Aid to the Church in Need: Sudan: The "Save the Saveable School Programme" in dire need of help

Sudan: The "Save the Saveable School Programme" in dire need of help

Posted by Project Description on 3/6/2009, 12:38 pm
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Sudan

The "Save the Saveable School Programme" of the Archdiocese Khartoum in dire need.

In Sudan, this giant country twice as big as France, Germany and Great Britain put together, some semblance of peace has returned since a peace treaty was signed in January 2005. Before the ratification of the peace treaty the country had been wracked by 22 years of civil war. A war rooted in the colonial past, pitting the mainly Arab and Islamistic north against the predominantly Christian and traditionalist south. This cruel fratricidal war dated back to 1983 and has cost more than 2.5 million lives. Four million refugees inside the country and five million in neighbouring countries, is the sad outcome of the war. The list of "Sudanese problems" is almost endless: restriction of freedom of worship, slavery, incidents of torture, rapes, execution, bombardments, hunger and no access to employment.

From 1983, to escape the war, people moved from the south to Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman, the largest cities in the north of the country.
Large refugee camps were rapidly established on the periphery of these cities where people were accommodated in cardboard, straw and sack housing - sometimes entire families resided in only six square metres. With no secure water supply, abysmal hygiene conditions, no adequate food supply, no work, no privacy, very few thought about a "luxury" such as education. Apart from this, the overwhelming majority did not know classical Arabic - the teaching language in all the state schools in Northern Sudan.

Despite the myriad of problems mentioned above, the first schools were set up in the refugee camps of the Archdiocese of Khartoum. They developed in church multi-purpose halls and bamboo huts built by the refugees. Under the initiative of Cardinal Zubier Wako and the Archdiocese of Khartoum the "Save the Saveable School Programme" developed from these community-based and supported schools,after it transpired that the state schools were not prepared to accept the refugee children in their classes, which were already full to overflowing. Emergency aid started in 1986. The programme was originally planned for only 8,500 pupils and was intended to prepare the children for an easier transition to the state schools after three year at primary school.

The situation became more critical during 1991/92 when a large resettlement campaign was carried out in which refugees were settled in more remote areas - often in the middle of the desert. The Church reacted accordingly. The "Save the Saveable School Programme" was continuously expanded until the year 2000 and now covers the spectrum from kindergarten through to 8th Class. Five priests, one Secretary of Education and an Executive Director run the programme which is now responsible for 54 schools (in all 517 classrooms) and 66 kindergardens with 866 teachers and 72 workers in Khartoum and in the province. The centres outside Khartoum are run by community priests and Comboni sisters.

These schools work as well as they can. In general subjects the curriculum and timetables are prepared in accordance with the standards of the Sudanese Ministry for Education. The schools are only free to organise the teaching of religion. For the religion lessons required for Muslim pupils (about 6.5%) teachers are seconded from the state schools.

While the program strives to provide teachers with ongoing training and additional efforts are made to obtain grants for gifted pupils to embark on courses of further study, the sad reality is that the schools are constantly under threat. On the one hand, finance is inadequate. The Archdiocese of Khartoum has exhausted its financial resources almost to the point of bankruptcy in order to keep the 'Save the Saveable School Programme' running. This situation has worsened of late with news that the funding partners, who have financed this program from its inception, are no longer in a position to continue to support the school program as it runs now. Furthermore, there is continuous pressure from the Ministry of Education that the schools must be built in at least semi-permanent materials.

(Sudan: Pupils in a "Save the Saveable" school classroom at the Angola camp outside of Khartoum)

Further complicating the matter is the latent threat of state control. If one looks at the statements of Dr Hassan El Turabi, the Sudanese parliamentary spokesman, general secretary of the governing Congress Party and chief ideologist, there is reasoned to be alarmed with comments such as: "Those who do not want to be Arabized and converted to Islam must pay the price for rejecting God's wish [...] Arabization is good for them. We have to teach these rebel Southerners about what is good for them."

On the other hand, Cardinal Zubeir Wako strongly believes that there should be schools available that offer an alternative education system to the people. He says: "One has to take seriously what is deliberately imposed in government schools, e.g. of teaching even kindergarten children that they are Arabs and Muslims and obliging them to live accordingly. A Christian girl told her mother: 'In the kindergarten we are Muslims. At home we are Christians'. "

The situation is difficult for the government is not in the position to provide the children in the camps with schooling, but it is not happy with the idea that the children are receiving a Christian education. On the other hand, in Sudan where they have existed for more than fifty years, Catholic schools traditionally have an excellent reputation, and as a result of the co-education of Christians and Muslims, they make a good contribution to mutual understanding.

The Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need (ACN), a supporter of the program for many years, is convinced that it is essential to continue the "Save the Saveable School Programme". The charity believes the Sudanese refugee children must be given the tools to master the future - with a healthy intellectual and moral foundation.

Cardinal Wako points out: "We will have a sad future if there are no qualified intellectuals who have had the benefit of some kind of Christian education". He is convinced that the Archdiocese must keep the presence of the Church alive in the field of education.

The experience of the civil war years has established an undeniable fact that without the schools run by the Church, both in the South and in the North, children from the South would have been deprived of an education. The programe remains essential, despite the signing of the peace treaty, for the return of huge numbers of the formerly displaced people to their places of origin will take much longer than foreseen, as no concrete arrangements have been made for their repatriation.

The security situation in the South and the other areas is still precarious. Many people are also not willing to return to the South for fear of unemployment, as even the petty menial job opportunities they have in Khartoum do not exist elsewhere. Furthermore, many pupils will not accept to continue their education in the South because the shift from Arabic to English would put them at a disadvantage.

(Sudan: Children at the "Save the Saveable" School in a camp in Jebel Aulia outside of Khartoum)

Today the number of children participating in these teaching programmes has decreased dramatically. Five years ago there were still 70,000 girls and boys involved in the program, but today there are just 29,968 pupils within Khartoum and a further 2,478 outside Khartoum. The principal source of income for covering expenses are the modest school fees, but this is nowhere near enough. And for many of these usually very large families even this is more than they can afford. As a result some 20 - 25% of the pupils don't pay any school fees at all. Many of the schools are little more than makeshift huts and some of these will not withstand the heavy rains of the wet season.

The schools are facing growing debts with staff wages representing the heaviest burden. At present there are 866 teachers who have to be paid.
Each year the government increases their salaries. In addition the Church has to invest in the training of these teachers, for many of them are still young and inexperienced. Every year 150 young teachers take part in State-run training courses, to enhance the quality of their teaching.

To save funds a re-structuring program has been implemented with the aim of reducing the schools to only two per parish (there are 25 parishes) by the year 2010.

A new approach has also been adopted to encourage families to help towards the cost of the teaching materials. The decentralisation of the programme is enabling the parishes to assume a greater responsibility than before in the field of education and teaching.

But despite all this, the savings made thereby are still not enough to assure the future of these schools, and outside financial aid remains essential.

In his concern, Bishop Daniel Adwok Marko Kur, the auxiliary bishop of Khartoum has asked ACN for further help.
"Without this programme", he tells the charity, "we could never provide an education for these refugee children... We hope with all our hearts that the current peace process will ultimately bring about a return of freedom, so that the people will - perhaps - one day be able to return to their original homes.
If real peace returns to Sudan, then the programme will one day come to and end naturally... For the time being our principal aim, with your help, is to keep these schools open and working."

And Emma, aged 14, who attends one of the Save the Saveable schools in the Mayo refugee camp, adds: "For me the school here is really important.
Without it I would have no choice but to stay at home. It is my only hope of fulfilling my dream of becoming a doctor."

ACN will continue to fund the "Save the Saveable School Programme". This year it has promised a grant of over $800,000 to meet the cost of teacher's salaries.

To help support these schools in the Khartoum area please go to the website at Aid to the Church in Need www.aidtochurch.org and make an Online donation. Please quote the following project reference number in the Comments box when making your donation: Sudan/Khartoum 08/210.

Editor’s Notes:

Directly under the Holy See, Aid to the Church in Need supports the faithful wherever they are persecuted, oppressed or in pastoral need. ACN is a Catholic charity – helping to bring Christ to the world through prayer, information and action.

Founded in 1947 by Fr Werenfried van Straaten, whom Pope John Paul II named “An outstanding Apostle of Charity”, the organisation is now at work in about 130 countries throughout the world.

The charity undertakes thousands of projects every year including providing transport for clergy and lay Church workers, construction of church buildings, funding for priests and nuns and help to train seminarians. Since the initiative’s launch in 1979, 46.5 million Aid to the Church in Need Child’s Bibles have been distributed worldwide.

While ACN gives full permission for the media to freely make use of the charity’s press releases, please acknowledge ACN as the source of stories when using the material.

For more information, please contact the Australian office of ACN on (02) 9679-1929. e-mail: info@aidtochurch.org or write to Aid to the Church in Need PO Box 6245 Blacktown DC NSW 2148. Web: www.aidtochurch.org

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