VHSS http://helpwunlang.org The main blog for VHSS en-us Nucleus CMS v3.24 © Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://helpwunlang.org/nucleus/nucleus2.gif VHSS http://helpwunlang.org Welcome, Malual-Chum Village Project http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=247


Manyang came to America as one of the Lost Boys of Sudan and (as Jacob Makur) attended Arlington, MA, High School. When he became an American citizen, he went back to his village, in Warrap State, north of Tonj, for the first time in 18 years. He met Abuk at the village-wide party in his honor. Abuk arrived in America through the fiancee visa program, and they were married in Arlington. Manyang and Abuk live in Arlington with their five kids -- twins Achan and Ngor, the little girls Achol and Apeu, and baby boy Aru. Manyang works at the Arlington Trader Joe's, Abuk is taking English classes, and the kids are well-known around town through school, pre-school, church, sports, and summer programs.

In May and June of 2012 Manyang traveled back to South Sudan and shot this video

of the wells in his village. As you can see, the hand-dug, open-pit holes are dancing with insects ("Snakes, too," Achan remembers from her years in South Sudan). Manyang's mother gets guinea worm every year -- she just suffers through it, as there is no nearby clinic -- because to dirty water. Stomach problems, worms, and diarrhea are common. Manyang came back determined that he and Abuk should do something for their village.

Like all our other projects, Malual-Chum Village Project is beginning with a well -- drilled, with a hand pump, so clean water is available. If you need a presentation on Manyang and Abuk's efforts, feel free to e-mail them at manyangmalang@aol.com or abukmadut@aol.com. Watch for fundraising events, too. Of course, you're welcome to get this project going now by donating on-line (the process lets you designate donation to this project) or through the mail. Send your check to:

Village Help for South Sudan, Inc.
P. O. Box 8067
Lynn, MA 01904

and mark the memo line Malual-Chum Village Project.


]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=247 Thu, 5 Jul 2012 13:04:34 -0500 Midwife Kits for Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=246 St. Paul Lutheran Church have supported Wunlang village in South Sudan for several years, starting with our Wunlang School project. Last week their latest fundraiser and social ministry culminated in the assembly of midwife kits that will shipped to the women of Wunlang to help support safe deliveries and care for newborns.

Two years ago the St. Paul's midwife kit project resulted in about 250 kits, shipping to the Wunlang village clinic, and a training workshop for the traditional birth attendants in the village.

When I visited wunlang in February, the TBAs spoke passionately about the importance of the midwife kits and their appreciation for this gift.
Women of Wunlang

A midwife kit includes a sheet, receiving blanket, towel, washcloth, soap, latex gloves, razor blade, and twine. The materials were laid out on tables for assembly.
Midwife Kit Assembly

This year's fundraiser generated 400 kits. Each kit is sealed in a plastic bag, and the bags are boxed for shipping - in boxes donated by Gentle Giant Moving.
Packed Box

The boxes - 26 of them - are now stacked and awaiting pickup for shipping to South Sudan.
Stacked Boxes

A big thanks to the St. Paul's community for their compassion and generosity!
St. Paul Group]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=246 Sat, 16 Jun 2012 14:49:49 -0500 On Women's Day, a talk on South Sudan's health http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=239 Wunlang Clinic in South Sudan
Ron and I spent International Women's Day at a talk hosted by Dr. Thomas Burke of Mass. General Hospital Center for Global Health featuring Dr. Lul Pout Riek, director general of Community and Public Health in the Republic of South Sudan's Ministry of Health, and the Honorable Dr. Yatta Lori Lugor, South Sudan's deputy Minister of Health. It was a good way to spend the day, as the talk on "Health Challenges and Collaborations" focused a great deal on women's and children's health.

South Sudan's maternal mortality -- death in childbirth -- is still the highest in the world. Infant mortality has improved somewhat, from 102 deaths under age five per 1,000 births in 2006, to 75 per 1,000 in 2010. Malaria, tuberculosis, cholera are all still killers. The frightening and relatively new nodding disease is still a mystery to doctors. All sorts of parasites still thrive: South Sudan accounts for 97 percent of the world's guinea-worm cases.

There are few clinics, and fewer trained medical personnel, to tackle these issues, and most of those personnel work in South Sudan's urban areas. Dr. Riek put out a call for medical equipment and for volunteers in working in clinics and training clinicians. Many NGOs are doing this already, but "South Sudan is vast, vast," he said, and the needs are everywhere.

And the opportunity for Village Help for South Sudan to participate in this call, with our new clinic and our upcoming community center, is huge. We have a place for clinicians to practice, and soon will be space to train future clinicians. We did a lot of networking after the talk, discussing our work with the health ministers and with those in the audience who have trained midwives in South Sudan and who have access to medical supplies. We will keep you posted on how we are bringing life-saving health care to remote areas of South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=239 Fri, 9 Mar 2012 22:04:51 -0600 Ron introduces the Lutherans to the Lutherans http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=237 Evangelical Lutheran Church of Sudan/South Sudan.

Ron writes, " I have followed up with an email explaining Global Health Ministries and the medical kits and services they provide through local in-country contacts through the Lutheran Church. The Bishop is interested. . . . I do think just connecting GHM with the South Sudan diocese will result in more distribution of these precious newborn kits, suitcase ministries, and maybe even a medical mission or two. I would love to help build that relationship because the needs here are so great."

Lutheran Church in Juba, South Sudan

Readers may recall that St. Paul Lutheran Church of Arlington, MA chose Wunlang Clinic to receive more than 250 midwife kits assembled by the church (as they were called then; GHM has changed some of the items included and re-named them newborn kids). We were able to provide these kits and the training in their use of these kits last year.

We have supporters from many faith traditions, but the people of St. Paul were one of the first. Whether or not this connection Ron has made benefits Wunlang Clinic directly, we're happy to facilitate even deeper Lutheran relationships in South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=237 Sun, 12 Feb 2012 16:33:35 -0600 The Juba network grows http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=235
He made a presentation at the Juba Rotary Club, and exchanged banners, as he brought one from the Rotary Club of Boston. At that meeting he got a possible lead on upper-elementary-grade teachers, and made a contact with another group advocating for women and children.
Ron at Juba Rotary Club

He is filing our paperwork with the Republic of South Sudan, and meeting new contacts along the way. He writes that when he describes our projects, "Our model of using local labor and materials REALLY resonates with people here. I can feel the energy and enthusiasm of the local officials and all of the contacts I have made ... about the VHSS model. Wow, have we done things right to establish ourselves well with the new RoSS!"

And he had time to stop at the Roots Project, which is selling South Sudanese handcrafts in Juba.

We're gathering ideas for when our community center is up, the crafts classes have begun, there will be products to sell!
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=235 Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:11:49 -0600 Ron Is Off to South Sudan! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=234 Ron Moulton with the traditional birth attendants in Wunlang in 2010

Treasurer Ron Moulton is off to South Sudan with a big and exciting punchlist:

-- In Juba, he's registering our non-profit with the Republic of South Sudan and getting our tax-exempt letter. We were registered with the interim Government of South Sudan, and are just updating our papers in this new nation. He's also making a presentation at the Juba Rotary Club.

-- In Aweil, Ron will meet with the Minister of Education of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State, to discuss our plans for alternative and adult education in our community center, and with the Minister of Health, to discuss our clinic and our midwife training program. He'll also meet with Wany Majok, who worked with Franco at Lutheran Social Services of New England and who is now an advisor to the Minister of Education and to the Governor of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal. We're so fortunate to have an old friend in high places!

-- In Wunlang, he's checking on repairs to the school -- it's more than three years old now. Mou Riiny is also traveling to Wunlang with Ron; as building permanent buildings in Thiou come closer to reality, Mou wants to see what we've accomplished in Wunlang.

-- Ron will also meet with the commissioner of Aweil County East to turn the administration of Wunlang School over to the county. This has always been our plan, and it will give the county and the people of Wunlang true ownership of their school.

-- Franco, during his visit in December, learned that Wunlang does not have a teacher qualified to teach the upper grades -- what would be middle school here -- and students hoping to attend secondary school have to go to boarding school elsewhere in order to qualify. Ron will be discussing the prospect of hiring a qualified teacher for the upper grades.

-- Ron will also be bringing his new IPad to Wunlang! He will be showing the teachers what it can do -- store scores of books, applications from ITunes U (an interactive alphabet app based on Starfall and a talking dictionary are the first two he's loaded), and provide portable internet access.

-- Speaking of internet access, Ron will be looking at the newest ways to connect. We're very interested in the Zain cellular USB connector -- a dongle in computer-accessory parlance -- and Ron will see what's available.

-- Then there's our new multi-purpose community center! Bricks are being made now. Angong Kuol is our program director, and she and Ron will be talking about hiring managers for our various programs. Our first priority is to get the agriculture program underway, and Angong and Ron will be finding sites for our test plots.

-- And dear to this blogger's heart, construction on our guest house will begin. Not only will it be a place for our supporters who want to visit our work to stay, it will be a training center for the hospitality industry. It will be modest -- a traditional house, a latrine, a screened-off bathing area open to the stars -- but we are looking forward to leading groups to see what we have done in a remote area in South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=234 Wed, 1 Feb 2012 18:17:53 -0600 700 IDPs in Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=226 Abyei and South Kordofan. Thousands of Sudanese have fled south, many to Aweil County East, and about 700 to Wunlang.

Wunlang is one of the few areas in Aweil County East that has resources to accommodate internally-displaced persons (IDPs): we have wells, a clinic, and a school. All these resources are now being stretched. Our field manager Yel Maduok Ngor reports that IDPs also need emergency services, something that Village Help for South Sudan is not set up to administer.

At the advice of our executive director Franco Majok, Yel is organizing community leaders to approach World Food Program, the Aweil East County commissioner, and Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State ministries for emergency support. We have seen the people of Wunlang, empowered by building their school, approach local leaders on other matters before, and we have confidence in their initiative.

We'll be monitoring the use of our facilities and assessing the long-range implications of IDPs in Wunlang. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=226 Mon, 22 Aug 2011 11:08:09 -0500 Wunlang Multi-purpose Center http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=225
The idea for the multi-purpose center evolved from community meetings among the women and elders of Wunlang village.

Community Meeting

This center will answer many of the needs of the community by providing adult education, vocational training, agricultural training and support, health-care training, antenatal and newborn care, early-childhood care and education, and the empowerment of women and girls.

Elders Meeting

The Center is expected to be a vibrant hub of community activity and service, bringing people together for practical skills development, talent show-casing, and community knowledge diffusion. In addition to constructing the facility, project team and staff members from the local community will run the center, providing training and support in practical healthcare, agriculture skills, community education, and livelihood skills for enterprise start-up.

We appeal to all supporters of Village Help for South Sudan. Make a donation and help us meet our matching fund grant. Thank you!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=225 Sat, 2 Jul 2011 10:57:12 -0500 A technological upgrade in sending photos http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=221 midwife kits. It includes some fine photos of Wunlang's traditional birth attendants being trained in the use of these kits. We always include photos in our blog posts whenever possible, so our supporters can see that their money is going to good use.

But photos can be hard to get. When we visited Wunlang in 2008, we brought a satellite modem with us. It worked; but it has a steep learning curve, always has to face south, and has an elaborate outdoor setup. Then there are the goats.

null

When our field manager Yel tried to send photos of our midwife training, our satellite modem setup was just too glitchy. Yel has often made the trip to Aweil to upload photos, but that doesn't always work, either. However, determination is been a hallmark of our work. Knowing our supporters were eager to see the midwife-training photos, Yel searched found an even better setup: a Zain cellular network USB connector. Instead our suitcase full of equipment and wires, it's a little thing that plugs into the the USB slot.

cellular network USB connector

Zain Sudan is part of a company founded in Kuwait and recently acquired by the Indian firm Bharti Airtel.


It's fascinating how fast communication technology is moving in South Sudan. Three years ago, we were all trying to face south to talk on a sat phone. There were four competing cell phone companies; service was so spotty you could hardly hear within South Sudan. Now we can hear Yel clearly on his cell on a transcontinental call.

Sending photos was a huge production. Now Yel has a found a quick and easy solution that we will be exploring further.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=221 Wed, 25 May 2011 12:02:07 -0500 The Power of Broward http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=217 Broward College in Florida. The next thing we know, the honors program advisor has contacted our treasurer, asking where to send a check.

Faithful had organized a poetry slam and open-mike event, charging students $1 to participate. "The theme was a Hope for A New Tomorrow," she wrote in an e-mail.

"The HSC Band, that is a group of students from the Honors Student Committee, joined together to form a band, and they all performed. . . .
The Broward College Honors Student Committee Band

"I also sang a song called 'Who Says,' by Selena Gomez, which spoke to those in the audience and the children in Sudan, asks Who Says they are not perfect, beautiful or worthy? t was dedicated to all those who for whatsoever life circumstances such as poverty, skin color, people's low expectation of them feel like they will not amount to much.

Faithful Okoye sings in support of South Sudan

"It's also dedicated to Africa and in particular, South Sudan. Who says they can't become a great nation?"

Check for Village Help for South Sudan from the students at Broward College

Faithful is part of "Finish What You Start," a Broward College program designed that helps those who have entered college to press on to complete their degrees. She's applied what she has learned already. Some people talk vaguely about helping out in South Sudan: Faithful, in a matter of weeks, Faithful made something happen. Can you?

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=217 Thu, 28 Apr 2011 11:50:12 -0500 Why Not Solar Cookers for South Sudan? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=214
"Hello, My name is Rishi Sharma from New Jersey, USA. I am 17 years old, and I go to Monroe Township High School. I learned, in my environmental science class, about solar cookers.”

This introduction has started a wonderful new friendship and partnership for Village Help for South Sudan. Rishi is an exceptional young man, and we are grateful for his commitment to help us address one of the most urgent needs among villagers: fuel scarcity and other issues related to cooking the family meal.

His research led Rishi to Jewish World Watch, an NGO at the forefront of solar cooking among Darfuri refugees.
JWW introduced Rishi to Solar Cookers International (SCI), a leading provider of solar cookers and support for effective deployment and use of the cookers.

SCI has developed a solar cooker called the CooKit which is not only field-tested but can also be manufactured in remote areas - using plans available on the SCI website. SCI also sells the ready-made, low-cost CooKit from their online store along with other models.

Besides cooking food, a solar cooker has other important, life-saving uses, such as water pasteurization and autoclave sterilization. Solar and other cooking fuel alternatives are vital in developing countries like South Sudan, where wood used for cooking is gathered primarily by women and girls. This time-consuming and labor-intensive daily task keeps girls out of school and causes deforestation around villages. The wood-gatherers are forced to go farther and farther away from their homes to get their cooking fuel or spend what little money they have to buy charcoal in the marketplace.

With the compassionate and timely leadership shown by young Mr. Sharma, we hope to conduct a pilot project to field test solar cooking in South Sudan. We hope others in Rishi’s school will support his noble efforts, and we call upon all friends of Village Help for South Sudan to join his team and make a donation to help us support the solar cooking project he has inspired.

“Right now, in high school, it's hard to expand this mission further than reaching a few willing donors,” Rishi says. Let’s help this rising star with equal passion and commitment.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=214 Thu, 31 Mar 2011 13:47:58 -0500 Life after the Referendum http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=211 sources listing a 98 percent vote for separation, plans are going forward to building a new nation.

Village Help for South Sudan echoes the words of John Ijino Lako, Director-General of the Ministry of Finance of Central Equatoria. "Our main objective is to prevent the influx of people into towns by bringing services like water, roads, health centers and schools to their villages instead," he said in an article written for the United Nations Development Programme. As we learned at a seminar sponsored by the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the flight to urban areas and the deterioration of village and family life is a common problem in post-conflict societies. Village Help for South Sudan has always to been committed to bringing education and opportunity to remote parts of South Sudan. We'll continue to partner with the people of South Sudan to do so. It's a great time to join with us!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=211 Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:44:01 -0600 Schools for Southern Sudan http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=210 Schools for Southern Sudan, another non-profit organization with a mission similar to ours. This arrangement was just concluded with a significant transfer of funds to help us with our work. We are very grateful for this donation, the endorsement of our work, and the teaming opportunities that lie ahead.

The following letter initiated our collaboration with SFSS and has the details.

Letter from SFSS]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=210 Sat, 18 Dec 2010 09:43:28 -0600 Have you registered to vote? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=209 voter registration for the referendum on the secession of South Sudan has begun. One of the registration stations is Wunlang School. Once again, Village Help for South Sudan is the catalyst for a reaction that continues without our direct involvement. We wanted to build a school, which we did; and now, we see, we have also built the capability for political empowerment. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=209 Tue, 16 Nov 2010 09:48:53 -0600 Arlington Town Day 2010 http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=204 Bol and MouWhat a beautiful day for one of our favorite days - Arlington Town Day! Bol and Mou were there early, and we were so thankful for the canopy Bol brought. Bol and Mou have been to many such sunny-day events, and they know how important shade can be on an 85-plus degree day. Bol is project manager for our Theou Village Project. Mou, a student at Salem State College, is Bol's cousin. They were both born in the village of Theou in a remote part of southern Sudan.


Franco, Mou, Bol, DanFranco joined us as the crowds increased, and our friend, Dan, stopped by for a visit and some shade. Franco, our Executive Director, was born in Wunlang, the village that inspired the founding of Village Help for South Sudan more than 3 years ago. Dan is from a village near Yirol, and he hopes to organize his own project to support that area with other members of the Yirol diaspora community.


Display BoardEvents like Arlington Town Day provide a great way to connect "villages" here with the villages we support in southern Sudan. Most of our village work has an education focus, but as our display boards and tables show, we support public health initiatives, clean water installations, sanitation, agriculture, adult literacy, and traditional birth attendants. In addition to a severe lack of schools, South Sudan has some of the highest infant and maternal mortality rates in the world.





