Term now underway

The school term is now well underway.  We were inundated with families arriving desperate for school places at the beginning of term.  This is understandable as Cece is the only non-fee paying school in Nimule.  The need is bottomless.  Coupled with this, we are short of teachers because two teachers have had to leave for Uganda for various domestic reasons. 

The local education office has stipulated that all primary teachers must be qualified or have reached Senior 4 level (equivalent of GCSE level).  This is sensible, but not easy to achieve due to the generally poor standard of education in South Sudan.  A major challenge is that some international NGOs have been enticing qualified teachers from Nimule to teach in refugee camps across the border in Uganda at greatly enhanced rates of pay.  This has left all schools, not just ours, very short staffed.

We have managed to recruit one replacement teacher.  The new teacher, Peace, and one of our original teachers, Sabina, were both trained by the Jesuit Refugee Service who were active in Nimule in the 1990s.  When the JRS is mentioned, people’s faces light up with memories of how they helped provide skills and training at a time when the locals were being terrorised by Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and Arab aerial bombardment.  Sabina and Peace were officially trained in teaching adult literacy, but their training was so thorough that they can teach anybody, young or old.

I have been delighted to find how well the majority of my class from last year have retained their previous lessons and are speaking and understanding increasing amounts of English.  They are also starting to read.  However quite a few of last year’s intake left for the refugee camps due to food shortages over the holiday period and we have a lot of new faces who have replaced them. 

Of those who have officially reached P2 level in other schools, all are actually at beginner level with no oral, written or number skills at all.  They can recognise the alphabet but cannot read.  Such is the level of teaching in most schools here, fees not withstanding.  However the majority have never attended school before and are in P1.

In the new P2 class one new boy stands out, literally, as he is the tallest in the class.  He is around fifteen years old, with some spoken English.  He suffers from epilepsy, untreated because of lack of money.  Before the money ran out he was in P2 in another school, but was unable to sit his exams due to epileptic fits, which I am sure were due to exam nerves.  In spite of his spoken English he cannot read or write at all.  Last week he mastered writing his name.  He was overjoyed, to the point of staying behind after school to write his name again and again on the blackboard with a wide smile on his face.  It is children like him who so urgently need to catch up on an education and have a chance in life.  I have taken some very quick training from a local nurse in what to do if he has a fit and have passed on that training to the other teachers too.   

We are now feeding 90 children at break time.  Our new teacher Peace commented on how disciplined the children are.  Apparently in her previous school, there was always a scrum as the children all tried to be first for the porridge.  The teachers did not involve themselves at all in organising the children.  At Cece, we make the children line up to say grace and then wash their hands in order of size, smallest first.  Then they join a second queue to be served porridge by the eldest children.  Children who push in are sent to the back of the line.  Then they all sit down to eat together.  Peace was very impressed.  She could see immediately how important this queuing system is for orphaned children who have very little adult guidance or discipline in their lives, so that they can develop into civilised members of society.

At lunch time we all go home.  After lunch and a siesta during the heat of the day, I go to the Cece office where we (myself together with HUMAES and Cece staff) are busily planning for the future of the school.  We are trying to secure funding for the construction of a new school on land donated by a local village community.  We are hoping to do all the building work during this academic year, ready for 2017.  If all goes according to plan there will be a small Primary 3 class next year.  Also, as I have seen in this year’s desperation for registration at the school, the demand for Primary 1 is so big that it would be a huge benefit to have an additional P1 class.  All this will not be possible in our current building due to lack of space.

In the meantime there are still ongoing school expenses which must be met, such as staff wages, food and maintenance of the current building.  We have had problems since December due to a shortage of dollars in the bank and increased sanctions against South Sudan.  The South Sudanese Pound has been devalued by 85% causing hyper-inflation.  As a result the bank exchange rate for South Sudanese Pounds is extremely poor and it is important to receive money in a stable currency, the dollar. 

We have just opened a dollar account across the border in Uganda, so we can avoid all these problems.  I am hoping that an added benefit will be the ability to fundraise more directly through supporters in various countries, rather than relying solely on friends in the UK.

If you are outside the UK and want to support Cece Primary School, the account details are as follows:

Uganda: Equity Bank, Adjumani, Uganda.  Account name: Anyanzo Charles Jacob.  Account number: 1019100855333.  SWIFT code: EQBLUGKA. 

It was not possible to open the account in the name of the school, so it is in the name of the chairman of HUMAES, who makes regular trips to Uganda.  I know this looks very unprofessional, but please bear in mind that the school is at the start of its existence, and we are gradually feeling our way towards a more professional future.  I totally trust Charles!

