Two Weeks In

For those of you who have been anxiously checking the blog day after day with hopes for an update, I apologize. It’s two weeks since I arrived on this whole other continent, renown for its slow pace, but for me these past couple of weeks have flown by. Busy doesn’t begin to describe it, and I find myself longing for the inefficiency of African Time. But all IS well. I’m so happy to be back.

I landed safely (and miraculously on time) in Uganda on June 18th, and as quickly as possible made my way up to South Sudan after brief stops in Gulu and Kitgum. The drive into Sudan was long and bumpy (much longer and much bumpier than I remember), but thankfully I had work to keep me busy; all the way to Isohe I was briefed about the education programs I would soon be taking over. Barbara (if you guys remember, she was the other half of the education team for AVSI when we were here in Sudan last time) is a saint! After AVSI hired me, she agreed to stay on in Sudan an extra week to handover the education sector. She has been BUSY these last two years and has taken education for AVSI so much further than I could have ever anticipated. I’m overwhelmed by the job ahead of me, but so excited to confront these upcoming challenges...there seem to be quite a few...

There are three projects at the moment that I am focused on and a few more that I’d like to begin to tackle.

1. Together with CRS, Merlin, and the Diocese of Torit, AVSI is entering the third year of a UNDP rehabilitation and reconstruction program focused on three communities in Eastern Equatoria. I’m in charge of the Life Skills portion of the education program, which mainly consists of adult and out of school youth functional literacy classes, as well as vocational training to improve livelihoods. Currently, we are only doing basic adult literacy classes (which include some math and practical skills as well), but soon we will begin vocational training in tailoring, carpentry, and masonry – skills the communities themselves picked.

2. Through a grant from a municipal government in northern Italy, AVSI is still supporting a number of schools in and around Isohe with the provision of school materials, uniforms, construction, teacher training, etc. We are hoping to add 2 or three more bush schools this coming year to expand these basic school services.

3. And the most challenging of all, the Distance Support Program. This is your basic “adopt a child in Africa” program, which is actually extremely integral to our education activities. With this support, we pay school fees for about 420 kids, run school feeding programs for entire schools, hire female teachers, and make sure all kids under support have all that they need to go to school. But, the realities of carrying out the program are a bit difficult. If all kids came to school all the time – if all kids called themselves by the same name consistently - if the school calendar were regular, etc – this program would be a breeze. However, this is not the case at the moment. I have a full-time social worker and two field staff whose main jobs are to find kids. These women trek up into remote villages to locate missing children and ask them and their parents why they haven’t been coming to school. There are many different answers, but this is what I would like to try and understand better…this is what I want to improve.

Obviously, this will not be an easy task, as each child is different. But with my staff and the teachers at these schools, I hope to figure out ways of bringing those tough cases to school for good…and more than that, make school attractive and relevant to their lives. I think this might be the biggest challenge I will face here.

That's all for the overview of life in the education world of Sudan now. More reflections to come...