Display BoardThank you, Arlington Town Day, for welcoming us to this wonderful community event on such a beautiful autumn day. We appreciated our booth neighbors, and we are especially grateful to the many people who stopped by to see us, to volunteer their time to help, and to donate to the life-line that extents from Arlington to the remote villages that benefit from the work of Village Help for South Sudan. We look forward to returning again next year.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=204 Sun, 26 Sep 2010 09:04:23 -0500 Royal Netherlands Embassy Awards School Restoration Grant to VHSS http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=203
Because of the geographic location of most of our work to date in Sudan – Wunlang is only two hours by car from the border with the North – many IDPs from the North are returning to Aweil Town where the Madeira Primary School is located. The School is in bad need of repairs, and our Field Director, Angelo Kiir, submitted a bid to do the work. The list of construction materials needed is telling of the repairs needed: timbers, iron sheets, nails, bricks.

“The Embassy liked the results of our work in Wunlang,” Angelo said by phone today, “and they wanted someone reliable to do this repair work.” They also wanted the grant to go to a team of South Sudanese to help support the local economy and livelihoods. So Angelo went to the Madeira Primary School with the trusted builder used for the Wunlang work. Together they assessed the repairs needed and estimated the cost for materials and labor to do the work. The Embassy accepted the proposal and issued the contract to our team. The work will be started later this month.

This project is distinctive in a couple of ways. First, the work of Village Help for South Sudan has been recognized by the Embassy for our past performance and quality, but also for our support for the principle of communities doing their own development. In addition, this contract was tendered, proposed, and awarded all locally in Aweil. We credit Angelo’s initiative and leadership to find and respond to this opportunity, leveraging the experience gained from our previous projects.

Congratulations, Angelo, to you and your team of local village talent for getting this grant!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=203 Sun, 12 Sep 2010 17:14:49 -0500 School's Open -- Thanks to You! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=202 Franco Majok
As the new school year begins, we want to thank you for your support for education and opportunity in my native village of Wunlang in southern Sudan.

Together we have helped the villagers build a primary school for boys and girls, and now they are putting the finishing touches on a village health clinic.

I hope you will support us again with a donation to our new village development projects:

Wunlang women
Women's Multi-purpose Community Learning Center:
Most adults in remote villages have missed the opportunity of formal learning, and they need alternative forms of education. The Center will be a vibrant hub of community activity and service, bringing women and their families together for practical skills development, talent show-casing, and community literacy and knowledge sharing.

Angelo

Public Health Presentation and Performance Team:
Drawing upon methods used in the refugee camp, Angelo will help train a team of village health workers to give public presentations in basic disease prevention, enabling villagers to make informed health choices and educate their peers.

Latrine construction

Village Latrine and Sanitation Team:
Each school and clinic built or restored needs latrines and community sanitation education. The Latrine and Sanitation Team needs support to maintain latrines already in use, to build new latrines, and to continue their community education and outreach.



All of our programs and techniques are sustainable, and they can be repeated in other villages. Because we pay no salaries, virtually all the money donated to Village Help for South Sudan goes directly to the village projects we sponsor.

The results are amazing in Wunlang, and we want to do the same kind of work in other villages. If you want to support the work of villagers to do their own community development, make a donation today.

Thank you,
Franco Majok and the Board of Directors
Village Help for South Sudan, Inc.
- a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt non-profit charity]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=202 Mon, 6 Sep 2010 15:05:01 -0500 By Sudanese, For Sudanese http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=197 roof and doors for Wunlang Health Clinic, the questions were: who's painting the doors? Where we they made?



This morning's e-mail had the answers. Angelo reports that the doors were made in Aweil, the major city of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal, our remote part of South Sudan. The doors, as noted before, were painted in Akuem, a town between Aweil and Wunlang. Angelo clarified that the Akuem workshop is one of several similar workshops in Aweil County operated by Southern Sudanese.

Our benefits to the local economy are getting to be pretty steady, as we continue to provide education and opportunity to this remote part of South Sudan.


]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=197 Fri, 13 Aug 2010 08:05:03 -0500 The VHSS Booth at Boston's African Festival http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=194 Philip

Franco also worked the booth, speaking proudly of our work in southern Sudan.
Franco

The festival featured music, food, and crafts from many African countries, and we were happy to represent South Sudan in this extraordinary celebration of culture, diversity, and independence.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=194 Sun, 18 Jul 2010 16:41:39 -0500 Meet SUNY Oneonta's Distinguished Alumnus http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=190 reunion weekend to accept the Distinguished Alumnus award for his work with Village Help for South Sudan.

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Here are his remarks:

"Thank you! It is a great honor for me to be back on campus today. I am sincerely grateful and pleased to accept the Distinguished Alumnus Award.

"I would like to divert attention away from myself, however, and highlight the amazing accomplishments of the truly distinguished people I support. The organization I co-founded is called Village Help for South Sudan. Our mission is to provide grants and management support to indigenous groups in remote villages in southern Sudan. This enables them to implement community development projects that address their most urgent and serious problems. The villagers we support deserve our honor and recognition.

"The village of Wunlang is one of the poorest places on earth. There was none of the infrastructure we take for granted here in our homes. No electricity. No sanitation. No permanent structures. No roads, only footpaths. In fact, before Village Help for South Sudan and our donors began supporting them, there was not even clean drinking water.

"Since our work began in 2007, the village has organized a water and sanitation committee and installed deep-drilled bore holes and hand pumps for water and installed latrines. A village education committee organized a team to make bricks and constructed an 8-classroom primary school. A health committee is now constructing a village health center and will soon bring supplies and training to address the most urgent health issue: maternal and newborn mortality and suffering.

"By comparison to the hard work of the villagers we support, my job has been easy. I hope that students, faculty and alumni here will take an interest in participatory community development such as this. You can learn more by visiting our website: villagehelpforsouthsudan.org.

"Again, I deeply appreciate this award, and I am honored to be an Oneonta alumnus. Thank you!"]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=190 Sun, 6 Jun 2010 16:00:18 -0500 Mother's Day Appeal for Traditional Birth Attendants http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=187 Mother and baby
For most deliveries, the only support available is what can be provided by a traditional birth attendant (TBA). These dedicated women rely on their past experience, not medical training, to assist with births.
Traditional birth attendants
Although the TBAs perform a vital service in remote villages, homes in these communities are too far from qualified medical care when complications occur during or after childbirth.

2010 has been declared as the Year of Maternal and Child Health in southern Sudan by its president, Salva Kiir Mayardit. “One in seven of our women who become pregnant will die from pregnancy-related causes,” he says. Although official birth records do not exist in remote villages, Wunlang has an average of 400 births a year, which means approximately 57 women will likely die each year from childbirth-related complications. Village Help for South Sudan aims to help reduce the number of maternal and newborn deaths through our program of basic support for TBAs.

When construction is complete in the next month or two, the Wunlang Village Health Clinic will be the place where babies are born in this village. At the core of our safe childbirth support program will be midwife kits and training for the TBAs. The kits will be assembled by St. Paul Evangelical Lutheran Church of Arlington.

Support from our donors and a partnership with Global Health Ministries, we hope, will cover transportation and training costs to get the midwife kits from Arlington to Wunlang and to ensure they are effectively used at every delivery.

What’s in a Midwife Kit?
- One bath towel
- One wash cloth
- One bar of Ivory soap
- One pair latex gloves
- One razor blade
- Heavy white cotton string (for tying cord)
- One 36” square muslin or sheeting
- One infant shirt
- One receiving blanket
- One infant hat

This Mother’s Day we ask for your help with this program to support mothers and newborns in southern Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=187 Sun, 9 May 2010 08:36:33 -0500 School for girls four weeks of the month http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=186
But once a month, they may stay home.

Our newly-formed Health and Sanitation Advisory Committee has been thinking about this problem. And so we have a pattern and a sample of a reusable cloth sanitary pad that's easy to make -- it was made by committee member Liz Ging -- and has been field tested!



Our sample is made of recycled toweling (it's a barbecue towel, hence the pattern). We hear that terry toweling and flannel both work well.



Technically, the pad is made to go under the wrapper, and the wrapper wraps around the underwear. Liz used a velcro fastener, but a snap or a button would also work. Having a separate pad makes it easy to swap or to double up pads. (Ours does not have the plastic inner layer some patterns call for. Our field tester says no plastic means more comfort, especially in the heat, and isn't needed, even overnight.)

The pattern is really simple.



When board members Tara and Lisa next go to Sudan, they'll be carrying this and other samples with them. They'll be sitting with the women and girls to discuss how these can be used to help girls stay in school. As always, the community will decide the best way to implement this idea. It might be through an exisiting tailor -- or it might be a vocational enterprise project.

Providing education and opportunity to remote parts of Southern Sudan has led us down some interesting paths. We want our girls and young women to get all the education they deserve.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=186 Sat, 1 May 2010 09:00:21 -0500 From Texas to Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=183 alumni magazine, featuring director Lisa Deeley Smith, class of '77.

Many Lost Boys were settled in the Fort Worth area, and some attended TCU. The magazine was particularly interested in how Lisa went from helping one Lost Boy in particular to the homeland in general. We know throughout America that many volunteers have helped South Sudanese refugees adapt to life here. We offer a chance to help their homeland.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=183 Wed, 7 Apr 2010 15:00:36 -0500 Welcome, Tara! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=182
We're delighted to welcome Tara Rao to our board of directors. For some years she has been a volunteer helping Sudanese refugees in America. Now she will help those refugees give back to their homeland.

Tara is a data analyst at the Harvard School of Public Health for an HIV/AIDS treatment and care program in Nigeria. In her work, she's traveled to Nigeria. She is also an adjunct professor in the math department at Bunker Hill Community College.

And she's doubled the number of women on the board!
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=182 Thu, 1 Apr 2010 21:55:39 -0500 Happy Belated World Water Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=180 World Water Day on March 22.

But we celebrated early in Machartit.


This is how Ron found villagers getting water in late January -- by lowering themselves into a pit to bring up buckets of dirty water.


This is Marchartit in mid-March -- jerrycans lined up to as villagers pump clean water from the well drilled by Village Help for South Sudan.

Happy World Water Day to them, and to all of you who made this possible.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=180 Tue, 23 Mar 2010 22:21:45 -0500 From Wunlang to Syracuse to Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=179 a story with video (scroll down to see Angelo's profile) and photos.


This blogger is from central New York also, and knows the people of the Syracuse area have been very supportive of the efforts of the Lost Boys to give back to their homeland. We're so glad Village Help for South Sudan is able to make this happen.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=179 Sun, 21 Mar 2010 16:14:18 -0500 Water Pumps and Literacy http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=177 Machartit water pump
Machartit water line
The line of jerry cans waiting to be filled is a standard scene at every hand pump in remote villages. There is no "rush hour" when it comes to collecting water for the family. These pumps are operating continually from sunrise to sunset to provide water for drinking, cooking, and bathing in villages such as Wunlang and Machartit with hundreds of families in need of water every day.

Now for the literacy angle. "Functional literacy" is defined as reading and writing skills required to perform a job or to improve job performance. Water hand pump maintenance is an important job - vital, you might say. With so much use day in and day out, these hand pumps take a beating. They frequently break. A trained team of workers is needed to keep the pumps operational.

We recently applied for a grant to fund our functional literacy program in southern Sudan, and water hand pump maintenance is one of the vocations we hope to improve with a trained workforce. The newly literate trainees who graduate from our literacy program should be more effective in educating communities in water pump maintenance and in making the frequent repairs needed for a water pump with such constant use as Machartit's. The workers will be able find jobs with bore hole drilling companies or as independent entrepreneurs delivering this vital service to communities in the region. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=177 Sat, 13 Mar 2010 09:16:45 -0600 Grant writing on International Women's Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=176 Concentrated Language Encounter. Another is seeking funding for our multi-purpose cultural center, focusing on women and teenagers who are looking for vocational, literacy, and numeracy skills.

We don't have any speeches or proclamations for International Women's Day. We're just working, as we have in the past, to bring education and opportunity to the women and men in South Sudan's most remote places.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=176 Mon, 8 Mar 2010 21:53:10 -0600 Well-drilling rig arrives in Machartit http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=174 here.

One thing we have learned is that Village Help for South Sudan, with its reliance on our small Sudanese field staff and village leadership, accomplishes a lot with little. Today Angelo Ngong Kiir sent these photos of the drill rig arriving in Machartit.



"All the people of Machartit are now celebrating," Angelo writes.



We look forward to more photos and, we hope, video of the progress made on this well. But the supporters of Village Help for South Sudan have, in 10 days, turned a village's future around.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=174 Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:47:05 -0600 Seedtime and harvest http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=171 ">]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=171 Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:52:59 -0600 Machartit Needs our Help http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=168 Fetching water in Machartit
This is what the water looks like. With no sanitation system, the water they drink is full of contaminants that continue to make people sick.
Drinking water in Machartit
The next clean water installation from Village Help for South Sudan will go to the village of Machartit.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=168 Wed, 10 Feb 2010 10:51:24 -0600 Technology in Wunlang News http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=167 "In a place where people are still struggling everyday to get clean water, it is difficult to turn my attention to computers and the Internet. Nevertheless, I see many opportunities ahead, and I hope we can develop a sustainable, appropriate technology solution for remote villages.

null

"On this trip, I trained our field staff to set up a satellite modem, connect it to a laptop, and send e-mail. This will improve communications between the field and our management team in the U.S. Soon even this will become easier and less expensive for locations within reach of the growing cellular network: mobile USB Internet access devices are to be on the market within the next few weeks, I am told."

We use solar power to charge our modem and laptop; as long as everything is charged up and the modem is oriented to the satellite, we can e-mail at night from Wunlang, as this blogger did in 2008.

We're looking forward to improving our Internet connections so that someday the teachers and students, as well as our field staff, can e-mail us about life in Wunlang.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=167 Sun, 31 Jan 2010 08:17:24 -0600 Exploring All Alternatives http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=163
Our multi-purpose cultural center would easily fulfill the mandate of alternative education by providing literacy, vocational, agricultural, and animal-husbandry training to men and women who already have the responsibility of a family.

One of Mr. Deng's focal points is cattle-camp education, a concept that addresses a cultural and economic dilemma head-on. Franco, in response to a question from Pastor Ron Goodman of St. Paul Lutheran Church, reports that village elders have been discussing how the culture and economic dynamics of the cattle camp would survive if all children left the camps for school. It appears that a plan to educate those who stay in the cattle camps is being formulated. Another opportunity for VHSS to bring education where it hasn't been before!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=163 Tue, 26 Jan 2010 16:19:25 -0600 Good meeting, good meeting http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=162
A good meeting, too, in Wunlang. (Ron drove the team there in a car lent to him by a nearby church group.) He toured the brickmaking; construction should start in March. We have a new contractor, from RhumAthoi. "I’m hoping to meet him before I leave, but Angelo and Yel have everything under control and there is really nothing specific I need to discuss with him." What a testimony that is to the growing skill of our field managers!

"We had long meeting with the Wunlang elders, including the water and health committees, including the women. (The teachers were not around {it is school vacation until Feb. 1}, so the education committee was not well represented.) The head of the water committee in Wunlang will help organize the water committee in Machartit, the intended site of the next bore hole where people are still suffering badly. I will take more time later to brief you on the elders meeting, but suffice it to say, the village is very energized and mobilized and
thankful for the changes done and still to come.

"The women were amazing. Several of them are traditional health workers who have been trained by MSF. They are so eager to have the clinic to make their work easier and
more effective."

Later, "we visited the land donated for the orphanage and women’s multi-purpose
center. It is very beautiful and so much more expansive than I had imagined. I met the elders who donated the land to us, and expressed my gratitude."

More meetings planned, and more photos. We wait for news of both.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=162 Sun, 24 Jan 2010 22:12:48 -0600 Reunion in Wau http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=160
null

Our field staff was full of news. They talked about the placement of our next borehole, something Ron hopes to bring up at his meeting with UN officials. They brought photos, which Ron will upload as fast as his appointments and the internet connections will let him.

And they talked about the impact Wunlang School has had in the area. Ron writes: "the school has recently been used for overnight accommodations for the voter registration in Wunlang! It was also used to put up the malaria campaign people when they were in the village a while back. We have always said the the school would be a multi-purpose facility for the community, and my heart leaped a
little when I heard that it had been used to accommodate people doing such important work as elections and health treatments."

Look for photos soon.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=160 Thu, 21 Jan 2010 21:35:49 -0600 Happy CPA Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=159
That also means all offices are closed. Some meetings will have to be rescheduled. Anyone who does business in a country that celebrates its own holidays, and with American officials that celebrate American holidays (the US consul was closed Monday because of Martin Luther King Day), needs a combination of patience and persistence.

However, on Monday Ron did some important banking. Moving money around to pay contractors and laborers is a huge challenge in a country with a nascent banking system. Kenya Commercial Bank has an office in Juba, and will open offices in Wau and Aweil. So Ron and Jackson stood in line to get Ron set up as a signatory. "The bank required a copy of my passport and 2 passport size photos," Ron writes, "It just so happens that a photo business was located a short, but hot, walk away.The photo business was literally a table beside the road with a camera, a printer, a heat sealer, and a photocopy machine. 'Don't show your teeth,' the photographer said as I posed against a blanket hanging on the wall nearby."

Kenya Commercial will also be able to issue electronic statements when Ron is stateside. This means we will be able to file accurate and timely financial reports. Financial accountability is one of our strengths, thanks to Ron's creativity and discipline.

But Ron is relaxing today, and as far as we can tell, eating well -- fish from the Nile one evening, and shredded chicken and kisera another!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=159 Tue, 19 Jan 2010 07:30:51 -0600 Small is Beautiful http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=158
A major reason for our success could be seen as a lacking on our part: we don't have the money to hire a big staff and move into an area with a big operation. But that has turned out to be a virtue. "Providing support from a distance to a local staff has gotten vital work done much faster and more sustainably than others, including large organizations with highly visible and highly credentialed outsiders."

Because we have empowered the local leadership, they have a sense of ownership not found in other projects. And they have come up with cost-effective and creative solutions we couldn't have thought of.