The SWIFT fee is a set one, so it makes sense for donors to get together and send their donations in one transaction.  For donors in the UK please continue to use the old UK account for the same reason.

UK: Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.

On a personal note, I have moved away from Cornerstone.  After a couple of weeks temporarily staying at an American mission centre, I am now living with my Cece School co-founder and friend Pascalina and her family in the centre of Nimule.  This marks a new phase in my time in South Sudan, so it seems appropriate to me to start a new blog.  Here is the link to the new blog.

Registration time

Every year a couple of weeks before the new school year starts, schools up and down South Sudan register their students.  Most schools offer places on a first-come, first-served basis, regardless of whether the child was on roll at the school before. 

The bill for education at a government
school

When the class is full, they go over numbers and can end up with over a hundred children crammed into a small classroom.  All are charged endless extra costs. This is a huge burden for poor families and ends with children getting a very poor education, or being thrown out through non-payment of fees.

We opened for registration last week intending to prioritise those children who were on roll last year, but determined not to have more than thirty children in a class so we can give them the best possible education.  As the week went on it became clear that quite a lot of our former pupils were not coming back.  We faced the dilemma of giving their places away to other, equally needy, children, or holding onto their places, unsure if they would be returning.  We have a new Primary 2 class and were hoping to offer places to children who had attended school before but were unable to continue due to lack of fees.  In the event few children in that criteria came.  The vast majority have simply never had any education at all.

Why were we in such an uncertain position?  In late December the South Sudanese currency (the SSP) was devalued by 85%.  This has caused exorbitant price rises for absolutely everything.  This financial problem comes on top of widespread crop failures due to drought during the rainy season.  In short, people are starving. 

It is only a short hop across the Ugandan border to the nearest refugee camps, where the UN are supplying food and schooling free of charge.  The Nimule community have lived their lives growing up in camps, returning home, fleeing back to the camps due to war or famine, returning home, countless times.  The cycle is continuing now so that a whole new generation grows up in the same uncertain and hopeless way.

Having given up waiting for returners, this week we opened the doors for new children.  On Monday we were flooded with ragged waifs with an age range of 5 to 16 who quickly filled our two Primary 1 classes.  There are still 12 empty places in the Primary 2 class with little sign that there will be children to occupy those places. 

Today, Tuesday, there were fresh floods of children but no spaces in Primary 1 for them.  Fortunately I am in contact with another school in Nimule, which offers free education for girls, funded by USAID, called the BRAC School.  The BRAC School is aimed at girls who were ‘babysitters’ (local word for maid-of-all-work/slave-labour) or street children.  They are the only other school of a similar sort to Cece in the town.  I called them.  To my delight they have spaces they are keen to fill.  I was able to signpost at least the girls in that direction.  For other families I took names, in the hope that we find we have space at a later date.  It is the most heart-breaking thing to say ‘no’ to these children, but without the capacity to employ more teachers and build more classrooms, we had no choice.

It was not all doom and gloom.  One woman of about my age (old in South Sudanese terms) came with a small boy and girl.  The girl is her grandchild, whose parents died of HIV, so she is the sole carer.  The little boy is an HIV orphan without any known family.  This lady has HIV and is a counsellor with CECE for newly diagnosed HIV patients.  She took the child to the police.  The police handed the boy straight back and said they could do nothing, ‘why not look after him yourself?’  So she has looked after him ever since.  He was a small toddler at the time and was not even able to tell her his name, so she has had to re-name him herself.  He is now five years old, but the woman has no money for school fees for either of the children.  I moved a boy, who may just manage in Primary 2 up a level, to make space for him.  Then I called the BRAC School who agreed to take the girl.  At least, one happy ending.  It is great to be able to liaise with a like-minded school.  Hopefully this will be the beginning of a mutually beneficial relationship.

In the meantime we are closing our registration (unless Primary 2 level children come into the office) and will focus on getting food, bowls, exercise books and pencils for the start of term next week.

I am sure things will work out even if there are teething problems at the start.

In the holidays, we found a potential donor for land for a permanent school site.  Assuming negotiations go well, we hope to be in an entirely different position this time next year.  We are lobbying for funding from NGOs so that we can move forward on a more secure footing, both physically and financially.

For the moment we are entirely reliant on the funds I am able to generate by writing to you, my friends.  As mentioned, costs have escalated dramatically.  If you are able to pass on this post to others, I would be most grateful.  CECE School really is a worthwhile cause.  Everything goes to the school, not to administration costs.  The school runs on a shoestring so our expenses are pure necessities.  We need to pay for exercise books, pencils, food, firewood (for cooking), wages for teachers and cooks.  It would be wonderful if we could pay the staff more, because they are every bit as poor as the children and need to feed their families.

