Barnes in Common

the magazine of Churches Together in Barnes
September/October 2007

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Under Tree Schools

Revd. Joseph Ayok-Loewenberg is back in Barnes for the summer. He has been working as Director for Religious Affairs in the Government of the new Southern Sudan since last October. He offers some comments on creating a new country after decades of civil war, and on his "Under Tree Schools" project to bring education to girls in his home region:

Walls of new school going up

The peace has been generally holding in the South since the Peace Agreement two years ago, and people are returning from exile. But there are still many issues to be resolved between the North and the South. Northern troops have not yet been withdrawn and there are difficult arguments over managing the oilfields in the South. The Ugandan Lord's Resistance Army is still creating unrest on the borders. My job of promoting the process of reconciliation between the tribes and religions is at times a challenge, but rewarding.

After four decades of war the infrastructure has to be rebuilt from scratch, including education. As yet there are hardly any organisations, state or otherwise, operating schools in much of the countryside. I hope that the school we are building will be a beacon for others to follow.

We plan that our school will teach girls, who are not the Government's priority for education. We want to provide them with academic teaching but also health education and vocational skills. The school which will be a non-denominational church school, will also be used for adult education to support the local community. We want the school chapel to be used by the wider community. The local leaders of the community are fully behind us and have gifted a large area of land in Malek to UTS for the new school.

Pupils queuing to register

We have registered 700 girls and boys. Many have had no schooling because of the war. They are being taught under the trees while the school buildings are built. We will select 300 (all girls if possible) to move into the new school when it is ready. I expect the state system to take the others.

Building works are going well despite the rainy season, and soon the sixteen sleeping and living huts for the teachers and eight classrooms will be roofed. The community is helping in many ways, eg by collecting stones for breaking up into the aggregate needed for making concrete (the breaking of stones is done by adults!). Experienced builders are employed.

We need new donations to fund the next stage. Priorities include drilling water boreholes and fitting out the classrooms. The school will be completed with more classrooms, a chapel, a library, sports facilities and a clinic. The whole school could be complete by early 2008 if we could raise £150,000 by then! To run the school will cost £30,000 a year to pay teachers and other staff, buy and transport teaching materials and other necessities.

The building is the beginning, not the end, of our vision for "Under Tree Schools". We want to be a bridge between two very different parts of the world enabling both sides to learn from each other, and to see what God is doing in different contexts, yet faced with some similar issues. For this part of the world, there is so much that we can learn from people in Sudan. How does God sustain people in the face of persecution and suffering? How do you stand firm in Christ when you are offered to swap your religion for a better life? God is life, and gives life in abundance which nothing else can in the same way. Out of this flows hope and love that the world cannot take away.

We praise God for all that has been made possible in a short time and are very grateful for the generous support we have received over the last year. There are more details and regular updates on our website, hosted by St Mary's: www.stmarybarnes.org Click on the tree in the top corner to get to the UTS pages.

Every blessing, Joseph Ayok-Loewenberg

 

Cattle roaming freely - a sign of peace

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