When Ron sets up our field office, it will not be so that we can bring in a lot of people to run our projects. It will be to enable the leadership we have to better document and report to us stateside. Ron will be training our local leaders in photography, uploading photos, and sending e-mail. We'll continue to work together to provide education and opportunity to remote villages in South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=158 Mon, 18 Jan 2010 13:42:25 -0600 Ron arrives in Juba http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=157
He has a ticket for a plane to Wau that departs Thursday. In the meantime, he and Jackson will be meeting with leaders from the government and other NGOs.

Jackson had arrived when Ron was in mid e-mail; we'll pass along more updates when we get them.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=157 Sun, 17 Jan 2010 07:00:41 -0600 Ron is off to Sudan! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=156
Last we knew, Ron was in Washington, DC. We know we'll be hearing from him as much as possible. We'll send you all the news.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=156 Fri, 15 Jan 2010 21:19:59 -0600 The Valentino-Franco connection http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=154 Nicholas Kristof's New York Times column on Valentino Achak Deng's secondary school in Mariel Bai. The protagonist in David Eggers's book What Is the What, Valentino has established a beautiful campus in his part of Bahr-el-Ghazal.

Our executive director, an elder in the Bahr-el-Ghazal community, has been a quiet assistant in this effort. Franco helped organize David and Valentino's first trip together to South Sudan. He's served on a discussion panel with David, and is on the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation's speakers' list. Kristof's column discusses Valentino's ambition to enroll girls in his school in Mariel Bai. Valentino has turned to Franco for advice on the best way to recruit and retain girls, and to reassure their parents that their daughters will be safe.

Right now, Valentino's secondary school in Mariel Bai is the closest one to our primary school in Wunlang. We hope to supply some of the best-prepared primary-school graduates to Valentino's school. We know they'll be proud to announce that they studied in Wunlang. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=154 Fri, 18 Dec 2009 00:00:37 -0600 A happy Happy Birthday gift http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=151 it's rebuilt in beautiful traditional style.

Last year my daughter and Brandon were married. Brandon's birthday is in January, and he's having a party. His birthday-party invitation reads in part:
"If you feel so moved, bring some money to donate to the non-profit that my Mother-in-Law helps to run - http://www.villagehelpforsouthsudan.org/. This organization helps to build and fund schools in rural south Sudan, using local labor. If everyone who comes donates $10, we can easily raise a few hundred dollars."

And you, too, will have a birthday in 2010. Or maybe there's a graduation or bar or bat mitzvah coming up.But let's not get ahead of ourselves: in 2009, the holidays are upon us. All are opportunities to follow Brandon's example and to put a donation for Village Help for South Sudan on your wish list.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=151 Thu, 3 Dec 2009 20:54:19 -0600 Training the trainers http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=138
So we have partnered with Mercy Corps and developed a six-session project-management course. Our treasurer Ron Moulton and Mercy Corps's Connie Barker are co-teaching the class.
null

Our first session covered assessment taking. All of us want to help "the village" -- but funders want to know what target groups we plan to reach, and how many people in each target group. We mapped our villages, and learned what we knew and what we didn't know. (I realized I do not know whether more men or women were vendors at Wunlang's open-air market; if I were to propose a business-growth plan, I'd first have to find out who my vendors are.)

We're grateful to Mercy Corps for this collaboration. When this training is complete, we'll be more able to bring education and opportunity to remote villages in South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=138 Thu, 1 Oct 2009 16:58:41 -0500 The women speak out http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=137
* Training for midwives
* Farming training for vegetable crops e.g tomato planting and trees
* Sanitation/Hygiene
* Knitting training skills
* Computer training for basic skills
* Tailoring skills
* Women's education, training especially in English reading and writing
* Nursing training for women and phlebotomy skills
* Business training for grocery stores which will be run by women to eradicate lack of green vegetables within the communities
* Micro-enterprise business where they have small businesses
* Grinding machines for peanut production and sesame oil production
* Chicken keeping, where they raise chicken production for meat
* Rabbit keeping for meat as well
* Training in radio to share their ideas with other women in their villages
* Talent shows, whereby any women who know something can show it to other women in this training center
* Childcare training skills
* Kindergarten school for children

Two things strike me about this list. First, we don't have to tell the women of South Sudan what they want -- they know. Some ideas are obvious, such as literacy training. Those with experience in Africa will recognize some not-so obvious ones. Phlebotomy is a very important medical lab skill, because the only definitive test for malaria is a blood test. Sesame seeds yield oil for cooking, a process that is now done by hand, and would free up time and energy for education if done by machine. Education by radio is a growing field in South Sudan where transportation is still a huge barrier to learning.

And although the list is long, there are some very easy places to start. Raising rabbits never would have occurred to me (although my sister-in-law, after 25 years in France, makes a delicious lapin a la Normande). But I now can see, for example, a start-up rabbits-and-tomatoes project. Rabbits raised for meat, reproducing like, well, rabbits, providing manure for a plot of tomatoes -- and, in the end, in the stewpot with the tomatoes.

If you are likewise energized by this vision of a community center for women, contact us to see how you can help. And make a donation to help us to provide education and opportunity for women, men, and children of South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=137 Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:32:24 -0500 How To Celebrate International Literacy Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=136 United Nations Population Fund for Southern Sudan, "Literacy rates in Southern Sudan stand at a paltry 24%. In addition, gender discrepancies are quite pronounced in South Sudan compared to the North. For example, literacy rates for male and females in North Sudan stand at 71% and 52% respectively while it stands at 37% and 12% literacy rate for males and females in Southern Sudan)."

Out of 100 men in South Sudan, 37 could read this. Out of 100 women, 12.

We've got one school built. Theou Village Project and Aweil Orphanage Project will build two more. You could celebrate International Literacy Day by helping us make this happen. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=136 Tue, 8 Sep 2009 11:39:41 -0500 A church rebuilt http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=133 Catholic University of America.

A few days before I had sat in Wunlang's church, wondering how it was still staying up. When it came time for me to speak, without even having consulted Brandon, I pledged the support of his colleagues at CUA.

null

Brandon came through. When he was received into the Catholic Church, he asked that all gifts to him go as donations to Village Help for South Sudan. He raised more than $2,000, enough to rebuild the church in its beautiful traditional style.

null

Graduation day, wedding day, the new semester all have come and gone. Now, my son-in-law is one of the newest doctoral students and teaching fellows of philosophy at CUA. And we have received pictures of the church he and his friends and colleagues have helped to rebuild.

null

Promise-making and promise-keeping is at the heart of all ethical conduct. I am so grateful that other people, Brandon's people, were able to keep the promise I made.

null]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=133 Sat, 29 Aug 2009 15:46:29 -0500 World Humanitarian Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=130 World Humanitarian Day. This first-ever observance is "(i) to honour
those who have lost their lives in humanitarian service; (ii) to acknowledge the ongoing
work of humanitarian staff around the globe; (iii) to draw attention to humanitarian needs
worldwide."

The date August 19 was chosen because on that date in 2003, the Canal Hotel in Baghad was bombed, killing 22 people, including the UN's Special Representative to the Secretary General Sergio Vieira de Mello. The day recognizes those who have given their lives for humanitarian work and those who continue on. And it recognizes the progress made and the issues that remain.

Village Help for South Sudan is grappling with many of those key issues: education, children, food security, and the tensions in Southern Sudan.

We do so both bravely and prudently. The leadership of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal was very impressed that we showed up in January 2008. The post-election riots in Nairobi (where we were changing planes) were still going on, and the conflict in Abyei was just heating up. We had contacted some colleagues with an office in Nairobi and received good advice about how to get into and out of the country safely. We were some distance from the conflict in Abyei, and were receiving reports from workers in the field. We have chosen to work in areas that are remote, hard to get to, difficult to communicate with, and we are succeeding.

We remember all those humanitarian workers who have worked in conditions dangerous and difficult, and who didn't turn back.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=130 Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:52:16 -0500 Franco at the RESULTS Conference http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=129 RESULTS have posted a blog on their international conference; you can read the entry on Franco's presentation here. RESULTS has been diligently uploading the event in 10-minute segments on YouTube. Franco can be seen in "Education Plenary 2"



his talk continues into "Education Plenary 3"



In presenting to the RESULTS people, Franco made the point that small non-profits, especially those who go where the big NGOs don't go, need equal access to funding. As the panel moderator mentioned after Franco's talk, children in conflict areas are the last to receive education. RESULTS is committed to global education. Like them, we want to make education and opportunity happen, even -- especially -- in the difficult-to-reach spots.

You'll hear mention of our four-minute DVD. Technical difficulties kept Franco from showing it during his presentation. The RESULTS people have kindly put it on their YouTube channel as one of their favorite videos. And you can see it on ours:



We are so pleased to have been invited to the RESULTS conference as we keep working providing education and opportunity for those who have access to none.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=129 Thu, 2 Jul 2009 11:56:23 -0500 Every Day Here Is Refugee Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=125
Every refugee I know, one he or she gets on his or her feet, wants to help the homeland. I'm very proud that Village Help for South Sudan is able to provide the structure for our two new program managers to do that. Malong Malou traveled to Sudan on his school vacation to take care of his ailing mother. What he saw -- the enormous expense of getting his mother to Khartoum for treatment, the horrid conditions the sick have to live in while they get treatment -- inspired him to work toward a long-range solution: a clinic in his community. Bol Thiik Riiny finished his bachelor's degree and traveled back home to find a school under the trees, taught by teenage boarding-school students on holiday. Education for students and for teachers is now his priority.

These young men are burning with the same mission Franco was when he returned to America after his first visit to Wunlang. After all their suffering, after all their adjustments to life in America, these refugees are no longer helplessly caught in the crossfire of civil war. They are now able, with your help, to take action, so others don't have to live as refugees.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=125 Mon, 22 Jun 2009 10:23:57 -0500 Franco to speak at RESULTS International Conference http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=121 RESULTS International Conference. RESULTS, as an advocacy group, is promoting a Global Educational Fund. Franco will speak on the pros and cons of that approach for a group like ours. We're small, but we provide education and opportunity to places that the big non-profits don't reach.

It's a fact that some NGOs have gotten out of the school-building business in remote areas. We're committed to it. All projects, big and small, near and far, should have access to funding. We're looking forward to Franco's report on this conference.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=121 Mon, 1 Jun 2009 21:58:37 -0500 We Welcome Malong Malual and the Alal Community Project http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=115 Malong MalualI've known Malong Malual for several years, when he and my daughter were students at Arlington High School. So I'm personally pleased to welcome Malong as the project manager of Alal Community Project. I know the rest of the board of VHSS is happy to have him, as we expand to truly serve many villages in South Sudan.

The Alal community is in Twic county in northern Warrap State. It's close to the troubled border town of Abyei. One day in Malong's childhood he was walking with his friends to visit his older brother in Abyei. "Did you know I was abducted?" he asked me calmly.

Malong spent about a year as a child slave in northern Sudan, when he managed to escape. He fled north, to Khartoum, because it was too dangerous to go home. There he found refuge in a school run by the Comboni Missionaries. He completed primary and grammar school there. (Malong also speaks, reads, and writes Arabic from his years in the north.) He had no way to pay for secondary school, and he made his way back to the south. There he was told the murahaleen -- whom the Darfurians nowadays call the janjaweed -- were still targeting his vilage. The safest place for him, a worker in the Diocese of Abyei told him, was in a refugee camp in Kenya called Kakuma.

Malong came to America through the Unaccompanied Minors Refugee Program of Lutheran Social Services of New England. He was settled in Imatong House -- a group home provided by St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington, where our executive director Franco Majok was his case manager Malong graduated from Arlington High in 2004. In 2008, he graduated from Concordia College in Bronxville, NY.

On his Christmas vacation in 2007, Malong flew to Khartoum. His relatives carried his ailing mother on a pallet to the nearest road in Twic, and Malong paid for a car to transport her to Khartoum. That was the closest reliable health care available. While in Khartoum, Malong saw how the ill were living. If they had money for transport, money for medical care -- almost always provided by the diaspora struggling themselves in America, Canada, or Australia -- there was often no money for housing. They were squatting in unfinished buildings, hoping to receive medical care before they were ousted.

Malong returned to American determined to raise awareness about the Alal community's need for health care. His project fits in well with ours. Alal is bordered by two rivers, and the Lol, to the south, floods frequently and cuts off the road to the capital of Warrap State. The main road loops around, not through, the Alal community. Village Help for South Sudan has made a commitment to help these hard-to-reach communities.

Alal Community Project will soon have its own blog, and you can check on the latest news there. Contact Malong at 781-267-6605 or a yenkuyin@gmail.com.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=115 Tue, 19 May 2009 10:45:32 -0500 10 Laptops for VHSS http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Mitre Corp for its donation of 10 laptops to Village Help for South Sudan. When Ron called me with the news, I exclaimed, "Now we have a computer lab!" Actually, the details of how we will deploy these laptops have not been firmed up. But we have told many school groups that the day will come when they will be able to e-mail Wunlang School students, and the students at Wunlang will be able to e-mail them back. That day has come a little closer with this generous donation.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=111 Wed, 6 May 2009 21:21:29 -0500 St. Paul Lutheran comes through again! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=110 St. Paul Lutheran Church of Arlington continues to be one of our most consistent supporters. Some months ago, at a presentation we made, the youth leader asked what we needed help on next. As we reported in January, it was school uniforms. Now, several committee meetings later, St. Paul has agreed to fund our uniform project.

This is so much more than providing a school uniform. It means additional student enrollment and retention. There are some Wunlang children who have only rags and are too ashamed to enroll or to continue to attend school.

It also means we are contributing to the economic growth of Wunlang village. Some school projects buy their uniforms in Kenya or Uganda. Our plan is to buy foot-treadle sewing machines, hire a teacher -- probably a graduate of a regional vocational program -- and get a uniform-making enterprise going. We'll supply the first round of fabric, thread, and notions, and then, we are confident, the entrepreneurial people of Wunlang can take it from there.
Soon all the students of Wunlang can sport this fine uniform!
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=110 Sat, 25 Apr 2009 00:13:26 -0500 We Welcome Bol Thiik Riiny and the Theou Village Project http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=108

Bol is one of the Lost Boys of Sudan who came to Massachusetts as an unaccompanied minor in December 2000. Franco Majok was his case manager. Bol was settled with a family in Winchester, MA, graduated from Winchester High School, and went on to earn his bachelor's degree at Concordia College in Bronxville, NY.

Like every Lost Boy I've ever met, Bol is burning to do something for his village. He came to us with his dream of raising money for a project much like ours in Wunlang. Rather than repeat the process of forming his own non-profit, we have agreed that his project should come under Village Help for South Sudan.

We provide Bol with our knowledge of how to get a well drilled and school built in Southern Sudan. We have the accounting set up so all the money Bol raises will go into a fund specifically for Theou Village Project. Bol provides his own energy and contacts for fundraising, and he's got a lot of both.

Theou is not in Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal. It's in Warrap State, to the east. The capital of Warrap State is Kwajok, where Franco's brother Angok has his country home. Bol's village is southeast of Kwajok, too small to show up on any map. We are expanding to be a true help to the villages of South Sudan.

Soon you'll see on our web site a separate blog for Theou Village Project. But today, we're so happy to welcome Bol.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=108 Tue, 7 Apr 2009 19:48:26 -0500 Two Wells, Three Latrines: We Celebrate World Water Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=106 World Water Day, and it's a time to assess how much progress has been made. According to the WASH News Africa blog, In East Africa, "not one country is on track to meet Millennium Development Goal Seven, which aims to reduce by half the number of people without access to clean drinking water and decent sanitation by 2015." In Southern Sudan, 6.4 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation.


By those standards, Village Help for South Sudan is a regional leader. We have two wells drilled now, and work on a third will begin soon. Near the school compound, we have three latrines -- one for boys, one for girls, and one for teachers. The implications are immense. This fall the nearby city of Aweil experienced a serious outbreak of cholera in large part because the sanitation there is so poor. Just by providing latrines and clean drinking water, we have provided disease protection to the Wunlang community. By placing new wells where people travel, we offer clean water to more people and lessen the wear and tear on our first well, which was in use day and night when we visited in 2008.

And when good water is close to family compounds, girls can fetch water for their households and still have time and energy to go to school.

As we plan further projects in this remote region of Southern Sudan, you can be sure that community access to water and sanitation will be included. There's no better way to celebrate World Water Day.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=106 Sun, 22 Mar 2009 12:18:11 -0500 Watching for fallout http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=98
First, many sources state at the Government of South Sudan is expecting NGOs to stay. "While the government has argued that the expulsions apply countrywide, the Southern government has encouraged NGOs to continue working there," reports the UN news agency IRIN. Village Help for South Sudan has no plans to change its travel schedule or to slow down its work.

This same news article reports that the recent events have had a dramatic effect to the north of Wunlang. Many people know that Darfur's humanitarian aid has been slashed. It's less well known that in the state of South Kordofan, directly to the north of Wunlang, humanitarian aid has just about disappeared. "In Darfur, the expulsion of the NGOs has wiped out half the aid effort; in South Kordofan, it meant 'there's almost nobody left,' according to Sara Pantuliano, research fellow at the UK Overseas Development Institute."

What will that mean for Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal State, where Wunlang is located? It needs to be prepared for an influx of internally-displaced persons from the North. The sick, the hungry, and the newly landless are crossing the border. Our newest member, Angelo Ngong Kiir, reports that IDPs have been trickling in north of Wunlang from South Kordofan for more than a year. Those numbers could surely increase.

As an NGO in NBeG, we need to be ready. We're not a huge emergency-relief organization. But we are a group with a track record of success in this remote area. Our plans for a clinic, a school farm, and for drilling more wells now take on a new urgency. We're a nimble organization and can organize new projects, if necessary, as fast as our funding allows. As we watch events unfold, we are standing by our commitment to bring education and opportunity to this part of Southern Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=98 Fri, 20 Mar 2009 15:59:16 -0500 "We Need an Army of Francos" http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=97 Out of Exile, a new book that tells the stories of abducted and displaced people in Sudan. Franco was part of a panel discussion on the book and on Sudan, organized by the Center for American Progress in Washington, DC. The panel also included David Eggers, author of the best-seller What is the What, and was moderated by John Prendergast, co-chair of the Enough Project.