The bank account details are Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.  Please make the reference ‘Cece School’.

Child labour

This morning I read an article on child labour in Uganda on the BBC website.  I want to give you my thoughts based on my own family history and also my experience living in South Sudan, which I am sure is similar to many other African countries, including Uganda.  You might want to read the article before continuing to read this post.

I pity the poor priests who were interviewed by the author.  Without doubt they were local men who funded their own studies through their own hard work; a huge achievement as to become a seminarian in Uganda, young men must reach Senior 6 level (the equivalent of A’ levels).  They must have been deeply puzzled to receive such hostile accusations when the children were only doing what they themselves did when they were children.

Even the author admits that the children he spoke to seemed happy.  They were not working in a sweat shop.  They were working with people of all ages, probably including other members of their family, in the fresh air.  If my experience is anything to go by, the atmosphere would have been relaxed.

I come from a northern English working class background on my father’s side of the family.  My grandmother, born in the 1890s, left school at eleven years old to work as a maid in the local ‘big house’.  That was normal in England at that time.  She had to work for very long hours and live away from home with very few holidays.  She was even moved between the family’s residences in different counties without informed consent.  Similarly, my father and his brother, born in the 1920s, both left school at fourteen and started work full time in a local factory, one as a clerk and the other as an apprentice.  At least in their case they were acquiring skills for the future.

It is likely that my great grandparents did not go to school at all, but started work as soon as physically capable in the ‘dark satanic mills’ of the north of England.  That really was an abuse of children and was the driver behind anti-child labour legislation in the UK. 

For previous British generations it was expected that in a poor family, children would work and contribute their wages to the family.  Social welfare had not been invented and families had to rely on their own manpower to survive. 

Why did children in my family start work at later and later ages?  It was due to education becoming compulsory and available to the poor.  Over the years the school leaving age increased along with the legal age to start work.  Even when I was a child it was legal for children of fourteen to work outside school time.  I did so myself in the 1970s as soon as I hit fourteen.  In my case it was not to support my family but to give me money for my own purposes.  I had a great time spending it while learning to manage my finances!

Here in South Sudan, families struggle to survive in exactly the same way as my own family used to do.  Almost all children work when not in school whether at home or outside.  They do numerous household chores as well as cultivating vegetables, keeping chickens, collecting empty plastic bottles for sale to recyclers, working on market stalls and many more activities. 

Some children use these activities to help fund their school fees, which would otherwise not be paid.

The BBC article is unclear if the children described working were doing so in holiday time, outside school time, or if the children were actually not attending school at all.  This is an important distinction.  As mentioned earlier, education is extremely important.  My own family made progress through education, even while their educational level was curtailed by work.  Even my grandmother who left school at eleven could read, write and budget very efficiently.

The BBC never misses an opportunity to swipe at the Catholic Church.  However, the Catholic Church in Africa has to be realistic.  As mentioned before, the local priests have been through the same struggles as other locals and are therefore in a much better position to show sympathy and offer help.  They know that if they do not allow children to work, the families will suffer.  At the same time, the Catholic Church promotes education strenuously in Africa and does a great deal of work in enabling young people to study both in vocational training and university.  There is a difference between promoting child labour and helping families to survive and make progress.  It is necessary to allow families to use every means at their disposal to survive in countries where it is easy to starve to death.

The BBC has also completely ignored the fact that the UK is a first world country which up until relatively recently had very similar society problems to Africa.  Most African countries are third world countries, still at a stage where the UK was one hundred years ago.  As far as I know no other country criticised Britain in 1900.  What gives the BBC the right to criticise Uganda and other African countries?  These countries need help, not condemnation.

Cece Primary School is exceptional in South Sudan in not charging school fees.  This is a way forward out of poverty for the poorest children and their families.  I have to be sympathetic and understand that the children also have to work when not in school.  This does not necessarily mean that they lead unhappy lives.  They have time to play as well (see my post on toys).  We have the saying ‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.  All play and no work makes Jack a mere toy.’  There has to be a balance.

As from the beginning of February the school needs to expand to cater for a Primary 2 class as well as Primary 1.  We will have more mouths to feed and also need more teachers.  When I made my appeal in December, there was very little response.  Please can I ask for your help again?  It is seriously needed.  The bank account details are Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.  Please make the reference ‘Cece School’.

