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.

Christmas at Cornerstone

I was present at Cornerstone for Christmas 2013.  In the morning we all went to church, with the children smartly dressed in new clothes bought for them by the pastor.  Later in the day they had a very large meal of many dishes.  Afterwards one of the children described the sensation of feeling full to me, which for him was a total novelty.  He thought he was ill.  Nobody was capable of eating in the evening.

In the run-up to Christmas 2014 we were told that there was no additional funding available for a Christmas celebration.  This caused great disappointment to the children as Christmas is the highpoint of their year.  One of our new children,  who had not yet experienced Christmas at Cornerstone and is still grieving for his recently murdered parents, was particularly downhearted.

A very kind supporter from the US contacted me out of the blue to ask if there was anything needed at Cornerstone at the moment.  I told her that the main need was for money for a Christmas celebration.  She immediately responded that she would send $500 for that purpose.  She also sent another $500 for me to use in England to buy things for the children.  What a wonderful gift to our children!

We had a family meeting shortly before I left in which the children were consulted about what food they would like to have.  They came up with a long list.

I phoned on Christmas Day and spoke to several children, who all sounded very, very happy.  They had a wonderful time.  Here are some of their comments, almost entirely food-related as their hearts are firmly in their stomachs!

Stuffed children Christmas 2013 (sorry I have no pictures from this year,
but at least this gives a flavour).

“We had food and soda.”  (Soda is the word used here for any fizzy drink.)

“It was very nice.  The food and everything.”

“We had chicken and soup, cake and Irish potatoes.”

“Rice, chicken and chips, soda, biscuits, cake….”

“It was good.  There was fruit.”

“It was very nice.  I ate sweets, eggs, chapattis, milk, chicken….”

“It was very nice.  We prayed and sang.  It was a very good day.  Everyone was very excited.”

“It was very good.  Everyone was in a good mood and there was no fighting.

“It was good.  Everything was good.”

The first child I asked when I returned was the little boy who had been so despondent beforehand.  A wide grin swept his face and he said it was a lovely Christmas.  The highlight was “soda”. 

We all want to say a deeply felt thank you to Karen Morgan for her wonderful Christmas gift which meant so much to all our children and to all the staff who really wanted to provide a lovely Christmas for them.

Precarious times

Dear friends,

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year.

I am writing because we are facing a very difficult financial situation at Cornerstone Children’s Home.  Cornerstone was founded through the work of Pastor Samuel Juma, a South Sudanese refugee now living in the US.  His vision was, and still is, to provide a home for orphans which will allow them to develop into educated, Christian leaders who can move South Sudan to a better situation.  To this end he founded a US based charity called Fulaa LifelineInternational.  Fulaa is the main support for the orphanage, although we have other much smaller sources of funding. 

Impromptu recorder class

In April 2014 there was a government inspection of all South Sudanese orphanages.  They rated Cornerstone as the best orphanage in the country.  This was with good reason.  Although conditions by western standards are very basic (no running water, reliable electricity, very basic diet, poor clothing and shoes etc.), they are very much better than the conditions of any other orphanage in the country.  The inspectors pointed out that our children all go to school with the realistic hope of going on to further education in Uganda.  They get medical care if they are ill.  Most other homes lack even these basics.  From my own point of view, I see happy children who have a chance in life for the first time ever.  Last week two new children arrived in a starving state.  They could not stop smiling.

For some time now Fulaa has been facing great difficulties fundraising for the home.   This is in all probability for three reasons:

Firstly, the civil war situation in the country.  We are very fortunate in Nimule to be in a peaceful part of the country.  We have children who have fled from further north, where the fighting is catastrophic.  The results of the civil war financially have been that South Sudanese inflation is very high causing food prices to escalate.  Financial needs are therefore higher than they would otherwise be.  Should the war put us in direct danger at some point, we would take the children across the nearby border to Uganda for safety.  This in itself will be costly.

Secondly, the issue of corruption.  As a westerner living at the home, I see the day-to-day running of it and can say that the money does go where it is intended.  South Sudan is a desperately poor country.  As stated in Proverbs 30: 8b – 9 “Give me neither poverty nor riches; feed me with the food that I need, or I shall be full and deny you and say, “Who is the Lord?” or I shall be poor and steal and profane the name of my God.”  There are certainly thieves and extreme greed in the town, as a direct result of abject poverty, but this is less of an issue at the home.  I know that most people cannot afford to see their hard-earned money squandered by some Fat Cat.  I can assure you that I watch carefully. 