A video of the panel discussion is posted on viddler.com:


It's almost 100 minutes long, and it's all worth watching, but for those of you who like to fast forward, Franco speaks at 0:46:30, 1:16, 1:22, 1:27, and 1:34.

Those of us who are used to hearing Franco speak about the specifics of building Wunlang School -- how to make bricks, for example -- will be reminded how knowledgable he is of policies and politics at the international level. (At one point Mr. Eggers jokes, when it is his turn to speak, that Franco has taken all his bullet points!) All the panelist agree that efforts like ours are absolutely essential to any kind of lasting peace in Sudan. Without education, Southern Sudan will have no opportunity to make and to implement informed decisions about its future. With the work of Village Help for South Sudan, Wunlang, so close to the border to the north, has a better chance to help determine its fate of its country.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=97 Sun, 1 Mar 2009 17:23:32 -0600 The Silver Lake Youth Are in Action! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=96
And you can see a lot of it on the internet! There's a series of photos on the school web site -- click on the slide show button to see them all. Silver Lake Youth in Action also has a YouTube channel. There you can see the videos the school made of our presentation, and of the club selling paper bricks in support of Wunlang School:



We're so grateful so the club and to the school to have a chance to speak. And now you can see, too!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=96 Tue, 24 Feb 2009 21:23:18 -0600 Net gain to Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=95 Christian Solidarity International, a humanitarian group based in Switzerland. Franco is very fond of CSI. This group has never considered Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal too remote or too dangerous for its work. In fact, when we were there, CSI was up on the border between the north and south, taking photographs and documenting the beginnings of the conflict that climaxed when the town of Abyei was burnt to the ground.

Gunnar recently sent Franco some photos of the mosquito-net distribution CSI did at Wunlang School in July.

Franco e-mailed the photos to me, pointing out the rainwater on the ground. All I noticed was grass was growing -- something I had not seen in January 2008-- and that the school was on a good elevation.

But there is a deeper meaning in these photos. CSI chose Wunlang for its mosquito-net distribution because it has a school. Gunnar's tent is right next to the school;

you can see the truck in the background. We just wanted to build a school; now we have, in addition to a school, a distribution point for another NGO's mission.

Because we built a school, even a school that didn't have its windows and doors in July, CSI distributed mosquito nets, and now the people of Wunlang have a fighting chance against malaria. The ripple effect of Wunlang School has started already. Already we have a net gain.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=95 Sun, 22 Feb 2009 19:39:05 -0600 The news from Davos about educating girls http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=94 Philanthropy News Digest reporting on the economic summit at Davos:

Leaders of foundations, corporations, nongovernmental organizations, and government agencies attending the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, over the weekend agreed that significant investments in educating girls could help rejuvenate many of the world's economies, the Associated Press reports.

For the first time, the forum devoted one of its plenary sessions to the impact of educating girls in developing countries. Moderated by CARE USA president and CEO Helene Gayle and featuring Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation co-chair Melinda French Gates, World Bank managing director Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Indonesian minister of trade Mari Pangestu, Nike CEO Mark G. Parker, UNICEF executive director Ann M. Veneman, and Grameen Bank managing director Muhammad Yunus, the session ranged widely and stressed the importance of reaching women in early adolescence — before early marriage, early pregnancy, and/or HIV/AIDS can derail their chances of living happy, prosperous lives.

My smile got wider as I read this, because this is exactly what we're doing at the Wunlang School Project. The more we invest in the girls and young women who attend Wunlang School, the greater the rewards for them, for the village, and for South Sudan.


We know that many foundations, small and large, are struggling in this economic crisis. It makes it all the more important that grantors know their money will be well-spent. We can confidently say that if your concern is with the empowerment of a new generation of women, your money won't be wasted at Village Help for South Sudan. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=94 Tue, 3 Feb 2009 19:26:54 -0600 Uniformly ready for school http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=93 St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington, updating our long-time supporters on the Wunlang School project. The adult forum group where we spoke had lots of good questions. Two questions -- how many students attend Wunlang? and what can we help with next? -- have come together as a project for the St. Paul Youth.

Many schools in Southern Sudan struggle to retain students. Our P1 class is much bigger than our P5. There are many reasons, but one of the most surprising to Americans is that students lack decent clothes. A child with no clothes won't come to school at all; a child with rags may come for a while, then become too embarrassed to return. School uniforms are not a luxury in this educational setting -- they give each child a level of dignity and prepare him or her for learning.

I just e-mailed some of our photos to St. Paul, asking the youth which way they'd like to come to school:


Some school projects buy their uniforms in Kenya or Uganda. We have always tried to provide economic opportunity in Wunlang, so we are looking to develop a project that involves foot-treadle sewing machines, a starter supply of fabric, thread, scissors, and buttons, and pay for a local sewing teacher. That way, Wunlang can develop its own tailoring enterprises.

I can't think of a better student-retention program than one involving a meter of blue fabric, some white trim, thread, and five buttons. I'm eager to see what St. Paul does with this challenge!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=93 Thu, 29 Jan 2009 23:22:48 -0600 Our new YouTube site is up! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=91 Wunlang School account.



That's our most recent video. More will be posted as fast as I can edit and upload them. Hey, if you subscribe, you'll know when the next one is posted!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=91 Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:41:51 -0600 Photos from Franco -- what a cause for thanksgiving! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=90 Smugmug photo site. But I have to share these photos now:



Thanks to our generous donors, our school has doors, windows, cement stucco over the walls, and cement floors.

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After two tries, we received permission to cut termite-proof mahogany for our school furniture.

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Our desks were made by a craftsman originally from Yei, now living in Malakon. Job creation for Southern Sudanese has always been part of our mission.

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Some girls inspect the newly installed desks.

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It brought tears to my eyes to see students in our school, at our desks, girls and boys together.

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We've received textbooks from UNICEF. We'll be getting more school supplies and books because now we have a storage area.



"Respect your teachers. Discipline in the class. All girls must come to school, not marriage."

The attitude in Wunlang makes us so proud!

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=90 Fri, 28 Nov 2008 16:08:56 -0600 "I Am Back to Juba" http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=89
"I faced a lot of questions from Juba because my bag are too heavy and flight to Aweil is too small," Franco wrote. "People at airport in Juba are very careful about overweight due to many flight crashes in the past." When we traveled in January, we simply paid extra for our excess baggage, at one point buying another seat to get the weight allowance. But in May the Secretary of Defense died, with 22 others, in a plane crash on the way to Juba from Wau, and in June two Sudanese planes crashed, one upon landing in Khartoum, and one that was flying from Khartoum to Juba. After these events, we will have to keep everyone's greater caution in mind when packing.

"It is not easy this year to travel to Wunlang by car until now," Franco continued. "Water is still on the ground." With almost every road in Sudan a dirt road, wet weather affects travel considerably. "The only way to travel to Wunlang is to go Mangok village. Ron may remember this way. It is the way we used in 2006."

Franco met with the teachers, our field staff, and the villagers. He inspected the progress on the school and tooks lots of photos and videos. "Our school looks good with some small problems," he reports. The amount of cement needed to finish the floors and to skimcoat the building's exterior was underestimated. Yel Madouk and Deng Chier bought more. (I don't think I've conveyed in those words the dismay that our field management felt at having to spend more on cement than originally budgeted. They watch our costs like hawks.) Franco left Wunlang on Sept.18, traveled back to Aweil, waited a day for a plane that did not come, but at last was reunited with his luggage. Yel came with him to Aweil, and took the school supplies, thank goodness, back to Wunlang.

In Aweil, Franco met with the "director of Administration and Finance of Ministry of Education. He promised to work with us in the future. Yesterday {in Juba} i met with Mr. Kuol Athiang, minister of finance, in his house. He has made an appointment to meet me tomorrow."

Franco has promised us some more details later. We've got lots of topics to discuss. I hope we'll be blogging more frequently in the near future to bring everyone up to date on the progress we've made and the work that remains to be done. Watch this space!


]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=89 Sat, 22 Nov 2008 20:06:44 -0600 Update from Franco http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=88
Traveling in South Sudan is always interesting and sometimes frustrating. Franco had to leave his bags (all of them, including clothes) at the airport in Juba. He paid for the extra cargo weight, since the bag with school supplies alone was way over the allowable 20 kg for luggage. There was “something going on” at the airport, he said, and he had no choice but to leave the bags at the airport. The airline said his bags would be in Aweil on Monday. He is going there tomorrow to wait for them.

While in Juba, Franco had a good meeting with the head of the UN Mission in South Sudan. We met Mr. Gressly recently at Harvard University, where he gave a presentation on the Comprehensive Peace Agreement. We continue our mission to build partnerships with the larger groups doing projects in South Sudan, including the UN and USAID. As our work produces results like the Wunlang School, we will seek to expand our field project delivery through such partnerships.

We were sorry to hear that Kush Resort, the safari tent hotel on the Nile where we stayed last January, is under new management. We will miss the old staff who were so accommodating and hospitable to us, even picking fresh mangos from their trees for us.

In Aweil, Franco has not been able to meet with the Governor because meetings between Dinka and Misseryia groups were in progress. The Governor leaves for Juba then the U.S. in a few days, so a meeting with him is unlikely. When Franco goes to Aweil tomorrow, he will try to meet with others in the administration. Unfortunately, the SPLM office no longer offers Internet. This is bad news for the local population who were taking classes and accessing e-mail when we were there last January. This also means Franco will have to look for another Internet facility to use while he is there.

Much progress has been made to finish the school: plastering inside and out is done; painting has not started because of the rainy season. Floors are still in progress. The building crew ran out of cement again, and as we keep reporting, transporting materials to this remote village is one of the biggest challenges we face in our mission’s focus on remote villages ignored by other development aid groups.

The furniture carpenters are doing a great job. They are from the local area. One of the guys we hired because he has the proper tools and cuts down the trees and makes the lumber. The other is a finish carpenter, and he builds the desks. About 20 desks are made already, and Franco says, "They are beautiful." He will take pictures for us. He also said these guys know how to construct buildings, and we may be able hire them to work for us on another project in the future.

Franco will bring us pictures we have all be waiting for. A classroom with the instructional posters, painted chalk board, completed desks, students, and teachers. We plan to document this well to feature on our web site and in our photo gallery.

Franco closed our call by saying it is extremely hot in South Sudan. We wish him the best for his trip, including a rapid reunion with his luggage and a change of clothes!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=88 Sun, 16 Nov 2008 12:48:55 -0600 "I Am in Juba" http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=87 Entebbe Airport Guesthouse, which we had learned about from my daughter's Uganda Studies Programme Director. Franco liked it; he got a room, breakfast, and shuttle service to and from the airport for about $40. "We will use it for years to come," he wrote.

In Juba Franco has several meetings lined up. We are registered as an NGO in Southern Sudan and we just received PVO (Private Voluntary Organization) status from USAid; now we have the credentials to get into some big meetings. Franco has internet access in Juba, so we will provide updates on these meetings as soon as we receive them. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=87 Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:32:54 -0600 Classroom supplies are here! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=86 Teacher Storehouse. I especially love their $1.99 posters. I asked Franco if posters were something schools used, and he replied that the reason they didn't use them is because they didn't have them. So I bought a lot. A good poster can teach a whole class at one time.



I got a wide variety of posters on different subjects at different levels. Math posters range from numbers from 1 to 20 to an explanation of the orders of operation. Science posters include the water cycle, different posters for each class of animal ("What Is a Reptile?"), and photosynthesis. Posters on English language include parts of speech, rules for punctuation and capitalizations, and several ABC posters.



I got dominoes, which are played by the Sudanese I know day and night; dominoes teach numbers and probability and all the social skills that go with playing games. I also included some specialized sets of dominoes where students match fraction pictures to numbers and equivalent fractions to each other. I got big flashcards so a teacher can drill the whole class.



I didn't buy many books because books are so heavy. But from LinguiSystems I got No-Glamour Grammar 2; which Franco was delighted with. "This is laid out very easily. The teachers can teach themselves and then teach the students." I took the first publication of No-Glamour Grammar with me to Wunlang in January, and we used it in teacher training constantly. I like this series very much because it is fairly culturally neutral, and the answers are in the back!

The Wunlang pens came last week. We love them. We see the teachers sitting at their desks, not at a rickety platform of sticks, correcting the exercise books the students had never had before, until we began the Wunlang School Project. All because of you.

)%<br /> <br />]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=86 Sun, 2 Nov 2008 21:40:29 -0600 We've got the Girl Effect http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=85


We have no formal affiliation with the organization that produced this simple, powerful clip. But we stand in solidarity with it. We are committed to educating girls and young women. We will develop enterprises where girls and young women have a stake and a voice. We plan to tackle health care in a place with one of the highest mother/infant mortality rates in the world. We will teach sanitation, and teach how to teach, so the girls and women can teach their famlies and their communities. As we drill more wells, build more schools, open health-care clinics and agriculture programs, educate more girls, the Girl Effect will spread from Wunlang throughout South Sudan. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=85 Fri, 24 Oct 2008 21:05:50 -0500 School Furniture Building Has Begun! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=84
One of the few local woods impervious to termites is mahogany. Even though mahogany is a prevalent species in southern Sudan, we considered all the alternatives carefully before deciding on this approach. We consulted with the school committee and government officials in the process. Cutting trees in South Sudan requires special permission of the government. The authorization was granted 2 weeks ago by the Governor of Northern Bahr el Ghazal, then by the Minister of Agriculture, and finally by the Director of Forestry.

Today I heard from Yel that the lumber manufacturing had begun. We are hoping to make some of the desks before the grand opening ceremony. The Governor, Minister of Education, and other dignitaries will attend, and the furniture will provide the finishing touch we have all been dreaming of. Soon we will have pictures of the new School and its furniture.

In order for us to finish the job, however, we are seeking funds to pay for the other 4 classrooms' furniture as well as to furnish the teachers office, the PTA room, shelving for the storage room, and equipment and furnishings for the kitchen. As always, we rely on our generous donors to make the Wunlang School "miracle" a reality for the people of this remote village in South Sudan.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=84 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 13:38:18 -0500 Angelo Ngong Kiir Joins our Board of Directors http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=83 Angelo came to the United States in 2001 - one of the "Lost Boys of Sudan" resettled as refugees by the UNHCR and the U.S. State Department. Angelo says, "I was born in Kargal village in Aweil State. My payam is Wunlang. I was separated from my parents in 1987 by the civil war in Southern Sudan. I was forced by the situation to leave my mother’s home for the safety of my life…”

Angelo fled to Ethiopia, where he lived in a refugee camp from 1987 to 1991. At that time he was forced again back to Sudan, fleeing for safety once again as the situation grew hostile to the refugees in Ethiopia. Angelo continues, “In 1992 the Sudanese government attacked our camp in Pachalla County, and some of the 'Lost Boys' managed to escape… We settled again at Narus, in Kapoeta Conuty between Sudan and Kenya. Narus was also attacked in 1992, and we were forced again to move to Kenya, and we settled in Kakuma Refugee Camp from 1992-2001.” In Kakuma Angelo completed primary and secondary school. When he came to the United States, he settled in Syracuse, New York.

He went to Onondaga Community College, where he studied humanities. His matriculation was cut short by his need to travel back home for his marriage and to reunite with his parents in 2004-2005. While there, he witnessed the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), which halted the long civil war in his country and brought peace to the area for the first time in more than 20 years.

Angelo and his wife, Angong Kuol Athian Mawien, now have two children: his daughter, Abuk Ngong Kiir, is 3 years old, and his son, Aleu Ngong Kiir, is 4 months. His wife and children live as refugees in Nairobi, Kenya. With a diploma in Nursing, Angelo has been able to support his family working hospital jobs and now as an office technical assistant. He will graduate in March 2009.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=83 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 08:01:24 -0500 Planning the Wunlang School Opening Ceremony http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=82

  • Coordinate the School's opening celebration. With help from the State Minister of Education, we hope the Governor's schedule will permit a brief visit to witness and accept the gift to Wunlang our supporters here in America. Other dignitaries will attend, and the school will be blessed by the village pastor.

  • Acquiring and delivering school materials, many purchased from local markets, but some will travel with Franco from this country (see Lisa's blog entry on this topic).

  • Meeting with the village Agriculture Committee and planning a sustainable support program.

  • Meeting with the village Health Committee and assessing Wunlang's healthcare needs, including water, sanitation, and clinic facility and supplies.

  • Meetings in Aweil and Juba for teacher training, family literacy, and partnerships with large NGO's and international donors, such as the UN and USAID.


]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=82 Mon, 20 Oct 2008 07:54:03 -0500 Shopping and Listening http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=81
"So many large companies are developing solutions they say are for poor villagers, but which simply do not work in the village, because villagers themselves have not been involved in the needs assessment and design of the solutions."

Village Help for South Sudan always tries to remember that. Now, as we are planning for Franco's trip in November, we're planning what supplies he can bring to the teachers and the school. The heaviest and most common supplies -- exercise books and pencils -- we can now buy locally. But what, I asked, did the teachers especially want?

They want pens. This had not occurred to me. But now that they finally have exercise books to correct, they want correction pens, with red ink to mark errors. So Franco's luggage will contain a box of "Tri-Colored Jotters" -- those pens you can click back and forth between red, blue, and black ink -- personalized with the name of Wunlang School and Village Help for South Sudan.

