A couple of years ago I did some pro bono work for the Southern Ethnic Advisory and Advocacy Council (SEAAC). SEAAC’s role is to help young people from different cultural backgrounds and give them the skills they need to be stronger leaders within their own communities. During my time there I met some really interesting people who were doing some fantastic work with Sudanese teenagers.

Not long after, I read an article in my local newspaper about a young Sudanese refugee who was now living in Melbourne and who had a dream of bettering the education in Sudan by building a school for young girls in. Her name was Haluel Herjok and she was looking for a group of volunteers to help her with her mission. You can read the original article below.

Click to read full article

Education in Sudan

Having spent time with the Sudanese community, I learnt about the hardships that many had faced as refugees before coming to Australia. I knew straight away that this was a project I needed to be involved with. After contacting Haluel we both agreed that I could volunteer my photographic services to help raise some money for the project. I strongly believe in our children having the best education possible. This is not the case for children in many parts of the world. Education in Sudan, especially for young girls, is almost non-existent so I was compelled to help in any way that I could.

The original article attracted a lot of interest from members of the community. One such person was George Hendry, who helps to run Bryn’s School. Bryn’s School is an organisation that raises funds to build schools for children in areas of the world that is in desperate need of them. They just completed their fifth school in Cambodia. It seemed to be a perfect fit.

George and his organisation are brilliant! Since our first meeting with Haluel, George has been doing a lot of ground work to secure land, find a builder and co-ordinate with local communities. In 2011 he traveled to Sudan and managed to find and allocate land for the school. As you can imagine the logistics of building a school in a war stricken country that is still undergoing political unrest is a nightmare. Not to mention the lack of infrastructure, poor roads and access to equipment. This is a photo (courtesy George Hendry) of the main road into Bor Town where the land to build the school has been secured. It is not sealed and after heavy rain is impassable.

Education in Sudan – A School for Young Girls

Education in Sudan for girls is terrible as they do not have access to any formal of education or schooling. Young girls work on the land up until the point where they are married underage to older men. In many cases these marriages are forced under the threat of violence or even torture. Education is an important part of breaking this cycle, giving young women a voice to be heard. It will be a long and slow journey but hopefully initiatives like this can make an impact on young girls there and the overall education in Sudan.

Fundraising

In September George will once again travel to South Sudan to start the building process. Construction of the 6 classroom building is expected to take 6 months. The final cost of the project is hard to estimate but is expected to be somewhere between $100-130K. However the $70K raised so far is enough to get the ball rolling.

This Saturday (4th August) the Baai Bor community is having a Women’s Cultural Day in Keysborough to raise more funds and to build awareness of the poor education in Sudan and the imminent commencement of the project. Volare Photography will be there taking portraits helping to raise as much funds as we can.

If you would like more information on this weekends event or would like to make a donation or help out in any way in the future please contact me!!

Watch this space for updates on the building process.

Some stats about Education in Sudan from UNICEF:

• 70 per cent of children between six and seventeen years of age have never been to school, and the completion rate in primary schools is barely ten per cent, one of the lowest in the world.
• Conflict has left many children without basic services, with only 13 per cent of them having access to adequate sanitation.
• Half of its population is currently under the age of 18, yet the country has very poor social indicators, including high maternal and infant mortality, high rates of illiteracy and malnutrition, and very limited infrastructure, making it one of the riskiest places in the world for a child to be born.

You may also wish to watch this video titled, ‘It Only Takes a Girl’. The video is compelling viewing and refers to education around the 1min 50sec mark.