Thirdly, a difficult economic situation in the west.  There is not much I can say about that, other than to remind you that even with that situation, citizens are rarely reduced to a state of destitution and starvation as happens here when things get bad.

Before Christmas we were warned by Fulaa that there was no extra money for a Christmas celebration at the home.  A very kind person contacted me from the US offering help.  Single-handedly she made it possible for the children to have a wonderful feast and a day to remember.  I was in the UK at the time, but I called on Christmas Day and spoke to several children.  They sounded so happy.  When I returned in January the children were still talking about it.

The lead pastor at Cornerstone has received an email detailing spending cuts from Fulaa for 2015.  Staff salaries will be cut, which is likely to cause some staff to leave.  Most serious though is that Fulaa is unable to provide fees for education past Senior 4, the equivalent of GCSE stage in the UK.  To go to university in Uganda, students must reach Senior 6.  The food allowance will also be reduced, which will be another major problem.  This is terrible news as these cuts will go to the heart of the mission of this home.  We need our children to be healthy, well looked after and have further education so they can become useful citizens who will reform and help their country rise from the ashes of civil war.  On a practical note, they need the skills to be able to earn a living once they leave Cornerstone.

Some of the older children whose education is in jeopardy.

We have ten students who are currently either continuing their Further Education studies or about to commence them for the first time in Uganda.  One young man is about to start his final semester on a Telecom Engineering Degree.  It would be tragic to get so far and be unable to complete his degree.

The average cost per student including accommodation and living expenses is $950 or £633 per term, with costs ranging from $572 (£380) per term for a construction course to $1083 (£722) per term for a nursing course.  Help is desperately needed as the new academic year is just beginning.  In an ideal world it would be wonderful if donors could sponsor an individual student, although I know that this is a hefty sum to provide three times a year.  If you are able to help in this way, I am happy to write individually giving further details and to put you in touch with the student you would sponsor.  If not possible, any smaller amount would be most welcome. 

Another way to help is to go to the Fulaa website to sponsor a child at the orphanage.  Some of the pictures are a bit out of date as children grow fast, but these are real children, born in unfortunate circumstances, not of their making.  I can assure you they are not some marketing gimmick.  Please do your best to help them.

Melijo: Tarpaulin City

Small area of Melijo IDP camp

A year ago a major political rift took place which has caused terrible bloodshed and resultant displacement in many parts of South Sudan, although thankfully not here in Nimule.  Here, we have seen large numbers of displaced people fleeing through the town on their way to refugee camps in Uganda or Internally Displaced People (IDP) Camps in our area.  The only difference between these camps is that people still in their own country are called ‘internally displaced’, while those who cross to another country are ‘refugees’.  In practical terms their situation is equally desperate.

Up until today I had not visited Melijo IDP camp.  It is not easily accessible so a lift is essential.  Every time I have been offered a lift, it has been during school teaching time.  Finally, though, it has happened.

Fulaa Lifeline, the charity which runs the children’s home, has other projects too, one of which is a project for agricultural development.  The agriculture section of Fulaa has been involved in helping the IDPs grow their own crops at their camp.  To do this they work in partnership with another charity called ChildFund Korea.

View of the track through the car window

We took a lift from ChildFund Korea.  The drive was along a narrow and very bumpy dirt track through the bush.  The track was no larger than a British bridleway.  It was very dusty as the dry season is now in full swing.  I was told that it is impassable except by jeep in the rainy season.  The drive took about 45 minutes, skirting the border with Uganda.  The camp is therefore very isolated with no easy access to Nimule.

Most people at Melijo are Dinkas from the Bor and Jonglei areas, which have been very badly hit by the bloodshed.  It is still not safe to return.  Most are women and children.

Once we arrived we went to see the Dinka chief and his elders who are in charge of the running of the camp.  The chief was pleased to see me and immediately reeled off a long list of vitally necessary things which are lacking in the hope that I would be able to help.  These included milk and other food, tarpaulins to replace the worn out ones or tents, a permanent clinic, clothes and many more things.  He also hoped I would come and teach English at their school.  All I could say was that I would try to find help, but I am only one person and could not promise anything.  Without transport I would not be able even to teach there regularly.

After our meeting, I went to look around the camp.