We're shopping for other items, too. I know from talking to the headmaster that Wunlang School teachers need dictionaries and grammar books to improve their own English. I know from meeting with the teachers last January that they're incredibly curious about things they've heard about -- geometry, latitude and longitude ("When we call, why is it night in America and morning here?") -- so I'll be looking for those books and posters. I plan to include a beautiful world map from Raven Maps. We can only fill one suitcase up to 70 pounds, and books are heavy, so I'm shopping carefully. And I'm always trying to listen. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=81 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 12:04:52 -0500 Education and CPA Success http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=80 Harvard Humanitarian Initiative titled, "Road to Referendum: Prospects for Success of Sudan's Comprehensive Peace Agreement." Moderated by Jennifer Leaning, the co-director of the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative, the speakers were David Gressly, regional director for the United Nations Mission in Sudan, and Alex de Waal, senior fellow at the Harvard Humanitarian Initiative and co-director of Justice Africa in England.

The three presenters covered a lot of ground in 90 minutes. The history of Southern Sudan, the slowly-growing political structures in Southern Sudan after Comprehensive Peace Agreement (the CPA), the timetable of the 2009 elections and the 2011 referendum, the common features of post-conflict countries, were just a few of the topics discussed. But we were particularly interested in the role of education in the CPA.

Before the CPA, Mr. Gressly noted, around 20 percent of the boys and one percent of the girls of Southern Sudan had graduated from primary school. The current interim period, between the 2005 signing of the CPA and 2011 referendum on whether Sudan should be one country or two, is supposed to be a time when Southern Sudan is rebuilt. That is happening to some extent, but not nearly at the level it should be. Khartoum is not interested in rebuilding the South, Dr. de Waal noted -- it hopes to hold on to power by bribing the southern elite. The government is Juba is trying, but it completely new at this. There was no government in Juba before 2005.

Southern Sudan has fallen off the international radar, both men said. If reporters want to cover Sudan, they will be sent to Darfur -- editors think that situation, and not the situation in the south, will draw readers.

The governments in Sudan are not rebuilding the schools to provide an educated populace. The international community's attention is elsewhere.

So that leaves us. It has became clear that our work is not just something nice for one village, but a key part of rebuilding a shattered country. The more we can do, the greater the prospects that Southern Sudan can live and work and grow in peace.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=80 Sun, 12 Oct 2008 20:21:35 -0500 Whatever Gets the Job Done http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=79
Minutes before my noonday break I had called Yel for an update from the village of Wunlang. To finish the floors of the school, more cement was needed. This is the rainy season in South Sudan, so keeping things dry is not easy in this place without storage facilities. Sure, the Wunlang School has plenty of dry storage space, but when it rains in Wunlang, the area floods and the ground turns to mud. All roads to the village are impassible for most vehicles.

The cement is stored safely in Akuem - as far as it could be moved by motorized transport. To get it the rest of the way to the village of Wunlang, Yel has organized a horse-drawn cart. It will require several trips using this mode of transport, but it works. The horses and cart can navigate over flooded and muddy terrain without getting stuck, as a truck would. He will take pictures to send us.

Once again, I am reminded of the remarkable differences between life in Boston and the conditions that exist in the village where lives and livelihoods are just beginning to improve with our help. Thanks to our many generous and caring donors, people are healthier because of the clean drinking water we have provided, and students are learning in the shelter of the bricks, mortar, and metal roof of the Wunlang School.

A fast mode of transportation, however, will have to wait. Village healthcare and a school farm come next in our collaboration plans with the village committees. In the meantime, a horse-drawn cart gets the job done even without paved roads.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=79 Tue, 30 Sep 2008 14:04:08 -0500 Double your donation with employee matching grants http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=78
Eastern Washington University has a lovely little search engine for companies that offer employee matching gifts. Type in your company's name. If it pops up, information will appear telling you whom to contact or how to log onto your company's intranet for the proper form. Most likely this information is also in that employee packet you got when you started. Your human-resources people should also be able to steer you in the right direction.

Give it a go. You and your employer can bring one more desk, one more packet of pencils, part of an ambulance, or a piece of a pump to the people of Southern Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=78 Tue, 16 Sep 2008 19:42:20 -0500 Rainy-season school http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=77 General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=77 Sun, 14 Sep 2008 00:09:40 -0500 Silent Auction listings grow http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=76 First Lutheran Church between 6 and 8 p.m. to place your bid. And to enjoy the food, the presentation, the plans for the future, and the company. We hope to see you there!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=76 Fri, 12 Sep 2008 00:09:00 -0500 Floods and food http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=75 news about Aweil was not good -- homes flooded, thousands of people displaced, increased sickness from water-borne diseases.

And damage to the harvest. A Relief Web map shows our area as "highly food insecure." Wunlang doesn't grow enough food to support itself, and when the harvest is damaged, resulting in less food for sale and higher prices, our village will suffer more.

That's why our efforts to provide security and sanitation go hand-in-hand with providing education and opportunity. You can't learn if you're hungry or sick. And teaching how to improve your harvest and to take care of yourself and your family is some of the most important education we can provide.



]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=75 Thu, 28 Aug 2008 17:49:43 -0500 Sept. 13 fundraiser planning is underway! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=74 First Lutheran Church, Lynn. It will run from 6 to 8 p.m.; tickets are $10; the evening will feature food, entertainment, a photo/video presentation of our project so far and our future plans, and a silent auction.

If you'd like to help, e-mail us at info@helpwunlang.org. If you can't make it, go to our Donation page and participate that way. First Lutheran was one of our very first supporters, and Village Help for South Sudan wouldn't have gotten off the ground without them. We're so happy they're hosting our fundraiser again.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=74 Thu, 14 Aug 2008 13:22:16 -0500 There's still time for you to have a summer fundraiser http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=73
We're so glad to have friends who have remembered Village Help for South Sudan this summer. The youth of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington held a car wash in support of our work in Wunlang. Ron's neighbor just donated more than $300 from her yard sale to benefit Village Help for South Sudan.

We are planning a fundraiser the evening of September 13 at First Lutheran Church in Lynn. You'll hear more about that soon. In the meantime, what can you do? There's still time to set up a yard sale, a bake sale, or a car wash to benefit the children of Wunlang. We're sure you can think of other creative ideas. We'll be happy to provide you with brochures; send us an e-mail at info@helpwunlang.org.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=73 Tue, 5 Aug 2008 09:00:56 -0500 Quotes from Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=71
"There is excitement everywhere."

"We have achieved great things for the people of Wunlang."

"We wish you were here with us. Everyone for miles around knows the names of the Americans who did this for us."

"We have changed the situation in Wunlang forever."

"The village workers are thankful to have jobs and get paid for the first time in their lives. They take their pay to the market and buy sorghum for their families each day."

"I am very grateful to be your Field Manager. Thank you for teaching me how to manage a project like this."]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=71 Wed, 4 Jun 2008 08:41:16 -0500 The photos are here! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=70
On the scaffolding of Wunlang School in Southern Sudan

The photos are our photo web site, www.wunlang.smugmug.com, under the "School Construction" gallery. You'll see the construction process in chronological order, beginning with the foundation digging photos and videos we brought back from our January trip.

We've had a lot of discussion about the school's foundation. Franco has confirmed with Yel that our foundation is firm -- concrete, made with cement, sand, and stone aggregate, with reinforcing bar. The photos show the first layer of bricks being laid atop the foundation. From there, the walls are built; the roof trusses arrive; the roof is raised and the corrugated iron roofing installed.

There's more to do. Our school will have a smooth cement stucco-like finish and cream-colored paint. Our doors, windows, and classroom furniture are on tap. Franco plans to call our builder to discuss the final details. Jackson will be organizing an inspection of our school to take place before our next trip.

The latrines are also under construction, and those who read my post on World Water Day know how happy I am to see that. The teachers' office is almost complete. We'll also have a kitchen and food-storage area. With latrines and food storage, we can now apply for food aid from the UN's World Food Programme.

It is amazing that a dream -- to build a school in a remote part of Southern Sudan -- has literally, with the help of all our supporters, risen out of the ground. Check out those photos!

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=70 Tue, 3 Jun 2008 09:18:46 -0500 Welcome, Jackson! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=69 Mading Aweil web site, where the Aweil disaspora all meet. During our January trip, he was a tremendous help to us. Since we've been back, he's been even more. He shepherded our NGO registration with the Government of South Sudan. Now we have tax-free status there and the same organizational standing as the UN, the World Bank,and other big NGOs. He set up our Juba bank account with Kenya Commercial Bank. He really has been Our Man in Juba ("Maybe Jackson can do it," we e-mail each other), and will represent us well to the NGO community and to the Government of South Sudan.
Jackson during our trip to Juba

Jackson holds a secondary certificate from Majak Akoon Upper Primary School and a two-year diploma from Cambridge International College. He also holds certificates from Marial Lou Veterinary Institute and Teacher Training Institute in Rumbek. In a world where further education is hard to get, he has completed numerous training sessions with the UN, the World Bank, and the World Health Organization on everything from creating spreadsheets to demobilizing child soldiers. ("I am more practical than academic," he writes.) The SPLA taught him radio operation.

He has worked for the World Bank, the Sudan Joint Assessment Mission, and UNICEF. His first job was supervising 64 Community Animal Health Workers. He most recently has formed the start-up company Hi-Tech Business Solutions to provide computer and media support to the South Sudan community.

Jackson's married, and the troubles in Abyei have touched him personally -- two of his wife's brothers were killed in the recent fighting there. When we sent condolence e-mails, his main concern was that this conflict not deter us from our mission of providing education and opportunity in South Sudan. Now that Jackson has joined our board, we'll have even greater success reaching our goals.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=69 Wed, 28 May 2008 09:55:25 -0500 The Abyei situation http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=68 The BBC has a good summary of what has happened.

Abyei is to the northeast of Wunlang, hundreds of miles away. People who are leaving Abyei are not coming as far as Bahr-el-Ghazal. We are watching this situation (as we have with the fighting in Khartoum earlier) closely. We are continuing to build Wunlang School and to make plans for the future. We are showing that the future can be bright in Southern Sudan.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=68 Wed, 28 May 2008 08:36:41 -0500 "What's Going on in Sudan?" http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=67
What does this have to do with Wunlang School? Today, nothing. Wunlang is hundreds and hundreds of miles away. We are still making plans to drill more wells. Our school is still being built.

But we keep an eye on political events in our area of Northern Bahr-al-Ghazal, and the semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan, and what goes on "in the North." Far-away politics can have an impact on isolated rural areas. We read the BBC's African news, the most objective source. Allafrica.com and the news pages on Sudan.net require more sifting to determine who's the straight reporter and who's the propagandist. We check with our personal contacts, too. Politics is a strange creature, and we keep up with it to make sure we can press on with our work of bringing education and opportunity to South Sudan.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=67 Mon, 12 May 2008 23:33:02 -0500 May Day progress http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=66
Jackson tells me that today {May 1} is a holiday in South Sudan, so we should celebrate the hard work of our village and crews working so hard on this labor day! Yel says the second 4 classrooms are now completely enclosed in their walls! Apparently, there have been several days without rain, so great progress has been made.

Since the beginning of March, the first four classrooms have been completed and roofed. With a roof overhead, the crew was able to store the remaining bags of cement in a dry building, a good thing, because it is raining up to 10 hours a day. But as Ron reports, our crew is making hay, or building school, when the sun shines.

Today we made a presentation at the adult forum of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington, one of our faithful supporters. We showed the progress that had been made during our January/February trip. Pastor Goodman asked if we would come back when our new photos arrived. You can be sure the e-mail will be flying when those photos do arrive. If your group has an interest in a presentation, let us know.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=66 Sun, 4 May 2008 17:29:21 -0500 "The Three Latrines Are Built" http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=65
When we were in Africa, Ron and I talked about posting a blog called "Adventures in Elimination." We didn't, partly because toilet humor is funny (except for those perpetual middle-schoolers) only in the moment, but mainly because it seemed an affront to our hosts, who keep their dignity and privacy in conditions that boggle our minds.

But there's no place to go. I don't mind going in the bushes, but there are no bushes. Wunlang does not have the thick cover of the New England deciduous forest. And for a remote area, Wunlang has a lot of paths coursing through it. There's not much cover between the paths.

Ron and I only had about four days to figure out what to do. We left just as I was getting the hang of things. And I must say that women have a more difficult time of this. Men may take a "short call" just about where they are standing. Women don't. I was led out at night by Franco's female relatives to an open place where there was no cover, but where my companion served as a lookout.

This year, 2008, is the UN's International Year of Santation. Having good sanitary facilities matters, especially to women and girls. As the UN reports:

Sanitation enhances dignity, privacy and safety, especially for women and girls. It improves convenience and social status. Sanitation in schools enables children, especially girls reaching puberty, to remain in the educational system. Restricted toilet opportunities increase the chance of chronic constipation and is making women vulnerable to violence if they are forced to defecate during nightfall and in secluded areas. Providing improved sanitation facilities is a liberating development for women and girls and is providing substantial benefits for the whole community.

Our latrines are brick; one for boys, one for girls, and one for teachers. There are no seats; there is most likely a concrete floor and a rectangular opening. It's daunting for Americans at first (I first used one in 2004), but, with practice, it's easy to use and easy to clean.

We have plans beyond the simple latrine. We'd like to build composting toilets that produce usable, agricultural-grade compost for our school gardens. But I'm really ready to go back to Wunlang now. We have the only latrines for miles around.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=65 Sat, 26 Apr 2008 20:20:52 -0500 Waiting for photos http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=64
So what can we learn from this? That patience is a virtue. That we will get the photos, just as we got our money transferred, even though it seemed like the money would never come. And that we are pursuing the right path by not relying on diesel power. Solar power doesn't start up with a reassuring roar of a diesel generator. It's not as popular as diesel generators are in South Sudan. But its availability is not based on the vagaries of OPEC, trouble at the port of Mombassa, trouble at the north/south Sudan border, and trouble with the generator. As Yel and others in Wunlang become more skilled in uploading photos, you can be sure the process will be powered by the sun that shines on Wunlang.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=64 Wed, 9 Apr 2008 20:23:42 -0500 Gravel and Sand for the School http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=63
The estimated completion date for the whole school is predicted to be just about the time this year’s rainy season begins. All the construction materials are currently stacked under the trees and scattered around the village center within easy reach of the building crew. Even if some finish work is still going on when the rains start, there will be ample storage under the roof of the portion that is complete, protecting the materials for water damage.

The major activity Yel told us about today is the demanding task of getting sand and stone to the construction site. You may have seen our video of the men digging the foundation trench when we visited Wunlang in January. Getting sand and stone is more labor-intensive in South Sudan without the luxury of automated machinery used here. The sand comes from one location a short distance from Wunlang. Some men go with the truck to dig and shovel the sand into the truck, and others assist with the shovel-by-shovel unloading when the truck arrives back in the village.

Gravel is very scarce in this part of Southern Sudan, but the aggregate is a necessary ingredient in the concrete mixture. Wherever Franco, Lisa, and I traveled on our trip to Sudan in January, we looked, but did not see, a single gravel stone. Gravel for the Wunlang school is trucked from a much more distant location than the sand. This is by far the most strenuous task the villagers are doing to build their school. Using pick axes and other hand tools, the men break up the stone in this distant quarry and shovel it into the truck. Having worked construction jobs during summers when I was in college, my back painfully recalls the agony of this repetitive “grunt” work. To deliver the hand-chiseled aggregate to the site of the school involves hours of travel time and gallons of expensive fuel for the truck. One load a day is all the pace and distance of this work will allow.

Today I thank God for the blessing of the Wunlang School, but I also thank the hard-working men of Wunlang for contributing the labor that is building the School – their school – one brick at a time and one shovel at a time.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=63 Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:20:33 -0500 Today Is World Water Day http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=62
Here at Village Help for South Sudan, we're making plans to drill a second well. People are walking hours to get to the well we have. A second well should lessen the demand on the well near the school, lessen the chance of breakage, and give relief to the women and girls who are making that long, difficult journey every day.

This year, the UN is pointing out that clean water is the first step to good sanitation. Providing clean, safe drinking water is to Wunlang is our first step. Providing latrines is next. We have plans to train people in the repair of the wells we have, and to upgrade the wells to make them less likely to break down.

Every time we go to the bathroom, wash our hands, take a shower, do a load of wash, turn on the the tap to make coffee and tea, let's remember World Water Day.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=62 Sat, 22 Mar 2008 11:14:18 -0500 Coming home to be counted http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=61
The census is very important. There is an election coming up in Sudan for the first time in 23 years. South Sudan is stil a semi-autonomous region, and southern Sudan can vote in the general election. This election will effect the balance of power in Sudan, and, I believe, effect the outcome of the vote on sucession in 2001.

It's not an easy process. The office of the Soutern Sudan Census and Statistics Commission in Juba has had two fires , and "eyebrows are raised," the Sudan Tribune reports, over the source of those fires. The comission hasn't received all its promised funding from Khartoum. One wonders why.

But South Sudan is making a big effort to bring people back to be counted. The UN reports that, "during this week {ending March 17}, 118 individuals (32 households) were transported from Khartoum to Unity state, and 991 individuals (230 households) from South Darfur to Northern Bahr el Ghazal." Northern Bahr el Ghazal is pretty big, but that's where Wunlang is, so some of the returnees may well end up near us. (Weekly Bulletin, Humanitarian Action in Southern Sudan, Week 10, 9-15 March 2008)

"Humanitarian needs for the returnees are expected to be high, while agencies don’t seem ready to respond in time," the report continues. "Vulnerability in the host communities may also increase."

Are we ready? Well, we're building a school. We're planning another well. We are part of the fabric of Sudanese life now. We're successful at what we've done. But there's more to do, and we can't do it alone.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=61 Thu, 20 Mar 2008 08:23:05 -0500 Repatriation -- to what? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=60
The UN calls this a voluntary repatriation program, but it's easy to see that their goal is to shut down at least parts of the refugee camps where the Sudanese are. So the UN talks about the peace, the joy of returning home.

The Sudanese talk about food and water and clinics and schools. It's hard to believe, but life in a refugee camp is often better than life in a country that has been blasted by civil war for 21 years. I know one Sudanese refugee who had a chance to go home but remained in Kakuma Refugee Camp. Why? I asked, wondering. "School started," he said.

