Building Schools in Sudan

Last night I went to a presentation by a Luther Sudanese student, Christine, who had been awarded a grant to build a primary school in Sudan this past summer. It was quite interesting hearing her story and seeing pictures of the "school" the kids had been going to before an actual building was constructed. There is one picture of the kids just sitting under a tree in a group, looking at a piece of slate that was propped up against the tree. The alphabet was written out on that slate.

I was awed by how those kids could learn in that simple setting. Here in the U.S. we all have our own paper, pencils, desks, and even laptops. We complain when our internet isn't working fast enough, while in Sudan there are students who don't have any of those supplies, who might walk 6 miles to school, and who start attending school as soon as they can walk. What a contrast!

Christine talked about some of the challenges they faced in building the school. First, everything was done by hand so that took time to dig the foundation, dig up rock for the foundation, transport the materials, etc. She said that they had to transport some of the rocks about 16 miles in a truck, and it took 2-3 hours to drive the 16 miles to the construction site due to the poor condition of the unpaved road! While the supplies were being trucked all of the workers made their way to the construction site by foot.

It was really neat to see the pictures of the finished 3-room school building that will be used by over 200 Sudanese students. Check out yariproject.blogspot.com for pictures and more information if you want to make any donations. It definitely makes me thankful for the numerous well-furnished schools I've attended.