Someone's home and sorghum patch

Almost all buildings are made of stick frames covered in tarpaulins donated by ChildFund Korea.  As the chief had said, they are worn out after a year exposed to the elements.  The whole camp is scrupulously clean and tidy.  Each family has a homemade tent made of tarpaulins and a garden area where they grow (or try to grow) food such as sorghum, peanuts, sesame, onions and garlic. 

In the way of amenities, there are a couple of market stalls where enterprising women try to sell their pitifully small surplus produce.  There is a mobile clinic.  There are several churches. 

ChildFund has started a school which caters for about 600 children.  As it is now the holidays, the school is closed.

Sorghum drying on a rack

Before we left, the chief and the Fulaa and ChildFund representatives discussed the very poor harvest of the first crops.  This was due to late delivery of seed so that the optimum planting time was missed.  In this part of South Sudan there are two planting seasons, early January and early August.  The agricultural project delivered the first seed supply in late August, too late.  Fulaa promised that the next seed delivery will be in time for planting at the beginning of January.  They commented on how hard the women had worked for so little result.  There is also a problem with feeding the women while they are working.

In the past I have seen footage of refugee camps with desperate people grabbing at food.  It is not like that here.  Here, things are very well organised in spite of the obvious suffering.  As I walked around the camp, women came up to me, gesturing that they were hungry.  Although people are not actually starving, food is a serious issue.  In spite of obvious malnutrition, a large supply of grain sacks from the US was waiting unopened for distribution.  To me that demonstrated just how disciplined and well run the camp is.

I felt very helpless listening to all the chief’s requests.  Like most people here, he saw a white face and assumed I would be able to wave a magic wand.  If anyone has contacts in charities which could help get much needed supplies to the camp, please let me know.

Woe to the patient who is unattended

Third world hospitals rely on relatives to care for and feed the patients.  As a result staff from Cornerstone have to be delegated to remain with our children.  I recently spent a week at the bedside of one of our children who was admitted to hospital with appendicitis.  I am not sure if I am the first ever white person to care for a patient in Nimule Hospital, but I was certainly a cause of some surprise.

Nimule Hospital is run by Save the Children, an internationally respected charity.  On a banner outside the hospital are a large numbers of logos from other aid foundations and governments, including the UK.  In spite of this apparent support, I suspect that it is similar to many hospitals in the third world.  As I know from previous experience, there is no x-ray machine and no specialisms apart from HIV/AIDS.  There are only two doctors, both non-specialist.  The doctors also act as surgeons.  There are very few nurses.  The ward we stayed on has three shifts of only one nurse at a time.  The nurse is responsible for more than one ward. 

Standards of hygiene are poor.  Each ward has an allocated latrine, which is kept padlocked.  At one point while we were staying there, the key was mislaid and nobody was able to use the latrine at all.  Some were forced to squat at the edge of the compound.  Fortunately as Cornerstone is very close by, I was able to walk back and use the toilet there.  Even when the latrine is operational, it is filthy.  There are no hand-washing facilities, or even water.  Family members prepare food squatting outside.  We took turns to go back to Cornerstone to shower, change our clothes and fetch food.  We sponge-washed our patient on the ward.

I am told that the hospital was originally composed of tents.  Now, it has improved to the extent that the wards are made of metal, with boards of wood on the outside and corrugated iron roofs.  As a result they are unbearably hot during the majority of the day.  Trees are planted outside, with some stone benches and space for mats to sit or lie on.  There are more than 20 beds on the ward where we stayed, but six of them were out of use as they had no mattresses or mosquito nets.  Relatives sleep either on vacant beds, on mats on the floor or two to a bed with the patient.  As it is a women’s ward, most patients had a baby with them. 

The next door ward is a feeding centre for malnourished children.  The children were pathetic to watch, sipping their porridge.  They were often unable to finish it, so their mothers drank the remainder.

As the week went by, injured children started to take up beds in our ward, as the paediatric ward was completely full.  Some of these children’s parents were very lacking in caring skills.  My heart bled for two little children, one severely burnt and the other with a fractured leg.  As the children howled in agony, their mothers simply sat and said, ‘khalas’ (Arabic for ‘enough’).  No attempts at distraction or any signs of love at all.  I am sure this is symptomatic of the brutalisation of South Sudanese society by the traumas of decades of war.  I have been told before now how parents don’t dare to get too close to their children for fear of the hurt of losing them.

The nights were very difficult, although by the end of the week I was becoming acclimatised.  The electricity comes on at dusk and is not switched off until the morning, so we had to sleep with bright lights blazing.  There is no concept of privacy.  Some families chatted and laughed all night, as babies and injured children cried.  Some families came complete with menfolk, so it was difficult to undress.