But the camps will close. The UN has other camps to open in places in the world still ravaged by conflict.

What will the Sudanese go home to? Well, some hours north of Aweil, there's one well. There's part of a school building. There's no furniture yet. There are two suitcases, one big and one small, of teacher supplies, to equip the teachers to instruct almost 400 children. There's a teacher, herself educated only under the trees, teaching women what she knows. There are plans for an agricultural program, latrines, school uniforms, a clinic, teacher training, but so far, only plans.

And the other parts of South Sudan? The ones more remote than Wunlang?

We have been rejoicing the past 10 days over the arrival of the construction material from Kampala. And now sand is on the way, to mix with cement and make our building stronger. We've done a lot since Franco first came home determined to start a school. But we're nowhere near being done. There's still not enough to come home to.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=60 Mon, 17 Mar 2008 01:28:06 -0500 Construction materials arrive in Wunlang! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=59
View Larger Map
Two long days and better road conditions from Rumbek to Wau and then to Aweil enabled them to arrive in the village of Rhum Athoi at 2:00 a.m. last night. Then another two hours this morning brought them to the village of Wunlang. The materials are all unloaded and stacked under trees (the school classes are on break). The whole village of Wunlang came to the school site in the village center to welcome Yel home and help unload the truck.

Francis the builder and his crew went to work immediately and some of the walls of the first 4 classrooms have been built to about knee height with the bricks made for the school and the cement and other materials hauled on this long journey from Kampala. Yel will send us pictures later this week with the satellite Internet setup we brought to him in January.

We wish to thank all of our supporters for making this possible and we hope you will celebrate with us as the school is build for Franco Majok's native village of Wunlang.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=59 Fri, 7 Mar 2008 11:32:00 -0600 Mechanical problems cause delay http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=58
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The problem was a bad wheel bearing. Yel had to go by car to Rumbek and back -- 7 hours each way -- to get the parts needed for the repair. Once the wheel function is restored, their next stop will be Rumbek.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=58 Wed, 5 Mar 2008 06:40:19 -0600 Finishing and furnishing the Wunlang School http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=57 $50 per truckload * 40 loads = $2,000

Gravel/stone:
$50 per truckload * 25 loads = $1,250

Doors and Windows:
16 Metal doors @ $175.00 ea = $2,800
40 Steel frame windows @ $180.00 ea = $7,200
Total $ 10,000

Furniture and Equipment:
Classroom
Student benches and desks; Teacher desks and chairs
Total $ 5,000 per classroom

Head / deputy teacher's office
Desks, chairs, storage, chalkboard
Total $ 1,100

Staff room (for other teachers and PTA)
Conf. room table, chairs, storage, chalkboard
Total $ 1,350

Kitchen
Cooking pots, utensils, bowls, plates, storage
Total $ 6,800

Student School Supplies:
School uniforms, shoes, notebooks, backpacks, clip boards, pencils, erasers, rulers, pens, books
Total $ 4,000 per classroom per year

Teachers School Supplies:
Books, supplies, training, bicycle, clothing, talking dictionary, literacy kit
Total $ 1,050 per teacher per year]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=57 Sun, 2 Mar 2008 15:20:27 -0600 Fundraising Ideas for Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=56
  • Water
    Get a store to donate bottled water; sell the water at school; donate proceeds to Wunlang.
    Guess how many bottles of water it takes to fill a jerrican; winner gets a prize donated by an area store.

  • Construction Materials
    Sell paper bricks at $1 apiece; stimulate sales by creating contests between classes to see who can sell the most bricks.
    Sell paper bags of cement, setting the goal at $650 - equivalent to $1 each for the number of bags of cement that will be used to build the school.

  • Transportation
    Walk to school day: students walk to school or carpool and donate the equivalent savings in gas to Wunlang.

  • Healthcare
    A community-service project for seniors planning to major in health care in college.
    A bandaid fundraiser might be a good grade-school focus or by community or high school day-care and preschool workers.

  • Uniforms
    The school uniform is not simply the logo of a private school, but the only decent outfit a Wunlang student might have. It's this or rags.
    A donation every time an American student buys back-to-school clothes? Schools that offer fashion design classes could buy a foot-treadle sewing machine.

  • School Supplies
    We can provide you with pens, pencils, and other school supplies with our logo to sell as a fundraiser in your school, with the proceeds going to our project.

  • Energy
    Our energy focus is solar. A sunny-day (a sunny day at the beach?) might be a good theme for a fundraiser. Or a science club could do a demonstration of solar power and then organize a fundraiser that involves donating the equivalent of energy consumed by the average American student per week.

  • Technology
    Internet minutes for Wunlang: participants donate a penny for every minute they spend at the computer.

  • Recreation
    Something with a soccer or volleyball theme, such as passing the hat or selling donated coffee and juice on the sidelines at games.

  • Entertainment
    Participants donate a quarter for every TV show they watch on a given day over the course of the week.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=56 Sun, 2 Mar 2008 14:01:02 -0600 Deng Chier, Assistant Field Manager http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=55 Deng Chierthere is a lot to do in Wunlang - too much for our Field Manager alone. When we visited the village in January, Yel introduced us to Deng Chier with his highest praise for the volunteer work Deng had already done in the village overseeing the brick-making and giving a hand to just about anything that needs to be done for the Wunlang School.

Deng is indeed a very devoted and resourceful citizen of Wunlang. We have hired him to provide general assistance to our Field Manager for the duration of the School's construction. We saw how seriously Deng takes his responsibilities while we were there. He went with Yel to Aweil Town to purchase the construction materials for the foundation of the first 4 classrooms. He then visited a road construction crew working in an area near Wunlang to help us find a good source of sand and gravel to be used for the concrete.

While Yel is on his trip to Uganda to procure the rest of the construction materials, Deng is working long days in the village getting sand and gravel delivered, coordinating the work of our builder, and providing regular updates and support to Yel using the builder's satellite phone.

We welcome Deng Chier to our team, and our project is fortunate to have his services.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=55 Sun, 2 Mar 2008 12:19:41 -0600 Yel and the Construction Materials Near Mundri http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=54
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The truck left Kampala, Uganda, with our materials last Monday. Yel departed Kampala by bus on Wednesday. In the past two days they have traveled about 100 miles. The next stop should be Rumbek.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=54 Sat, 1 Mar 2008 12:40:59 -0600 Tracking Yel http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=53 Google Map. Yel has traveled more than 300 miles, from Kampala to Arua to Koboko, the border town on the Ugandan side. Then he went to Kaya, the border town in South Sudan. He's going back to Koboko to get the truck through customs.

View Larger Map
We'll add different colors to the map as Yel and the construction materials proceed north toward Wunlang.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=53 Wed, 27 Feb 2008 12:32:40 -0600 The Truck is Rolling http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=52
There's no need to write more; that's exciting enough as it is.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=52 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 23:13:03 -0600 We're on SmugMug! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=51 SmugMug. We could put some pictures here, but go and see our pictures there! We'll be adding more to our galleries soon.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=51 Sun, 24 Feb 2008 00:28:04 -0600 Yel has hired a 40-ton truck! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=50 null

Yel is loading the truck himself. Almost everything fits on it. He is looking for Aweil businessmen in Kampala to carry a few iron bars and timbers. With this truck, Yel will start the long trip back to Wunlang on Saturday or Sunday. Our construction materials will soon be on the way!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=50 Fri, 22 Feb 2008 10:42:24 -0600 Where is Yel? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=49


Yel should soon be back at our construction site in Wunlang.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=49 Tue, 19 Feb 2008 08:31:39 -0600 Books for Wunlang Teachers http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=48


Most of the books come from the Ugandan primary-school curriculum, which is close to what the Government of South Sudan is requiring. These are pupil workbooks, one for each subject -- English, Math, Science, Social Studies, Health -- at each grade level, P1 to P5. This is what the teachers asked for. There are also some "revision" books, which are review texts. Also some dictionaries, grammar -- "Aid to English" is very popular among the Sudanese -- and a free book on teaching health.

Most books are from the MK series. I like this series because of the layout -- big type, lots of illustrations. The smaller Monitor series is good, too, and I used those when the MK book at that level was out of stock.

This little suitcase is pretty heavy. And full in more ways than one. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=48 Thu, 14 Feb 2008 16:21:24 -0600 Back in America http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=46
On Wednesday, we're giving two presentations. We have lots of new photos and videos from our time in Sudan. If your group would like a presentation, do let us know.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=46 Mon, 11 Feb 2008 11:24:50 -0600 Greetings from Amsterdam http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=45
Yel is still in Kampala. The construction-materials shops he had placed orders with were closed on the weekend. It's 6 a.m. Monday here, 4 a.m. Monday there, and when Yel gets up, he will continue paying for our materials. He also will pick up money for shipping from our second wire transfer. (This one hasn't taken two weeks, as Ron starts placing phone calls as soon as the money is sent.) On Friday Yel picked up the suitcase full of textbooks I purchased for the teachers. That, and the construction materials, will soon be on a truck to Wunlang.

Ron and I are thinking about a "sights and sounds" blog entry about our amazing trip to make Wunlang School happen. But that's after I get home and get some sleep. Now I'm going to shop for socks.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=45 Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:17:52 -0600 I've got a notion ... http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=44 General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=44 Sat, 9 Feb 2008 07:48:40 -0600 Counting our abacuses http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=43 Stratton School in Arlington, MA, and hanging on the wall was a set of bead abacuses. Her students had made them. They use them frequently for help in addition and subtraction. I immediately thought of Wunlang School.

Ms. Satlak-Mott taught me how to make them, and in 2006 I sent 20 along with Franco and Ron when they visited Wunlang. This trip, I brought more.

The teachers caught on immediately; they figured out how to do division, too! Photos to come. This internet cafe in Kampala has computers with USB ports, but uploading is not working out.

A great deal of education in East Africa is done by recitation. I can't blame the teachers; when you have one book and one blackboard, they get a lot of teaching done with that method alone. But there are those students (and the teachers themselves) who need to understand in another way. The abacuses can help.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=43 Fri, 8 Feb 2008 05:42:46 -0600 We got the money! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=42 General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=42 Fri, 8 Feb 2008 04:47:26 -0600 Sewing machines and vitamins http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=41
Two days ago Peter Manyang Malang pointed down Kyagwe Rd. and said, "If you keep on this side, there are sewing machines." And there were. I discussed with the owner the price of Singer foot-treadle sewing macines, with sewing table with drawers, bobbins, needles, oil, and an instruction book that is all pictures and no words. The price is great.
Wunlang student
The construction of the building is our first priority. But when that is underway, the next time our field manager Yel comes to Kampala, he should be able to acquire machines, fabric, and scissors easily.

Wunlang has a design for uniforms already -- royal blue shirts for all, shorts for the boys, shirts for the girls, with white trim on the collar and chest pocket. You can see it in some of the photos of the chlldren. You can also see that not many children have that uniform. There's one tailor around. With the addition of a few sewing machines, all the children can have uniforms for school, not rags; we'll provide training for adults; and we may give the leg up for some Wunlang entrepreneurs.

When Ron and I left Wunlang, our luggage was lighter. We had brought vitamins and first-aid supplies. Because we left for Kamapala hurriedly, we didn't have time to visit the Wunlang clinic, which was established after Ron and Franco left in 2006. It's a clinic in name only, really: a traditional house, an untrained volunteer staff, and no supplies. When Yel gets back to Wunlang, he will distribute the vitamins (many gathered during a holiday promotion by Kate Harris at Crossroads Trade in Brookline, MA) and other supplies. It's just the start of our plan to build a fully fledged clinic in Wunlang.

I brought a bottle to the kids in my house, and every morning I am dragged to the locked closet that holds them so that I may pass them around. Some of the kids in the house just arrived from South Sudan; one has sticklike arms; one had a bellyful of worms. Passing out this extra boost to their health (after the course of worm medicine!) is a good way to start the day.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=41 Sat, 2 Feb 2008 06:53:19 -0600 Happy Holidays? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=40
But you can shop for books. Peter Manyang Malang and I filled a carry-on suitcase full of the standard texts for the primary grades in all subjects, dictionaries and exam practice books. Franco is talking shipping weights. So our holiday is a little happier!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=40 Sat, 26 Jan 2008 05:11:06 -0600 Calculations on Entebbe Rd. http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=39
We're at Planet Internet Cafe today. Yel and Franco are at a terminal; Yel is practicing sending e-mail to Ron. I managed to print out documents Ron sent to me. Imagine waiting in line to check your e-mail, waiting a solid minute for each e-mail to open, and paying for your printouts by the sheet. Many businesspeople are doing the same thing around me.

Yesterday my foster son Peter Manyang Malang and I shopped for books. Yel had already bought exercise books and pencils for the students. Our plan is to fill a suitcase full of books for Yel to take back for the teachers to study from and to use as lesson plans. In many cases, it will be the curriculum used in the Ugandan primary schools. That curriculum looks pretty good. I bought some sample books, talked discount with three suppliers, and will make a shopping list tomorrow. The youth of St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington especially want the funds they raised to go to school supplies, and I hope to do right by them.

The banking process is moving smoothly; we'll find out more tomorrow.

In other news, we are very comfortable at Manyang's place. A water-main forced him to buy jerrycans of water when we first arrived. But now the tap is running. Manyang has indoor plumbing. I took a shower yesterday!

"You have to hold the shower in your hand."
"I've been washing my hair by putting my head in a bucket of water; I can hold the shower head."
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=39 Thu, 24 Jan 2008 04:48:27 -0600 Greetings from Kampala http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=38
The past two days have been quite productive. We have finished setting up an account with Barclays Bank. (Deng said to pay his school bill at Stanbic Bank took all day, and we accomplished everything at Barclays in two short sessions.) Ron has the information for wiring money. It's quick and easy through Barclays, and I myself have done it before. We also have been shopping for construction supplies and getting good prices. (When I say we, I mean that yesterday I went to different places with Franco and Yel, then hung around outside so as to avoid getting quoted the muzungu price; the sight of an allegedly rich American can add a lot! Tomorrow I'm staying home. I'm accompanying Franco and Ron when we are ready to pay somebody.) Negotiating the delivery fee will obviously be very important. But we are optimistic. Our optimism has paid off so far.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=38 Tue, 22 Jan 2008 05:05:57 -0600 Back in Juba, on to Kampala http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=37
While I had been conducting teacher training, Franco and Ron had been holding meetings with members of the Wunlang community. A school committee had been organized when they visited in 2006. On this visit, Franco and Ron were finding they could not negotiate good terms and find construction materials at good prices in our alloted time.

We also had a problem of money transfer from the US. We had set up a bank account in Aweil, but the technology for a reliable money transfer is not there yet. But out of problems come opportunity.

Franco and Ron had met with the core members of the committee -- our field manager Yel, his father Madouk, and community leader Deng Chier. As Franco and Ron rode back from Aweil on Thursday, they discussed the situation. Their solution has so far worked wonderfully. We have empowered the committee to negotiate the contracts and acquire the supplies. Our role will be to go to Kampala, research construction material prices, inform The Committee, and set up a bank account in Kampala for smooth wire transfers from the US. Yel studied in Kampala, and knows the city. He flew (for the first time) with us to Juba; he will meet us in Kampala, because his documents allow him to travel internationally by bus but not by air.

The first sign this was a good arrangement was in the negotiations with the contractor. Madouk managed to get one surcharge eliminated completely. We wrote a contract specifying that that the foundation work on the four classrooms we have marked out should begin as soon as possible. When we arrived in Aweil, Yel and Deng Chier went to the market and we went to report to the Speaker of the House of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazel. We met back at the hotel, and they were happy. They had acquired the concrete and reinforcing steel needed for the foundation at a good price -- half of some of the prices quoted to us -- and it would be in Wunlang in two days. Deng Chier, a man of initiative, plans to visit some road-construction field offices to strike a bargain on the sand for the foundation. Our foundation trenches are dug to a depth of at least 18 inches, and the steel-reinforced concrete will make a firm foundation for our school.

Also in Aweil we delivered photos to Deborah Yar, the mother of our community educator Rebecca Agum Madut. Deborah is in the charge of the pre-nantal clinic at Aweil Hospital. She has never seen photos of her son-in-law and granddaughter. We also met with her husband, Madut Aluk, an officer in the Ministry of Education of Northern Bahr-el-Ghazal. He told us that community support, such as we have, is the only effective way to build a school. "The other NGOs all fail," he said, because they haven't had such support. We left his office even more pleased that we had empowered our committee.

When we arrived in Juba, we encountered contradictory information when the next plane left for Kampala; a sudden, violent rainstorm that knocked over signs and tore off iron roofs, and four separate trips to the ticket office ("he will be back at five") to book our tickets to Kampala.

I said good-bye to my teacher-training class on Thursday. Peter Piol, a teacher who came every day, rode me on the back of his bicycle to Yel's compound. The teachers said in their culture it was important to cut the last class short and eat the food the ladies had prepared for us before we left. "When are you coming back?" they all asked. We said we didn't know. We all hope it will be soon.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=37 Sun, 20 Jan 2008 04:24:34 -0600 Hello from Wunlang! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=36
There’s a lot to summarize in the past six days. I’ll add more detail in the coming days. But here are the major points:

Our ride from Aweil to Wunlang was extremely comfortable compared to the ride to Aweil. (We did not leave in the morning in the Speaker’s truck; we left in the afternoon in the Aweil East County commissioner’s truck.) We stopped in Aquem for gas, and had to pay $72 for about five gallons. Between the troubles in the northern border and the troubles in Kenya, gas prices have skyrocketed. Then we turned left Rhumathoi onto a track that is not marked on the map. It was not rutted, but it twisted and turned around the trees.

And then we were there at twilight. There was a small group to greet us; the children of Wunlang had waited all day to greet us and had gone home. But the group that remained was very enthusiastic. How exciting it was to see the actual bricks; Francis and his crew laying out the first classrooms; the classrooms under the trees.