I know that in the long term it is not going to be possible to sustain the school with private donations.  We are looking for outside organisations to help but this is a slow process.  In the meantime, please can I continue to ask your help for Cece Primary School to gradually lift our children out of poverty.

Clothes, clothes, clothes: Christmas in Nimule

I thought I would share my Christmas with you.  My first Christmas in Nimule, in 2013, was spent entirely in the Cornerstone compound apart from going to Mass as I hadn’t yet made friends outside.  I was in a huge amount of pain because of an undiagnosed broken wrist sustained the day before, so I was not in a fit state to appreciate the day properly or write much about it.  In 2014 I spent Christmas in England.  So this is the first time I am able to give you a proper taste of a South Sudanese Christmas, or at least my perspective on it.

As I’ve mentioned in previous posts, in the run up to Christmas everyone fixates firstly on new clothes, then on food.  Father Christmas, Christmas presents (other than clothes), cards and crackers are unknown here.  Most homes do not have electricity or televisions, so there is also no goggling at the box.

We were fortunate this year that Fulaa was able to provide enough funds for clothes and copious amounts of food for Cornerstone Children’s Home.  The shoes that I had fundraised for also arrived in the nick of time as I mentioned in my last post. 

Excitement built up in the two weeks before Christmas as the older children at Cornerstone formed a committee to oversee the arrangements for choosing and purchasing food and cooking it.  Older children were given money to buy their own new clothes in the local market, while younger children’s clothes were bought for them.  We were highly fortunate that the money was given out the week before the government devalued the South Sudanese Pound by 85%. Prices have gone through the roof since then.

Finally Christmas Day dawned.  In the morning I dressed in my new clothes, a traditional kitenge outfit made for me in the local market. My wardrobe is becoming more and more South Sudanese as my old clothes gradually disintegrate and need replacing locally.  Kitenge (the word is used for traditional wax printed African cotton and the clothes made out of it) is almost always very beautiful and having clothes made supports the local economy, so I see it as a perk as well as support for the people of Nimule.

My new kitenge

I left for church.  Mass was much delayed because the previous Mass overran by about an hour and a half.  This is normal here even on an ordinary Sunday.  I sat outside the compound watching all the beautifully dressed women and girls, many wearing kitenge like me, others, off-the-peg gauzy dresses fit for a wedding or party.  Men and boys were put in the shade, although you could see they were trying!

Mass was held in a shady compound instead of the church because of the large numbers who attend on Christmas Day.  Normally Mass is held in a tiny chapel which is far too crowded and hot.  A new, much larger, church is being built but is not complete yet.  The Mass included lots of music, both local and western carols.  There was also dancing.  I heard that when the Pope visited Africa in November he was very struck by the dancing in church, which came as a surprise to him.  Here in South Sudan, apart from during Lent and Advent, we have traditional Madi dancing by young children almost every Sunday.  It is very beautiful and really adds to the Mass. I have inserted a video of the instrumentalists tuning and warming up before Mass.

We had two priests who were not our own parish priests, although both are well known locally as they often visit, staying with the resident priests as they travel between Uganda and South Sudan.  The parish encompasses a very large area, so our ‘real’ priests were officiating in chapels elsewhere.

Children eating Christmas Dinner

After Mass I returned to the children’s home in time to give the children some small gifts and balloons before lunch was served.  The lunch was very heavy on protein (lots of chicken and beef).  For the first time in many months we had rice to eat instead of posho (a very bland large dumpling made of maize flour we usually eat twice a day).  There were large amounts of chips (every child’s favourite food).  We all had fizzy drinks.  Fruit was in short supply because of lack of availability in the market.  There was supposed to be fish as well, but funds didn't stretch quite that far.  To be honest, I was relieved about that.  Apart from those two elements, everything was as specified by the children.  The children piled their plates high.  Some ate the lot at once, while others took their plates to their rooms to consume gradually during the day.  There are no rules here about table manners, so nobody objected to this.

After lunch I was invited to visit my friend Pascalina, so I walked into town to her home.  I found her lying down after a very large lunch.  We sat and picked at homemade biscuits.  As we sat, people strolled through her open compound on their way to the road.  She invited some of them in as they passed to exchange Christmas greetings and have a few biscuits.  Gaggles of teenage youths and young boys smartly dressed in their Christmas clothes, came in as they passed by, solemnly sitting in Pascalina’s room, drinking bottled water and eating biscuits and sweets, which she had bought specially with them in mind.  As they left, they stuffed handfuls of biscuits into their pockets, leaving the dish to be replenished for the next lot of children.  Pascalina explained that this was a part of Christmas in Nimule.  Boys move from compound to compound hoping for left-over goodies. Everyone knows that they are growing and need feeding up.  How nice! 

