Sudan
The Bradford Diocese has had a link with N Sudan for over 20 years and we have supported many projects in that time. This year the Northern Sudan Group decided to send a team to focus on education, as this was something that the Bishops in N. Sudan had highlighted as of great importance. So, with Chris' education background, she was asked to be part of the team. The three members of the team set off in Feb and stayed for three weeks, spending most of their time in the displaced people's camps.
The situation there is horrendous, in most camps there is no water, adequate sewage disposal or electricity. Water is brought in by donkey cart and people are still living in shacks made of whatever material they can find, like the ones in this picture. The 'lucky' ones have homes made of adobe bricks, which often collapse in the rainy season.
We hope to help to provide more permanent classrooms, school kitchens and pit latrines, together with funding towards salaries for staff. Many teachers go for months without salary and it is very difficult to retain good staff. £1,000 covers a basic teacher's salary with a little left over to provide some teaching materials.
As you can see from this picture classrooms are frequently little more than shelters from the sun, although this one is gradually being rebuilt using more permanent materials as the money comes in to cover the costs.
Most classrooms, like this one, have no desks and often no books. The blackboard is the only resource the teacher has.
For the people living in the camps their only hope for the future is through education; and the existing church schools already do their best to provide education for adults in the evenings as well as for the children during the day.
Will you help us to help them, please?
Donations can be sent to Chris Low at the Old Vicarage - Burton in Lonsdale - marked Sudan appeal.
A short sampler video
with snippets from Chris and her colleagues three week stay is available here:
Sudan1
- a taster
(This is a 5Mb download which produces a fairly poor-quality
film in Windows .wmv format, which should play on Windows Media Player.) The
film has no commentary and little "story" to it. This is a simple
chronological record of a few of the things that they did.