We stopped at the well. Groups of women were waiting their turn. Animals were drinking from the trough that extends from the spout. We had heard in Aweil that there is only one other well between here the border of South Kordofan.

We went to Yel’s compound. It is beautiful. Yel and his new wife have one house; the women in the compound have another. There is a separate building for the kitchen; a goat barn; two raised structures, one for food storage and one for chickens; and two bath houses made of thick upright woven mats. There is no latrine. We pitched our tents between the barn and the chicken coop, and every morning watched the hens and chicks make their way down their pole.

Sunday was church. The church is currently the biggest building in town, thatched with crumbling mud walls. The benches are made of logs set into Y-shaped braces. After the sermon, we all said a few words. I took a big breath, greeted them in Dinka, and was rewarded with drumming and applause.

Monday the trenching for the school began. As soon as the site was marked with string, local men arrived and began digging. They were eager for the school to go up, and eager to get paying work.


Monday I met the Wunlang teachers for the first time. My first class had six students, including Angelo Aket, the head of Wunlang School. I introduced the Concentrated Language Encounter method, developed by Rotary International, of developing one’s own books, and improving one’s reading and writing in the process. They were surprised but willing. Soon the teachers had produced their first book: “Football,” by the Wunlang School Teachers.

We also did some grammar, which they are eager for. I used the text No-Glamour Grammar, which I will leave with the teachers. (The answers are in the back.) It is a solid, basic grammar, beginning with the definition of a noun, but we have had some discussions about vocabulary: “what is a movie?”
 Lisa teaches


We broke at one, and in the afternoon had math. Some students asked for algebra. It’s been years since I’ve done any problems, but seventh-grade math came back to me, and we solved for x in several ways.

We have continued like this, with variations, throughout the week. My best attendance was 12. Some of them bicycled long distances to join the class. I learned a lot about them. They are at many different levels academically themselves. Andrea (an Italian baptismal name, which is common) is very good at grammar, loves algrebra, but stumbles on computation. Martin is older, very quiet, but reads very well. The market math was very revealing. Every one of them could divide 100 by 2, but if you said: “six pieces of garlic cost 100 Sudanese pounds; how much do three pieces cost?” all but Martin were baffled.

The third day, Bhakita Ajok Jiel arrived. She had bicycled an hour to attend our class. She finished P6 at Wunlang School herself. Now, she is married and the mother of three children,

She teaches in the children’s school from 8:30 to 2:30. From 2:30 to 4:30 she teaches a women’s literacy class, founded in 2007. She has 25 students, divided into P1 (first grade) and P2. Class was not in session, so I have not met any of her students. But I was impressed that the Wunlang School Committee took it upon themselves to organize a women’s literacy class on their own.

I am writing this in advance of posting to the blog. Ron will fire up the Internet in the morning. It’s dark out; bugs are gathering on the screen, and they mustn’t get in the keyboard. Ron has taken a great photo of me blogging in front of the women’s house, sitting on a tarp, surrounded by an audience!
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=36 Fri, 18 Jan 2008 00:14:20 -0600 Greetings from the SPLA office in Aweil http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=35
Angok Majok's double-cabin pickup truck, with military driver (and his wife and young daughter) picked us up at Wau Jur River Lodge in late morning. We drove on a wide, dusty dirt road for an hour to reach Angok's country home in Kuajok. There Franco and his brother discussed the merits of some suppliers we had contacted and considered some others. We had lunch -- dried-fish and peanut soup and ugali made of cornmeal and sorghum -- and continued to Aweil.

The road to Aweil is marked as "known track" on my map of Sudan. It is deep with ruts that were formed when vehicles got stuck during the rainy season. To say that we bounced along is an understatement. "I was just aloft," Ron said. We couldn't open the windows because of the dust. At times the double cabin reminded me of a sauna. We had bought bottled water, but we had to wait for a level stretch to drink it. Once we got stuck in very fine sand. Ron jumped out to see if we needed pushing, and sunk up to his ankles. But our driver was very good with the four-wheel drive.

Ron compared our trip to one in a Conestoga wagon. We really are pioneers in bringing education and opportunity to Wunlang, and our journey to make it happen has many parallels.

Three hours later, we reached another level road, and and hour later arrived in Aweil. We are staying in Aweil's new, and only, hotel. Last night, the place was full of important people, including the governor of Northern Bahr-al-Ghazal state. This morning, a huge convoy of officials and soliders left to inspect the Bahr-al-Ghazal/Darfur border.

We met Angelo Marac, the Speaker of the House of Northern Bahr-al-Ghazal; Ron and Franco met with him in 2006, and his photo is in our brochure. He said regional leaders know of our coming, and had expected us to cancel because of the trouble in Nairobi. There also had been a border clash some distance north of Wunlang that, they thought, would stop our journey. Franco had assessed the situation before we left, and we concluded it was safe for us to continue. Nevertheless, the leadership is impressed that we have pressed on and arrived. When I told the governor, when we were introduced, that we had driven from Wau, he exclaimed, "You came by land?!"

Now we are waiting for our driver Ngong, who works for the Speaker, to drive us to Wunlang, about two hours away. Ron tells me the road is rougher than the one we traversed to Aweil. But we will get there! We will meet with our builder to finalize our list of construction materials. Then we will contact the Speaker again as we make a final decison on our supplier.

Ron has packed an entire solar-powered Internet access system in his luggage. (Watching our luggage, mashed and covered with dust, being unloaded from the back of the pickup is a slightly unnerving experience, but we haven't had any damage.) If all goes well, our next blog will be from the first-ever, brand-new, laptop-and-plastic-table computer center in Wunlang.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=35 Sat, 12 Jan 2008 03:11:52 -0600 Welcome to Wau -- The Journey Continues http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=34
Jackson Garang Ajou
We had the help of Jackson Garang Ajou, an energetic young man that Franco met through the on-line community of Mading Aweil. He helped us to find Feeder Airlines, whose symbol is a flying water buffalo. We were put on standby, and by Wednesday afternoon, we had confirmed that the three of us and all our luggage had tickets for the flight out Thursday morning.

Our flight was delayed a little by the arrival of Salva Kiir, the president of South Sudan, to Juba Airport. The whole waiting room was standing by the windows as he deplaned. But then we were in the air to Wau.

"I love Wau!" Franco exclaimed. I like it, too. It's less dusty that Juba; less trash lines the streets. Right now, we are in the Wau Jur River Lodge, a place with wireless internet access, lots of UN lodgers, and disco on the sound system.
Lisa's tent at Kush Resort, Juba
The tents here look very much like the tented lodging at Kush Resort in Juba.

We were met by Franco's older brother Angok Majok, who is semi-retired from the Juba Police.
Angok Majok and Franco Majok
(Young officers kept saluting him.) Franco last saw him in 1988. After we settled in Wau River, we drank soda and talked business. Angok knows everybody. We soon had a two different prices for cement and a tentative deal with a Ugandan truck driver. Then we went into town.

We hope to do as much business as possible with local businessmen, and Franco found his old friend from primary school, Ayiin Duong. Franco and Ayiin talked with Ron and I scoped out the tailor next door with his foot-treadle sewing machine. Then we were off to Ayiin's latest project -- temporary housing for the CPA agreement celebration. There Franco talked to his assistant Dominick Duong about supplying the materials we need for the school construction, and Ron and I watched a borehole being drilled. The drillers were going to 90 meters, much less than the borehole at Wunlang.

Tomorrow morning, it's off to Aweil in Angok's truck, about a three-hour drive on dirt roads. If all goes well, we'll be meeting with the builder, Francis Macuei, and finalizing our supply list in the afternoon. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=34 Thu, 10 Jan 2008 13:26:07 -0600 Here We Are in Juba - On The Road with Lisa, Ron and Franco http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=33 As we waited in Amsterdam, we met one Bol Bol, who works for the south Sudanese government. He has a house in Nairobi, and he assured us a hotel he knew would be safe. There really is no place to stay overnight at Jomo Kenyatta airport, so we took his advice. And he was right. The ride to Heron Hotel was peaceful; the hotel (like all quality hotels, it had a locked gate and security) was beautiful and the right price; their restaurant is excellent, and breakfast was included. The next morning we went back to the airport to book our flight to Juba; it left at 10 a.m., and we were in the capital of southern Sudan before noon. We are now at Kush Resort, a lodging of big, old style safari tents, with fans. It is not the outrageous price of $100, so often quoted when discussing Juba, and it does include our meals, showers, a flush toilet, and free laundry service. It's on the banks of the Nile, and we sat under thatched umbrellas drinking mango juice and Fanta orange soda.
Franco is still there as I type, working on our arrangements to go to Aweil. We are eager to get there as soon as possible, and from there we will go to Wunlang.
To get to this internet café, Ron and I walked through a field of rusted-out tank bodies, the remnants of the civil war that consumed southern Sudan for 21 years. We also blinked when we saw the SPLA soldiers traveling, not guarding but on a journey, each with his automatic weapon.
Our driver stood on the hood of his car to get mangoes from the tree that was next to where he parked at Kush.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=33 Wed, 9 Jan 2008 20:13:34 -0600 What's left to do http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=32
-- Agum Madut's husband is coming over with photos of them and their toddler. Like many Lost Boys and Lost Girls, Agum, our community educator, did not know for years whether her parents were dead or alive. But her mother is safe, and leaves near Wunlang. She's never seen pictures of her granddaughter.

-- Pack needlework. We will spend time waiting -- for planes, cars, etc. There will be time to do needlework. Many Sudanese women embroider bedsheets beautifully and crochet covers for platters of kisera, their tasty flatbread. There may be a time when we can do needlework together. I knit and embroider like an eight-year-old. But I'm still taking some. I'm working on a pillow cover for my father. It contains a quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

What lies behind us
and what lies before us
are tiny matters compared to
what lies within us.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=32 Sun, 6 Jan 2008 08:23:57 -0600 Not much time left! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=31 General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=31 Sat, 29 Dec 2007 21:43:26 -0600 A Call to Yel and Angelo http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=30
We first talked about the business of getting ready to the build the school. Franco urged Yel to continue the arrangements for getting the sand, cement, and stones to Wunlang in readiness for our contractor Francis Makuei. We also need water barrels to hold the water for mixing. Yel is working on that; Franco is negotiating the final prices and arranging payment.

Franco also told Yel to talk to Francis about employing local people on the project. Our contractor will bring one of his experienced construction teams to the site. But with little motorized equipment, there are jobs in fetching and hauling -- something the people of Wunlang can do, and something that will provide paying work.

Yel also has an new assigment -- to make three walking trips. He is to walk a half-hour away from Wunlang, in three different directions. The purpose is to scout out a site for a new borehole. More than 600 families are using the well we drilled in 2006. We've just received funding for another well. One of our criteria for a well is whether that site would also be suitable for another school. We'll get Yel's report when we arrive.

Ron and Franco met Angelo when they visited Wunlang in 2005, but I was speaking to him for the first time.
null
I asked him what kind of teacher training his staff needed. "Intensive English instruction," was his immediate answer. It's a good thing my copy of No-Glamour Grammar had just arrived. I saw this on a teacher's desk at Hardy School in Arlington, and I bought my own copy to take with me. I like it a lot. As its title says, it's not fancy or clever, just very straightforward grammar exercises about parts of speech, tenses, sentence construction, etc. It has a very universal cultural context -- nothing especially American -- and its format makes it easy to copy lessons onto the board and into exercise books. And, the answers are in the back!

I plan to use this text as part of teacher training. As I mentioned in a previous blog, I also plan to take copies of traditional Dinka tales my foster son and I wrote down and my daughter illustrated as an example of a reading and writing project. I'll only have a couple of weeks, but I will do what I can. I'll also scout out teacher-training programs in the area.

Franco asked Angelo about women's literacy. Angelo has already started a class for women! I'm really looking forward to observing it. We'll see how we can integrate the Rotary Club's Intensive Language Encounter program into this class.

Teachers are supposed to be paid by the Government of South Sudan, but as we suspected, that payment is very spotty. Teacher retention is suffering all over the region. We plan to work with GOSS to see that our teachers are compensated. We're also offering an incentive package -- teach at Wunlang for two years, and we'll help with the teachers' education, either at secondary school or a formal teacher-training school.

We asked about food support for children, and Angelo said: "Nothing." World Food Programme has done an assessment of Wunlang. Because there is now was no secure storage area for food, Wunlang does not qualify for WPF aid. Our school building will include a food-storage area. When we finish that, we will certainly approach WPF again.

However, we have no plans to make Wunlang a town completely dependent on government aid. We plan for the school to include a vegetable garden and a small cattle enclosure. In time, we'll be teaching agriculture and animal husbandry.

We talked for almost an hour, and it was too short. We may talk again on the phone. Or it may be that I next greet Yel and Angelo in person!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=30 Thu, 13 Dec 2007 23:58:59 -0600 We're going to Sudan in a month! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=29
We plan to accomplish a lot. We'll meet with our construction manager, Francis Makuei, and make sure the construction of our school is up and running. We'll meet with village leaders, men and women, to discuss our plans for an adult literacy program. We'll meet with the teachers to see what teacher training we can offer them -- both right then, in the time we are in Wunlang, and what long-term teacher training is available in the area. We'll give out more school supplies. We will work on our plans to drill another well. We'll take lots of photos and video for future presentations and to put on our web site. We hope to blog from Sudan!

On the way home, Lisa is going to remain in Kampala, Uganda, an extra two weeks. She'll stay with her foster son, Peter Manyang Malang, and his extended family in their rented house in Kampala. In addition to visiting, she'll be scouting out sewing machines. We plan to set up a small enterprise making school uniforms, and the first step to that is to acquire foot-treadle sewing machines. They're all over Kampala, and we will find a good wholesaler. We'll also compare the prices of school supplies in Kampala versus Nairobi.

But in the meantime, the list of things to do grows and the time to do it in shrinks. Time to sign off -- we're going to Africa in a month!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=29 Fri, 7 Dec 2007 21:04:35 -0600 A Call to Yel http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=28
I learned that the schools under the trees can be cancelled because of wind. They were on Friday. Imagine what a school with walls will do!

And Yel greeted me, happily, as "Madame Lisa." Madame is a common honorific in Uganda, where he was educated. Stil, it makes me feel so regal.

Still the same person nonetheless,
Lisa]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=28 Sun, 2 Dec 2007 15:45:48 -0600 On the Road Again http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=27
We still have dates in which to put blue bars, so if your group would like us to come by, drop us an e-mail.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=27 Tue, 13 Nov 2007 22:59:37 -0600 The Board and Others Learn To Read a Book http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=26 Concentrated Language Encounter. It's a literacy program like no other, one that is working in Nepal and Haiti and Thailand and South Africa. It's the best mix of theory and praxis in adult literacy I've found yet. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=26 Sat, 3 Nov 2007 20:36:24 -0500 Gather up those ink cartridges and old cell phones http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=25 Recycling for Charities. which will help you recycle old cell phones, PDAs, ink and toner cartridges, and digital cameras, and will give us some money.

How it works:

-- Gather up all those old items. Look around your house or office. Feel free to set up a collection box with a sign. (Contact us, and we can send you a poster to print out.)

-- Go to www.recyclingforcharities.com

-- Find Village Help for South Sudan in the pull-down list of charities, and fill out the form.

-- And mail them in! When Recycling for Charities gets $25 for us (and that depends on how much each item is worth), we'll get a check! You will get a tax deduction, a less cluttered workspace, and the satisfaction of knowing that you have helped build Wunlang School.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=25 Thu, 18 Oct 2007 12:42:41 -0500 Welcome, Agum Madut! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=24 null
We are very happy to add Agum Madut to our team as a Community Educator. Agum is one of the Lost Girls of Sudan. She came to America from Kakuma Refugee Camp in December 2000. Franco Majok was her case manager for Lutheran Social Services of New England and met Agum when she got off the plane.

Since then, Agum has graduated from Natick High School in 2002. In 2004, she married James Mayen Deng. In 2005, she began her studies at UMass/Boston. In July 2006, she gave birth to a beautiful baby girl Achol. Now she is going to school and taking care of her toddler.

When Agum heard that Franco was building a school near where she was from, she wanted to help. Agum began her education in a refugee camp. She wants the girls of Wunlang to get their education in a school near their homes. Agum's mother is one of the few women in the region who knows how to read. Agum hopes that other women can learn to read.

If you'd like to learn about and to help provide education for girls and women in Sudan, Agum is happy to speak to you or to your group. Contact her via our contact page.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=24 Mon, 1 Oct 2007 19:51:48 -0500 Where in the World is Wunlang? http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=23 Wunlang from above the earth

Doing a project in a remote, rural African village such as Wunlang means that most people here, including those of you reading this blog, don’t know where this place is. Even the savviest Internet search is not likely to lead you to a map that shows Wunlang. The closest I have found is a map of the county that appears on the UN Sudan Information Gateway web site. The map of Aweil East County shows the seven payams of the county, including Wunlang Payam. Even this map, however, does not show the actual village of Wunlang.

There is a very good set of maps produced by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs on the Center for Development and Environment web site. These maps show extremely fine detail of most of the regions of South Sudan. Look at the map of Northern Bahr el Ghazal state, however, and you will not see Wunlang.

I visited Wunlang last November, and I can personally testify to its remoteness. To get there, we were escorted by a truck and driver generously donated to us for the day by Aweil East County Commissioner. I recall a bumpy 2-hour ride over dirt footpaths meandering through thorny brush to get to the village from the county seat. Each turn the young driver took prompted me to think, and sometimes say aloud, “Are you sure this is the way to go?” The driver and his assistants had a good laugh at my innocent naiveté. When we finally arrived, and the dust kicked up by the 4-wheel drive settled, I looked around in further amazement at the village where we were to build the school.

More than 500 families called Wunlang home at the time of my visit. Now these numbers are increasing rapidly, as refugees from neighboring countries and internally displaced people return to their hometown. They are drawn here by the relative safety afforded by the peace agreement after 22 years of war. Word has also spread about the school facility Wunlang will soon have, and the returnees are attracted to this place by the promise and hope the Wunlang School brings to this area.

