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The Refugee Voice The Refugee VoiceJesuit Refugee Service/USA August 2010 — Vol 4, Issue 3 Peace through education in Southern Sudan alking amidst the lush tall grasses of Eastern Equatoria State in Southern Sudan and looking at the peaceful verdant hills dotted with trees, it is hard Wto imagine the chaos and carnage that raged throughout the area from 1983 until 2005. After a generation of civil war, the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) on January 9, 2005 ended armed hostilities between the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) and the Government of Sudan. The agreement created the semi-autonomous Government of South Sudan (GoSS) controlled by the SPLM, and provided for a six-year interim period leading up to a referendum on independence that is due to take place on January 9, 2011. Challenges to Peace Since the signing of the CPA, some 320,000 refugees and 50,000 internally displaced persons (IDPs) have returned home to Southern Sudan. Re-establishing their communities has been no easy task. There is little modern infrastructure in the country, as development was stalled by more than twenty years of war. Returning refugees have had to relearn the skills of subsistence farming, growing cassava, maize and beans in the rich red soil, often competing for land and water with those people who stayed behind during the conflict. Gradually, peace has made possible the beginnings continued on page 2 A Note from the NAtioNAl Director Dear Friends of JRS/USA: In the early 1990s, JRS started providing basic education to Southern Sudanese refugees in camps in Uganda and Kenya. Throughout their fifteen years of exile, the refugees from Southern Sudan placed a high value on education. When the refugees started to voluntarily return home in 2005 following a peace agreement, JRS expanded its educational ministry – which has always been a key aspect of the JRS mission to accompany, serve and defend the rights of refugees – as a way to encourage and support refugees during their return. In January 2011, Southern Sudan will hold a referendum to choose independence from or unity with the north. The conduct, result, and aftermath of the vote will determine the direction of Southern Sudan’s future and the prospects for sustained peace in the region. During this uncertain period, JRS continues to accompany the people of Southern Sudan with programs that make schools the heart of new and restored communities, as focal points for hope for a better future and centers for peace building activities. Whatever the next year brings, we believe that the people of Southern Sudan will be better able to face the challenges ahead as a result of the support they have received through JRS education programs. In this issue of The Refugee Voice, I invite you to learn more about how JRS is working to After cleaning their classrooms, stu- dents at Lerwa Primary School study support the revitalization of Southern Sudan at this critical moment. outdoors while waiting for the floors to Fr. Ken Gavin, S.J. dry. (Christian Fuchs - JRS/USA) J e s u i t R e f u g e e s e R v i c e /u sA | 1016 16 t h s t R e e t , N W, s t e 5 0 0 | W A s h i N g t o N , D c 20036 | (202) 462-0400 | www . jr s u s A . o R g of improvement in education, Initially, and often still health, and sanitation, today, the quality of although much remains education in schools founded to be done. Throughout by the returned Southern this period, Jesuit Refugee Sudanese refugees has been Service (JRS) has contributed limited by local resources and to this development by teaching capacity. UNICEF’s building schools, supporting 2006 Rapid Assessment of teacher training, providing Learning Spaces found that school supplies, encouraging the majority of schools in the education of girls and Southern Sudan were located building the capacity of local outdoors, under trees, and that communities to take charge of fewer than 20% of teachers their own educational needs. had a teaching qualification. The new school buildings replace old structures comprised of thatch The Government of Southern Yet as the referendum draws roofs, stick walls and dirt floors. Jesuit Refugee Service built the first closer, tensions between the permanent school in Lobone, at Paimakong, in 2009. Earlier this year, Sudan, facing challenges two Sudanese governments, JRS built the first permanent school buildings in the villages of Lerwa on numerous fronts, and Palwar. (Christian Fuchs - JRS/USA) that in Juba in the south and simply could not provide that in Khartoum, have only the necessary support to grown. Many provisions of the CPA that were to have been local schools, and urgently requested assistance from resolved prior to the referendum remain unimplemented, international non-governmental organizations, including such as the delineation of the common border and an JRS. agreement on how oil revenues will be shared after the JRS saw a clear need to continue the educational