Photo by: Project Education Sudan
The situation in Sudan has become somewhat of a humanitarian target for the twenty-first century, but beyond saving Darfur, Carol Rinehart, Executive Director of the local charitable organization Project Education Sudan (P.E.S.), organizes an annual trip to Sudan that aims to tackle real issues at a real level, from the ground up.
P.E.S. yearly dedicates months to drilling clean water wells, delivering grinding mills to emancipate girls and women to attend school, implementing teacher training, income literacy workshops and monitoring the work progress of the schools in the three villages of Konbek, Maar and Pagook in the Jonglei State.
Over the last 25 years the southern Sudanese have been forced to abandon their Christian beliefs and convert to Islam in order to obtain any form of education from the Northern Khartoum Regime during the civil war. Schools that did not coincide with the framework and beliefs of the Regime were targeted and bombed, leaving 2.2 million dead and 4.4 million displaced. Because of the massive destruction in southern Sudan, there was no existing healthcare, water source and two generations of uneducated Sudanese.
Rinehart said this year’s 5th trip to Sudan spanning Jan. to March was a crucial one, illuminating the big changes and improvements occurring in the southern areas. The aid being given to these remote areas of Sudan goes beyond any monetary value and immediate relief; it sets the building blocks for long-term successes with the encouragement of self-sufficiency.
“They are really working on making their country operable and functioning, they want to be a part of the modern world,” explained Rinehart.
This trip focused on enhancing the quality of education through partnerships. P.E.S. has partnered with The Women’s College at the University of Denver (TWC) to create a sister school relationship with the Ayak Anguei Girl’s Primary School in the village of Konbek. TWC funded and filled 600 book packs with underwear for the Book Pack Project. The packs were distributed in February, giving the girls proper supplies for a continuing enhanced educational experience.
Another important partnership for this trip was with Ears To Our World (ETOW), an organization that distributes shortwave radios to teachers in rural areas of developing countries as a teaching resource. P.E.S. was chosen as the first pilot program in Sudan where Rinehart distributed 60 radios to teachers in five schools this past February. The radios improve the learning experience in schools with few resources, developing their English language skills and expanding their knowledge on current events.
“The teachers are very eager… to be a part of the pilot program. We listen to BBC [news]… and Sudanese Political [news radio] stations learning about the upcoming elections [on April 11th 2010],” said Rinehart in her e-mail update in mid-February.
“Sudan has been dependent on aid for 25 years and to encourage and see them get on their own two feet to make [independence] happen was the highlight for me, it’s not a hand out, it’s a hand up,” Rinehart said.
Rinehart advocates that there is still much to be done in a country in the process of coming to terms with a new identity. For further information on P.E.S. and how you can get involved by volunteering or becoming an intern please visit their website at www.projecteducationsudan.org.