One day, as we were sitting outside in the shade, I noticed some smoke next to the wall of our ward.  I went to investigate and found that the electric cable running from the ward to the operating theatre was on fire.  I sent one of our older children, who was visiting, running for help.  A man came with an extinguisher.  Thankfully not too much damage was done, but it could have been serious.

Our child had had appendicitis twice before.  On both previous occasions she was simply sent home with medication.  This time however, the hospital decided to operate.

The first thing that went wrong was that the member of staff who was with her before I came on duty, made the mistake of giving her a drink of tea when she was supposed to be ‘nil by mouth’.  That caused the operation to be postponed by 24 hours.  In the meantime the poor girl was on a glucose drip to keep her going.  Her veins kept collapsing so that she suffered many hours of pricking with needles in attempts to find fresh veins.  She is not a stoical child, so the whole experience was difficult for everyone concerned.

Finally we got to the operating theatre.  After about an hour a nurse came out and told me that they had no general anaesthetic.  She asked me to buy some.  I phoned our clinic, who fortunately had some in stock.  They rushed it over to us.

When our child came out of the theatre, it was our job as ‘family’ to wheel the heavy stretcher trolley to the ward, across very bumpy unpaved ground.  I thanked Heaven that she was unconscious.  Hospital porters have not been invented yet.

Back on the ward, the nurse brought us the news that the medical store was unmanned as the store keeper was ‘not around’.  Apparently he had been gone for days.  Therefore Cornerstone would need to provide all her medications.  To continue the theme of my previous post, what a blessing that we have our own clinic.  Pity those who can’t afford the drugs or haven’t the manpower to get them.

Later that day, the doctor called me to speak to him.  He told me that our girl’s appendix was in too bad a state to operate.  It had fused with bladder, bowel and intestines due to hardened pus.  The doctor had not been able to remove it without damaging other organs.  He therefore cleaned and applied antibiotics before closing the incision.  She will need another operation after a course of antibiotics.  Poor girl. 

In the meantime she came to in a delusional and unfocused state.  Twenty of her friends from Cornerstone had arrived, eager to see her.  She looked at them and said, ‘Who are all these people?’  The children at the home all see themselves as brothers and sisters, so they were very hurt.  Some cried. 

Fortunately she improved steadily from the next day and was discharged a week after the operation. 

I suspect that all African hospitals are like Nimule Hospital to some degree, hence the huge difficulties faced in countries with the Ebola epidemic.  Let us hope Ebola doesn’t reach us.  I don’t think Nimule Hospital has the capacity for an emergency of that type.

Look what I missed!

Cornerstone is on the foot slopes of a range of mountains called the Imatong Mountains.  They form a border with Uganda with the River Nile winding through them on its way north.  When I consulted my Sudan guidebook before I came here, it informed me that these mountains are still largely unmapped.  However, the part nearest to Nimule is a designated national park with a large herd of elephants who migrate to and fro between the park and Uganda, crossing the Nile on their way.  There is also a very dramatic series of waterfalls called the Fulaa Falls.  ‘Fulaa’ means Living Water.  It is also the name of the charity that supports Cornerstone.

View of the Imatong Mountains (Google image)

Given the state of the country, Nimule National Park is not yet on the international tourist map.  Although things are peaceful here, there are still land mines from the civil war.  There are also bandits.  So any trip there must be made with great caution.

I searched the internet to find decent information, but there is very little.  Here is someone else's blog description. 

Pastor Abdullah told me one day that he was planning to take the children on a trip to the national park and to see the falls.  To do this he wheedled free entry from the rangers.  He booked the use of a truck to transport all the children.  He also asked for a military escort in case of trouble.  To my great disappointment I was unable to go because I was still too weak following malaria.  The children promised to tell me all about it.

This was a major event as it is extremely rare for the children go on an outing.  They had a wonderful day out.  They took a goat with them and cooked roast goat as a picnic beside the falls.  One little girl told me that they saw monkeys and a white family with twins!  Both equally amazing.  The falls impressed them all very much too.

The icing on the cake for the staff was that the truck was pursued from Nimule by a car containing a very important government figure from Juba.  When they arrived at the park, he hurried over to ask if the children came from Cornerstone Children’s Home.  When told that they did, he said that he had seen a film about the home last year on TV and had wanted to find them.  He then produced a large amount of money and handed it over as a donation.