construction of a new school on land donated by a local village community.  We are hoping to do all the building work during this academic year, ready for 2017.  If all goes according to plan there will be a small Primary 3 class next year.  Also, as I have seen in this year’s desperation for registration at the school, the demand for Primary 1 is so big that it would be a huge benefit to have an additional P1 class.  All this will not be possible in our current building due to lack of space.

In the meantime there are still ongoing school expenses which must be met, such as staff wages, food and maintenance of the current building.  We have had problems since December due to a shortage of dollars in the bank and increased sanctions against South Sudan.  The South Sudanese Pound has been devalued by 85% causing hyper-inflation.  As a result the bank exchange rate for South Sudanese Pounds is extremely poor and it is important to receive money in a stable currency, the dollar. 

We have just opened a dollar account across the border in Uganda, so we can avoid all these problems.  I am hoping that an added benefit will be the ability to fundraise more directly through supporters in various countries, rather than relying solely on friends in the UK.

If you are outside the UK and want to support Cece Primary School, the account details are as follows:

Uganda: Equity Bank, Adjumani, Uganda.  Account name: Anyanzo Charles Jacob.  Account number: 1019100855333.  SWIFT code: EQBLUGKA. 

It was not possible to open the account in the name of the school, so it is in the name of the chairman of HUMAES, who makes regular trips to Uganda.  I know this looks very unprofessional, but please bear in mind that the school is at the start of its existence, and we are gradually feeling our way towards a more professional future.  I totally trust Charles!

The SWIFT fee is a set one, so it makes sense for donors to get together and send their donations in one transaction.  For donors in the UK please continue to use the old UK account for the same reason.

UK: Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.

On a personal note, I have moved away from Cornerstone.  After a couple of weeks temporarily staying at an American mission centre, I am now living with my Cece School co-founder and friend Pascalina and her family in the centre of Nimule.  This marks a new phase in my time in South Sudan, so it seems appropriate to me to start a new blog.  Here is the link to the new blog.

Registration time

Every year a couple of weeks before the new school year starts, schools up and down South Sudan register their students.  Most schools offer places on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of whether the child was on roll at the school before. 

The bill for education at a government
school

When the class is full, they go over numbers and can end up with over a hundred children crammed into a small classroom.  All are charged endless extra costs. This is a huge burden for poor families and ends with children getting a very poor education, or being thrown out through non-payment of fees.

We opened for registration last week intending to prioritise those children who were on roll last year, but determined not to have more than thirty children in a class so we can give them the best possible education.  As the week went on it became clear that quite a lot of our former pupils were not coming back.  We faced the dilemma of giving their places away to other, equally needy, children, or holding onto their places, unsure if they would be returning.  We have a new Primary 2 class and were hoping to offer places to children who had attended school before but were unable to continue due to lack of fees.  In the event few children in that criteria came.  The vast majority have simply never had any education at all.

Why were we in such an uncertain position?  In late December the South Sudanese currency (the SSP) was devalued by 85%.  This has caused exorbitant price rises for absolutely everything.  This financial problem comes on top of widespread crop failures due to drought during the rainy season.  In short, people are starving. 

It is only a short hop across the Ugandan border to the nearest refugee camps, where the UN are supplying food and schooling free of charge.  The Nimule community have lived their lives growing up in camps, returning home, fleeing back to the camps due to war or famine, returning home, countless times.  The cycle is continuing now so that a whole new generation grows up in the same uncertain and hopeless way.

Having given up waiting for returners, this week we opened the doors for new children.  On Monday we were flooded with ragged waifs with an age range of 5 to 16 who quickly filled our two Primary 1 classes.  There are still 12 empty places in the Primary 2 class with little sign that there will be children to occupy those places. 

Today, Tuesday, there were fresh floods of children but no spaces in Primary 1 for them.  Fortunately I am in contact with another school in Nimule, which offers free education for girls, funded by USAID, called the BRAC School.  The BRAC School is aimed at girls who were ‘babysitters’ (local word for maid-of-all-work/slave-labour) or street children.  They are the only other school of a similar sort to Cece in the town.  I called them.  To my delight they have spaces they are keen to fill.  I was able to signpost at least the girls in that direction.  For other families I took names, in the hope that we find we have space at a later date.  It is the most heart-breaking thing to say ‘no’ to these children, but without the capacity to employ more teachers and build more classrooms, we had no choice.

It was not all doom and gloom.  One woman of about my age (old in South Sudanese terms) came with a small boy and girl.  The girl is her grandchild, whose parents died of HIV, so she is the sole carer.  The little boy is an HIV orphan without any known family.  This lady has HIV and is a counsellor with CECE for newly diagnosed HIV patients.  She took the child to the police.  The police handed the boy straight back and said they could do nothing, ‘why not look after him yourself?’  So she has looked after him ever since.  He was a small toddler at the time and was not even able to tell her his name, so she has had to re-name him herself.  He is now five years old, but the woman has no money for school fees for either of the children.  I moved a boy, who may just manage in Primary 2 up a level, to make space for him.  Then I called the BRAC School who agreed to take the girl.  At least, one happy ending.  It is great to be able to liaise with a like-minded school.  Hopefully this will be the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship.

In the meantime we are closing our registration (unless Primary 2 level children come into the office) and will focus on getting food, bowls, exercise books and pencils for the start of term next week.