How can a place with a population the size of Wunlang village be invisible to the cartographers who have mapped parts of this region? This partly rhetorical question provides a good portion of the inspiration behind our involvement here. Wunlang is Franco Majok’s home village, of course, and he has brought the needs of Wunlang to the attention of the rest of his team making up Village Help for South Sudan. Over the past 15 months of my involvement, however, I have seen how our direct involvement in Wunlang has also brought the needs of Wunlang to the attention of other people, including humanitarian organizations, the UN, and government officials in South Sudan who are simply overwhelmed by such needs across most of the south’s ten states.

One way to see for yourself the pinpoint location of Wunlang is via the technology of GPS. When we installed a new water borehole and hand pump for the village last January, we used a device to record the GPS coordinates of the water. Its exact location is N 09° 08.807’ – E 027° 25.862 – Elevation 1418 feet. You can convert these coordinates to decimal degrees and use the result in a Google Map search. No map is displayed initially, as this part of Sudan is not on Google’s map. If you click on the Satellite button, however, you will see a satellite image of Wunlang.

After the Wunlang School is constructed and children begin attending classes inside a building for the first time in Wunlang’s history, we will teach a lesson in geography, and we will show the students – young and old – where Wunlang is on a map and the route, by air and over land, that we took to get there. We will point to places on the map of the United States that are now, and will forever be, connected to the village of Wunlang.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=23 Sun, 9 Sep 2007 10:38:52 -0500 Moving Forward in Adult Education http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=22
What are my goals for Wunlang's adult literacy classes?

-- Good teachers. Teacher training is one of the most important keys to success in adult literacy. Teachers need to adapt their approach to teaching adults, not children. They need to be able to teach people with widely different levels of learning experience.

-- School-management training. When 200 exercise books arrive, the school staff needs to decide how many are needed now, and how many need to be put aside for next term, no matter how loudly students clamor for extras. On market day, the school hours need to be adjusted. When our school is built, the class schedules need to be followed and the building maintained.

-- A grain-grinding machine, and one that is maintained. Amie's town had one, but it is now broken and rusted. Girls as young as seven spent hours pounding grain. A grinding machine enables girls and women to go to school.

There's lots more. A lot will depend on what the adults of Wunlang want for their education. Meeting with Amie has given me many tools to help those adults learn.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=22 Thu, 30 Aug 2007 20:19:39 -0500 Dinka Stories -- My First Textbook! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=21
He said, "You will take the book to the school."

I couldn't believe it -- a textbook sitting in my house all along! I'm going to have copies made for each of the Wunlang teachers. We'll read it together -- which will help me assess the teachers' reading levels -- and discuss and and write about it. Then we can talk about the teachers' and students' writing and illustrating their own stories.

At some point I'm going to need some colored pencils.
null]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=21 Thu, 23 Aug 2007 21:42:48 -0500 Alexander Rittershaus – Young Hero to Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=20 Alexander RittershausAlexander Rittershaus is a senior at Lynn Classical High School, and we are very fortunate to have him on our team coordinating our Village to Village campaign. In fact the whole concept that became “Village to Village” actually began with Alex.

Almost as soon as our Executive Director, Franco Majok, returned from his trip back home to Wunlang in late 2005, Alex heard about the urgent needs of the village. He listened to the story of Franco’s trip, and saw pictures of children attending a school under trees, and he wanted to help.

What can one young man do for a village and a school with hundreds of students with such needs? No one who volunteers his time with us exemplifies the “Power of One” more than Alex. In solidarity with the people in Wunlang who were making bricks by hand for their school, he conceived of a fundraising approach to sell paper bricks at his school. He brought the idea to his teachers and principal at Lynn Classical. He formed a fundraising committee with other students, and mobilized them to help with his fundraiser. He invited Franco and Ron to speak at a student assembly about our organization and the Wunlang School Project. His desire to help the suffering children in Wunlang became more than one person’s humanitarian mission. After a semester of selling bricks at $1.00 a piece, the entire school knew about Alex’s campaign, and they raised more than $4500 for the Wunlang School.

Now Alex is inviting other young people and their schools to join his Village to Village campaign. He is representing our organization and the Wunlang School Project at Mass. Dept. of Ed. seminars. What Alex and his team did at Lynn Classical can be done in other area schools, and Alex will help. Not only will he and the rest of us at Village Help for South Sudan support fundraising at other schools, but everyone involved will have an enriching and rewarding experience helping the kids and their families in Wunlang.

How do you define a hero? Such attributes as leadership, service to others, role model, and inspiration come to mind. Alex is all of these things, and we are extremely proud of him. We are grateful that he turned his compassionate heart and fundraising talents in the direction of Wunlang last year, and we are thankful that he has become our Village to Village coordinator. He is making a long-term commitment to our organization and the Wunlang School, and he invites others with a passion to help a destitute people to sign on to the Village to Village campaign.

Can other schools do what Lynn Classical accomplished for us last year? Are there other young heroes out there like Alexander Rittershaus? Please join us!

Update: Alex is currently a first year law student at Suffolk Law.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=20 Fri, 10 Aug 2007 08:22:19 -0500 A Promotion to Class Two http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=19 I just heard of a young Southern Sudanese lady who was promoted from Class One -- First Grade -- to Class Two. This good news is tempered by her circumstances.


First, the young lady is not in South Sudan. She had to leave her family and travel to Uganda to get any chance of an education. She is staying with other Sudanese in a rented house, supported by relatives in America. The money for rent, the food, the water bill, the school fees, the uniforms, all are sent over from Lost Boys who are working day and night to support their extended families.


Second, the young lady is about 18. Fortunately, the primary school in her Ugandan neighborhood offers adult primary education.


This is just one of many, many similiar situations.


Imagine how Wunlang School would change this situation. The young lady could stay in Sudan and attend our adult primary school. There would be literate adults, literate women, right in the village. The Sudanese in America would not be so strapped, and their money would be freed up to provide support in other ways. Wunlang School would bring hope and opportunity to Sudanese all around the world.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=19 Sat, 4 Aug 2007 21:56:34 -0500 Listen to Our Radio Interviews http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=18
UMass Lowell: WUML's Sunrise program invited Franco and Ron to their studio on July 20th to discuss our project. You can listen to the interview at this link. We are very appreciative of host Henri Marchand for inviting us onto his show.

MIT: WMBR’s Africa Kabisa program interviewed Franco, Lisa, and Ron in their studio on Sunday, July 22nd. A podcast of the program is available at this link. To host Julia Goldrosen: we love your show, and we were honored to be there on Sunday!

We will continue with our efforts to reach more people, to raise awareness of the urgent needs of Wunlang, and of course, to raise funds for this amazing project!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=18 Tue, 24 Jul 2007 12:29:57 -0500 Upcoming Radio Interviews http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=17
-- Friday morning, July 20, 2007, we will be guests on the Sunrise show produced and aired on UMass Lowell’s radio station – WUML 91.5 FM – at 8:05 a.m.

-- Sunday afternoon, July 22, 2007, we will appear at 4:00 p.m. on Africa Kabisa - WMBR 88.1 FM – the MIT campus radio station.

-- We will also be featured guests on UMass Boston’s program called Commonwealth Journal, which will be broadcast on many area radio stations soon. (We will provide the date of the broadcast once the schedule is set.)

If you miss the scheduled broadcasts of any of these shows, don’t worry. They will all be available by podcast after the programs air. We will provide links and more information on this web site soon.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=17 Tue, 17 Jul 2007 16:10:39 -0500 Paypal is here! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=16
You can choose a one-time donation or set up recurring monthly donations in various amounts. Give it a try! Donate!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=16 Sun, 8 Jul 2007 18:55:42 -0500 We got our 501(c)(3)! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=15 Donate page, you can send your checks to our P.O. Box in Lynn. Soon you'll be able to make a donation via Paypal. Paypal accepts donations from your credit card or your Paypal account -- the days when you needed a Paypal account to use Paypal are long gone -- and you can set up recurring contributions.

Thanks so much to the people of First Lutheran Church in Lynn for handling our money in the interim.

We'll have brochures soon, so if you need some, let us know! ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=15 Thu, 5 Jul 2007 13:33:00 -0500 Teacher cooperation and a call for comments http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=14
It's an interesting project. There's no way to teach in Sudan with five worksheets per pupil per day. The current method now is almost all entirely lecture and seatwork. So Amie (and I) are looking for lesson plans that encompass different learning styles, but use hardly any equipment!

This will also involve teaching how to teach. Teaching goes on in a society every day, whether there is school or not -- girls learn how to make kisera, etc. Providing different ways of teaching catches more students with the excitement of learning. And I'll never forget what Valentino Achak Deng said about the health education his team provided in Kakuma Refugee camp. Young Sudanese would never talk frankly about AIDS and how to avoid it, but puppets could! So the puppets did the talking, and the people learned in a way that was acceptable.

I would never march into a school and declare that the way the teachers are teaching is all wrong. But I do want to provide training for different approaches that will enliven learning for everyone.

So here is what I've e-mailed Amie so far:

-- asking not-too-personal questions, graphing the answer on a blackboard (they have a blackboard), and asking for observations based on the results. (If there's a bar graph showing three girls named Achol, eight girls named Abuk, and nine girls named Ayak, what do you observe?) If you have a class of 200 rather than 20, divide the class into groups and do a poll a day.

-- using the days-in-school data to elicit observations. If school has met eight times, how many times will it have met in three days?

-- using sticks to teach place value -- 10 sticks becomes one bundle of 10. This makes teaching regrouping (or, back in the day, carrying and borrowing) visually obvious if you untie a bundle of 10, or make a new one.

-- playing market. Is it better to buy two kilos of sugar for more money but less per kilo? What if you only have a little money?

-- spelling and grammar bees.

And you out there, what ideas do you have? Please e-mail them to me or post them in the comments section. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=14 Wed, 13 Jun 2007 10:27:43 -0500 From the Wunlang Field Manager http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=13 Field Manager Yel

Can you introduce yourself to me?

Yel: My full name is Yel Maduok Ngor. I am from Wunlang. I was born at the beginning of civil war in south Sudan. My father and mother never had been to school because there was no school in Wunlang when they were at school age.

What do you have in education?

Yel: I a have high school diploma from Uganda

You just said your parents do not have any education, how did you go to school?

Yel: During the civil war my father lost his cows. As you know cows are everything to Dinka tribe. My father started new life as a farmer and then changed to small business. My father decided to send me to school because there were no cows. When I finished 8th grade in Wunlang School, my father decided to send me to Uganda to finish my high school. I was the only one from Wunalng School to finish my high school. War changes everything, {now} everyone is eager to his children to school.

When did you finish high school?

Yel: in 2006.

When did you start working as a Field Manager to Wunlang School Project?

Yel: in March 2007

What is the progress of the building plan?

Yel: Since March 2007, Wunlang community has been busy making bricks as the first step for construction of the school. We are so happy to get fund from US to hire people to make brick. We were able to hire 15 people and this is the first time in our story in Wunlang to create jobs for our people. We divided people in three groups (5 people in each group). We paid them 30,000.00 Sudanese dinnar for 1000 bricks. People stopped making bricks because of the rainy season. We made 163,000 bricks. We burnt {fired} all of them and they are now in good condition. We are waiting for you in US to send us money to start the construction when the rainy season is over by the end of October. I also contacted the builder Mr. Francis; he is not in our area now. I spoke with him last time and he told me that he has three teams of builders.

How is bore hole doing?

Yel: It is doing well, it broke down one time but we fixed it and is in good condition now. The problem we have with bore hole is that more six villages are using it. One bore hole is not enough to six villages in addition to students. It is a big problem. In summer, cows and goats drink from it. But it is much better than last year. At least we have clean water. Student used to cut their classes to look for water. It is not a case now.

How is the school under trees?

Yel: There are 350 students right now. Some students will show up late because this time of the year food is a big problem and many children are discouraged by that. Classes run well when there is no rain for all day, but when it rains school is closed. There are no houses near school to accommodate 350 people when it rains. The best thing to do is to ask children when it rains to run to their houses. Of course some children who walk long distance get wet on way home. There are 12 teachers in Wunlang School. Some of them walk long distance, some bike and some live close by. There are no school supplies, no shoes and no school uniforms.

Do women in Wunlang want to learn to read and write?

Yel: Yes, women want to read and write. This is one of the biggest issues we have in south Sudan. I am glad you asked me about that. No one thinks about them. As you know there is gap in gender education. Women are behind and they need a lot of help with education. A lot of returnees will find Wunlang a good place to settle if we have adult education for women.

Anything you need to add?

Yel: We are so glad from the people who help from US. We will not forget your support of building Wunlang School. We hope to see you in Wunlang. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=13 Mon, 11 Jun 2007 06:14:11 -0500 Our Facebook group http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=12 Facebook: Village Help for South Sudan for another way to learn about our work, and of course, to see who else is there. Our web site has more complete information, but if you're a person who likes to join Facebook groups, check us out and click on "join" for an even more informative Facebook session.]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=12 Sun, 3 Jun 2007 19:07:27 -0500 My plan to teach the women of Wunlang to write their names http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=11
I'm reading this for free on the Kentuckiana Digital Library. Each page has been photographed. Here it is: Kentuckiana Digital Library -- Moonlight Schools for the Empancipation of Adult Illiterates The low-tech solution -- traceable names, with a kinesthetic approach to literacy -- and the results -- the immediate rise in morale among married women who never thought they could learn to write -- is just what I am looking for.

]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=11 Sat, 26 May 2007 23:12:55 -0500 http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=10 Brookwood School in Manchester, MA. Valentino is an amazing human being. His speech and signing of the book “What is the What” made the evening very special for everyone in attendance. You can read a write-up of the event on the Brookwood web site.

Valentino and Franco

As he made clear in his speech, Valentino supports the Wunlang School Project, providing important and generous endorsement of the development efforts led by Franco Majok, a Brookwood parent. This project is directed by Village Help for South Sudan, for which Franco serves as Executive Director. Franco gave an eloquent speech introducing Valentino to the audience and providing a brief history of Sudan and the origins of the long civil war between the government of the North and the people of southern Sudan.

In Wunlang there is no school building. The children sit under trees for their classes. If it were not for our help, this village of some 500 families would still be sharing a single hand pump for safe drinking water and the youngsters would not have access to basic school supplies such as pencils and writing paper. The Wunlang School Project is changing this. Last November we brought school supplies for 500 students in the village. In January of this year we installed a new water well and hand pump. We have hired a citizen of Wunlang to be our Field Manager, and we have mobilized the community of Wunlang to be active participants in every aspect of our project. They have made the 150,000 bricks we will use to build their school. Construction will start in November, as soon as the rain stops and the roads to Wunlang dry enough to support the transportation of other construction materials.

There is peace in Wunlang after the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement more than two years ago. Thanks to the Wunlang School Project, the brave and determined citizens of Wunlang have more hope than ever that this and future generations will have the basic facility and supplies they need to educate their children.

Please join us in one of the most exciting development efforts taking place in the area where Valentino Achak Deng was born. Help us meet our commitments to the village of Wunlang by making a donation to our project.
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=10 Sat, 26 May 2007 17:03:41 -0500 Yard Sales for Wunlang http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=9
This is a great time of year to have a yard sale. Clean out your garage, basement, or other places around your house holding unwanted items that other people may be able to use. This is a better option than putting things in the trash, which simply go to a landfill.
Wunlang Child


To encourage you to have a yard sale and make a donation to a worthy cause, we invite you to dedicate your sale to the Wunlang School. Please take whatever information you need from our web site, or contact us if you would like a brochure or flyer to promote your yard sale and the needs of people of Wunlang.

Your donation of the proceeds from your yard sale will help us continue to deliver school supplies to the children of Wunlang. Thank you for your support!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=9 Tue, 22 May 2007 09:52:03 -0500 http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=8 What is the What. The public is welcome; RSVP at 978-526-4500. In a gesture of solidarity, Valentino is supporting the work of Village Help for South Sudan. We will also be at Brookwood School with our own information. I hope all the nonprofits forming to help South Sudan can learn from each other and find ways to cooperate. This is a terrific start!]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=8 Sun, 13 May 2007 14:23:45 -0500 The Power of One http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=7
VHSS got a letter recently from two high school students from New Hampshire who are doing a project called "The Power of One" for their World Cultures class. The goal of their project is to make a difference in the world. Even the littlest difference is their goal.

I got to thinking about "The Power of One" in my life. There is a lot of significance to me personally in the “power of one.” My humanitarian work began several years ago when I helped one refugee from the south Sudan civil war. This young man was resettled in the Boston area by the U.S. State Dept., along with about 200 other refugees after spending years on the run from their enemy and then barely surviving in refugee camps in Africa.

My help for this one person gradually turned into helping others. I have learned new ways to help, including serving on the Board of another organization that provides educational assistance to refugees here, and now by participating in delivering the benefits of education to the hundreds of children in a remote village in Sudan.

My power of one has quite rapidly become not what I can do for someone else, but what all the other individuals I met in Wunlang are doing for me! These people are teaching me that one person can do a lot but also gain a lot from taking the initial step.

-- Ron Moulton
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=7 Thu, 10 May 2007 19:12:28 -0500 Thanks to St. Paul Sunday School! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=5 St. Paul Lutheran Church in Arlington, MA were our first financial supporters and gave Franco the encouragement to make Wunlang School a reality. And they haven't stopped. The Sunday School just raised $500 with a car wash and a lemonade stand! Thanks so much. ]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=5 Wed, 9 May 2007 15:18:08 -0500 Welcome to the blog! http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=4
We know many blogs are launched with great fanfare but then the entries dry up, and there's no real reason to check it. It is our goal to keep this blog fresh and interesting, so you will want to return regularly to see the news about Wunlang School.

-- Lisa Deeley Smith
]]> General http://helpwunlang.org/blog/index.php?itemid=4 Tue, 8 May 2007 20:34:48 -0500