ministry referendum. In addition, Southern Sudan struggles to it had begun in the refugee camps so as to meet the needs control spreading internal violence that has killed thousands of returnees. At the invitation of returnee communities, and displaced hundreds of thousands of people. It also faces JRS began education projects in and around the towns of a food shortage in Jonglei State, home to Akobo County, Nimule, Lobone, Kajo Keji, and Yei. The trust created which a local UN official recently called the “hungriest through many years of previous interaction has allowed place on earth.” With time running short and many complex JRS to foster community involvement in the schools, issues left to resolve, international observers are concerned including school management committees, parent teacher that Sudan’s north-south conflict could reignite and destroy associations, and cultural activities. JRS considers recent progress. these programs an opportunity for returned refugees to The Need for Education experience the full benefits of peace while preparing for an independent future. “Education in Southern Sudan is important because it is through education that we can sustain peace,” said JRS “It was a turning point in my educational knowledge when Lobone Project Director Lam Leone Ferem. I recently attended a two-week teaching program organized by JRS in Yei. The program covered the core subjects During the civil war, Southern Sudanese refugees eagerly which include English, mathematics, physics, chemistry, sought education for their children in affirmation of their biology and geography… More than 150 students from six hope for a better future amidst desperate circumstances. different secondary schools benefited from the program … Parents in camps such as Adjumani (Uganda) and Kakuma All the students who attended said it was the best and most (Kenya) understood that without education their children remarkable preparation program they cold imagine.” ~ Ade would become a lost generation. The schools operated by Samuel, student at Equatorial College in Yei. JRS in these camps gave the Southern Sudanese valuable basic skills and a sense of dignity and normalcy during “Given educational opportunities, people have the their displacement. When return to Southern Sudan became potential to rebuild their lives, to help rebuild their possible, many families delayed their departure until the communities and thus to strengthen and stabilize their end of the school year, and refused to return until they countries for generations to come,” said JRS International were assured that their children’s education could continue Director Fr. Peter Balleis, S.J. “back home.” Working with UN agencies and the Southern Long Term Commitment Sudanese government, JRS anticipated these needs and Lobone, an area in Southern Sudan’s Eastern Equatoria worked to renovate and staff schools in locations targeted state where JRS has worked since 2001, has more recently for repatriation. witnessed the return of the Acholi people. JRS is the only international agency working in this community. Through 2 grants provided by the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration (PRM), JRS has The Refugee Voice - August 2010 improved access to primary education by building three female education. primary schools and supporting seven schools. “In 2003 I moved back to Nimule, where I started working The schools in the Lobone area (Paimakong, Lerwa and as an English teacher at a secondary school. I took part Palwar) receive supplies, in-service training for untrained in training programs regularly organized by JRS to build teachers, support for fifteen teachers to attend university, the capacity of the teachers and improve the quality of and encouragement of female education. Presently these teaching. JRS also engaged me as an adult instructor to projects directly benefit 2,200 students and 58 teachers, teach English in the Functional Adult Literacy program. and also bring indirect benefits to thousands more in these What I saved from my incentive later enabled me to pay communities. part of my fees at university.” ~ Vincent, a former refugee from Southern Sudan who recently completed his B.A. at “I was a beneficiary of JRS. JRS educated me, and now Kampala International University. I work in the Lobone Administrative office during the In his book Islands of Education: Schooling, Civil War, morning, and teach adult education in the afternoon. and the Southern Sudanese (1983-2004), Mark Sommers, Education for children is important, but adult literacy is also important, so I chose to teach adults.” ~ Assistant Administrator of the Lobone Regional Government Office. In 2009, JRS built the first permanent school in Lobone, at Paimakong. The local chief commented that “JRS really made a miracle, building the first permanent classroom in this (county), since the creation of this (area) by God,” recalled JRS Lobone Project Director Lam Leone Ferem.
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