I am sure things will work out even if there are teething problems at the start.

In the holidays, we found a potential donor for land for a permanent school site.  Assuming negotiations go well, we hope to be in an entirely different position this time next year.  We are lobbying for funding from NGOs so that we can move forward on a more secure footing, both physically and financially.

For the moment we are entirely reliant on the funds I am able to generate by writing to you, my friends.  As mentioned, costs have escalated dramatically.  If you are able to pass on this post to others, I would be most grateful.  CECE School really is a worthwhile cause.  Everything goes to the school, not to administration costs.  The school runs on a shoestring so our expenses are pure necessities.  We need to pay for exercise books, pencils, food, firewood (for cooking), wages for teachers and cooks.  It would be wonderful if we could pay the staff more, because they are every bit as poor as the children and need to feed their families.

The bank account details are Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.  Please make the reference ‘Cece School’.

Child labour

This morning I read an article on child labour in Uganda on the BBC website.  I want to give you my thoughts based on my own family history and also my experience living in South Sudan, which I am sure is similar to many other African countries, including Uganda.  You might want to read the article before continuing to read this post.

I pity the poor priests who were interviewed by the author.  Without doubt they were local men who funded their own studies through their own hard work; a huge achievement as to become a seminarian in Uganda, young men must reach Senior 6 level (the equivalent of A’ levels).  They must have been deeply puzzled to receive such hostile accusations when the children were only doing what they themselves did when they were children.

Even the author admits that the children he spoke to seemed happy.  They were not working in a sweat shop.  They were working with people of all ages, probably including other members of their family, in the fresh air.  If my experience is anything to go by, the atmosphere would have been relaxed.

I come from a northern English working class background on my father’s side of the family.  My grandmother, born in the 1890s, left school at eleven years old to work as a maid in the local ‘big house’.  That was normal in England at that time.  She had to work for very long hours and live away from home with very few holidays.  She was even moved between the family’s residences in different counties without informed consent.  Similarly, my father and his brother, born in the 1920s, both left school at fourteen and started work full time in a local factory, one as a clerk and the other as an apprentice.  At least in their case they were acquiring skills for the future.

It is likely that my great grandparents did not go to school at all, but started work as soon as physically capable in the ‘dark satanic mills’ of the north of England.  That really was an abuse of children and was the driver behind anti-child labour legislation in the UK. 

For previous British generations it was expected that in a poor family, children would work and contribute their wages to the family.  Social welfare had not been invented and families had to rely on their own manpower to survive. 

Why did children in my family start work at later and later ages?  It was due to education becoming compulsory and available to the poor.  Over the years the school leaving age increased along with the legal age to start work.  Even when I was a child it was legal for children of fourteen to work outside school time.  I did so myself in the 1970s as soon as I hit fourteen.  In my case it was not to support my family but to give me money for my own purposes.  I had a great time spending it while learning to manage my finances!

Here in South Sudan, families struggle to survive in exactly the same way as my own family used to do.  Almost all children work when not in school whether at home or outside.  They do numerous household chores as well as cultivating vegetables, keeping chickens, collecting empty plastic bottles for sale to recyclers, working on market stalls and many more activities. 

Some children use these activities to help fund their school fees, which would otherwise not be paid.

The BBC article is unclear if the children described working were doing so in holiday time, outside school time, or if the children were actually not attending school at all.  This is an important distinction.  As mentioned earlier, education is extremely important.  My own family made progress through education, even while their educational level was curtailed by work.  Even my grandmother who left school at eleven could read, write and budget very efficiently.

The BBC never misses an opportunity to swipe at the Catholic Church.  However, the Catholic Church in Africa has to be realistic.  As mentioned before, the local priests have been through the same struggles as other locals and are therefore in a much better position to show sympathy and offer help.  They know that if they do not allow children to work, the families will suffer.  At the same time, the Catholic Church promotes education strenuously in Africa and does a great deal of work in enabling young people to study both in vocational training and university.  There is a difference between promoting child labour and helping families to survive and make progress.  It is necessary to allow families to use every means at their disposal to survive in countries where it is easy to starve to death.

The BBC has also completely ignored the fact that the UK is a first world country which up until relatively recently had very similar society problems to Africa.  Most African countries are third world countries, still at a stage where the UK was one hundred years ago.  As far as I know no other country criticised Britain in 1900.  What gives the BBC the right to criticise Uganda and other African countries?  These countries need help, not condemnation.

Cece Primary School is exceptional in South Sudan in not charging school fees.  This is a way forward out of poverty for the poorest children and their families.  I have to be sympathetic and understand that the children also have to work when not in school.  This does not necessarily mean that they lead unhappy lives.  They have time to play as well (see my post on toys).  We have the saying ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.’  There has to be a balance.

As from the beginning of February the school needs to expand to cater for a Primary 2 class as well as Primary 1.  We will have more mouths to feed and also need more teachers.  When I made my appeal in December, there was very little response.  Please can I ask for your help again?  It is seriously needed.  The bank account details are Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.  Please make the reference ‘Cece School’.

I know that in the long term it is not going to be possible to sustain the school with private donations.  We are looking for outside organisations to help but this is a slow process.  In the meantime, please can I continue to ask your help for Cece Primary School to gradually lift our children out of poverty.