Something happened at the end of 2023 that should have made the news, in my opinion: a new school building officially opened in South Sudan.
This is no small feat. Materials and skilled labor are in short supply in South Sudan and have to be imported from Uganda. You don’t simply go to The Home Depot, buy the bricks, hire a contractor, and have yourself a nice school building.
The rainy season makes the roads impassable for bringing labor and material. With a small window of good weather, all the materials have to be brought from hundreds of miles away, and the labor performed while weather permits. In short, it’s a lot of waiting around and then all hands on deck.
It’s also not cheap. While it’s certainly cheaper than building a school in the US, it can take awhile to raise the $30,000 necessary to buy the materials, pay the laborers, and set out in a hurry to build before the rain comes.
But we did it. Amazing Grace Community now has a four classroom building.
And it’s not just any other school. It turns out this school is actually a pretty big deal. Here’s why.
Kids can learn year-round
Without a school building, classes are at the mercy of the weather. While class under the trees helps keep children shaded during hot, sunny days, they are not enough for the rainy seasons, which occur twice a year for a total of 6 months during the year. The rain disrupts learning for half the year– unless children can gather in a building to continue to learn, rain or shine.
It saves girls from early marriage
Many families see value in their girls as a way to earn some income from a dowry, and it is not uncommon for girls to start getting married as young as 14 years old. But many girls do not want to get married so young, and with good reason– they want to get an education, and pregnancy during teenage years is extremely risky, especially in South Sudan which ranks #1 in the world for maternal mortality during child birth. School saves lives, and research shows that educated girls also reduces childhood stunting and raises household income levels.
It saves boys from early soldierhood
South Sudanese boys also have risks associated with lack of school attendance. Without school, boys are more easily recruited as soldiers, especially for rebel army groups. In South Sudan, cattle raiding is a common practice, and boys can be lured into cattle raiding, which involves stealing cows from neighboring families or tribes, at the risk of death. Either of these options of becoming a soldier or being involved in cattle raiding is very violent and cuts life short.
It is a mission of peace-building
With all this tribal conflict related to cattle raiding and competing for resources, many tribes are entrenched in generational battles of vengeance for the violence they’ve experienced. But in school, children learn how to live together, study together, work together, and see each other as “us” rather than “them.” It is an amazing transformation in their lives that brings hope to the future of South Sudan– to one day see no more inter-tribal conflict.
It is locally run and locally supported
The school at Amazing Grace Community wasn’t started by two foreigners traveling to South Sudan and deciding that they needed a school building. Over the course of two years of getting to know each other, the request for a school building came from within AGC– and with strong community support. In our first meeting in South Sudan in April 2022, we heard directly from the community chief and from members about how much they longed for this school. They made no other requests– it was simply, “Please help us build a school for our children.”
It attracts people to the ways of God
God’s word and God’s way of living are infused into everything that is done at the school. From morning prayers to nightly devotions, Sunday services, and other gathering times, God is a central part to how children are taught to live in their world and how to mature into the adults that their country needs for the future. But it’s not just a place for children to learn– any adult who steps foot on the property is received with the love and encouragement of God. Little by little, things are changing in South Sudan.
What’s next?
We need to build two more buildings– another four classroom building and an administrative block with a library.
We can’t do it without our friends and family. Each building is about $30,000 to build– would you consider being part of it?
Click here to donate today. Be part of something that is a pretty big deal.
Fulcrum Missions 