Help Lost Boys Support Education & Peace

We are grateful to contributors to “Support Lost Boys Building Schools in South Sudan” that began through Global Giving in late November 2013. We are writing to update you about progress since our last Global Giving Report on February 17. There is a lot to share.

As many people are aware, South Sudan began experiencing more political and ethnic conflict in December 2013. More than 700,000 people had to leave their villages in several of the 10 states in South Sudan. Unity State, where our Raising South Sudan project started, was affected.

Our Raising South Sudan project team has been working hard to continue education efforts and adapt plans to the circumstances. In the last three months, we confirmed that the first school we built in former Lost Boy James Lubo Mijak’s home village of Nyarweng has re-opened, and we’ve transferred some funds to teachers at the school for basic materials and necessities. “Lubo” is still working in South Sudan and serving as project manager, and we receive updates every week to two weeks.

Regarding the planned second school in Ngor Kur Mayol’s village of Aliap, we have decided that the circumstances in Unity State do not warrant moving forward in the foreseeable future. But we are committed to education for these children. We received $7,145 from generous supporters to our November 2013 Global Giving campaign, and we already had close to $30,000 set aside for the Aliap school. As an alternative, we are exploring how to provide scholarships to send children from Aliap to attend an already existing school in another town. To do this, we will help improve some of the school’s existing buildings and provide support for more teachers. So, we imagine that we will re-start our Global Giving campaign sometime this summer for this reason.

We’ve always believed in collaboration to make a difference to education in South Sudan. And certainly, in the face of new challenges, we are strengthening old relationships and building news ones. In the last month, we sent $7,500 to our friends at the Gumriak Orphanage and School, which is in the same county as Nyarweng and Aliap. These funds will be used for new chairs in their classrooms.

We’ve also encouraged our friend former Lost Boy Majok Marier of Atlanta to move ahead with his project “Wells for Hope,” that will include boreholes and adult literacy near the city of Rumbek in the Lakes State of South Sudan. This month, his project joins the same Mothering Across Continents network that our Raising South Sudan project belongs to, and we will be glad to share our knowledge to help his project make progress, too.

Yet, as much as we’re motivated by the needs of the children of South Sudan, it’s the continued generosity of volunteers and donors that inspire and amaze us. In that regard, we’d like to close with the story of the9th grade class of Myers Park High School in Charlotte, NC. This year, they formed the first Any1Can Club through Mothering Across Continents and decided to devote their efforts to learning about South Sudan and raising funds for our project. All of the 9th grade English teachers worked articles and films about South Sudan into their classes, and all 900 of the 9th grade students attended assemblies to learn about the journey of the former Lost Boys of Sudan. More than 700 students registered for a 3-mile Walk for Wisdom and raised more than $4,000 which they are asking alumni to match. And the same number of students created computer-based reflections called “memes” that linked what they learned about conflict and intolerance in classic works of English literature with the situation in South Sudan. They are creating a virtual public gallery with the purpose of advocating for peace.

We hope that these updates are helpful to you. We always welcome questions, suggestions, messages of support, and tax-deductible donations to support our steadfast commitment to children and education in South Sudan: info@motheringacrosscontinents.org