Three Cornerstone girls on their way
back from a local football match.

More smartly dressed children.

Strutting along the road.

When I left for home, I saw many clusters of youngsters walking along the road, both boys and girls.  I also met some of the Cornerstone children, still in their Christmas clothes, just coming back from watching a local football match.  It was very clear that the main motive for all the young people was to be seen and admired. It was like a fashion parade and reminded me very much of events such as Royal Ascot.

We did not eat in the evening because we were all too full. It was a lovely, relaxed day.  We all enjoyed it immensely.

Christmas is almost here and the shoes have arrived!

As mentioned when fundraising I was looking for funds to buy shoes for two places, Cece Primary School and Cornerstone Children's Home.

Cornerstone Christmas

I distributed the shoes for Cornerstone Children’s Home immediately because the children are always around.  This was the start of their Christmas, which promises to be a good one this year. 

Last year’s Christmas there was not enough money for clothes (a vital ingredient in a South Sudanese Christmas), which left the children very subdued.  Fortunately a kind donor provided funds for food, so all was not lost.

By contrast, this year, funds from Fulaa (Cornerstone’s supporting charity) were much more ample.  Clothes have been bought, chickens destined for Christmas Dinner are strutting around the compound, there was even money left over for prizes for those children who did particularly well in their end of year exams. 

The shoes come with very handy red bags.  These will be given to the children at the start of the school year as school bags.

Foni and Mini wearing their new shoes.

Close up of the shoes.

William contemplates his newly shod feet.

Cece Primary School

The term had already ended by the time the shoes arrived so we needed to summon everyone back to school.  The children received clothes as well which we bought second hand locally.  Shoes and clothes were packed into a red bag labelled with each child’s name and given to the children in a short ceremony.  The children were ecstatic.  The Cece children have never received anything from anyone before.  I think you can see this on their faces in some of the photos.  It was a lovely occasion.

Those of you who are Catholics will know that this year is a Holy Year of Mercy in the Catholic Church.  I think your generosity falls firmly into the category of ‘Corporal Acts of Mercy: clothe the naked’.  These children have so little clothing, most in a very ragged state, and with no shoes or very cheap flip-flops which break easily.  This is a huge boost to their self-esteem. A very big thank you to all who contributed towards the shoes.  They really are much appreciated.  

Line up shot of some of the children in their new shoes.

It's Christmas!

This boy was completely speechless

Fitting the shoes.

Free-range children

This is a post to describe the activities of children in South Sudan.  I am writing it because I love the ingenuity of the children here. It is not part of the culture for parents to be involved in children's play. 

Clay modelling is very popular.  A few weeks I found several of my school children intently making clay models of various things when I arrived at school.  In the national curriculum one of the science units is on uses for soil, so I decided to skip to that unit.  The children had a lovely lesson showing off their models and we talked about the uses of clay soil for toys, making bricks and building mud huts. 

In Europe, children lead very restricted and sheltered lives by comparison.  They play with plastic toys in primary colours, not rather dubious mud from a marshy bit of land.  They rarely do anything unsupervised by adults.  They spend far too many hours glued to a computer or television screen.  They are not expected to play an important role in the family, but are only passive recipients of care.

Here it is very different.  Most children belong to large extended families in which older children wash clothes, cook, dig, clean and care for younger children.  After these chores are over, they play games with anything they can find. 

One of the plus sides to childhood in Nimule is the large number of children who can play together with very few resources.  They create very successful toys and games.  Plastic bags are used to make footballs or kites.  Mud is used to make phones, cars, aeroplanes, model animals and people.  Dusty ground is used for drawing.  Scrap metal and plastic bottle tops are used to make toy cars.  Small stones are used to juggle.

Children have developed great games involving a ball made of plastic bags and a few old bricks.  Some games are cross cultural; South Sudanese children play their own versions of hide and seek and blind man’s bluff.

They are surrounded by things that can become toys.  Then the toys are discarded and new ones created.  Who said these children are poor?  They have everything they need to stir their imaginations.

Here is a photo gallery showing a selection of such toys.  I hope you will share my admiration for the ingenuity that goes into each toy.

Homemade kite

Truck (lethal sharp edges would
not pass any safety test)

Clay mobile phone

Aeroplane (very popular toy)

Fighter jet

Cow

Propeller on plane

Selection from the pottery class

Board game

Too realistic gun

Board game

Looking forward to Christmas and the next academic year

I am teaching the children that famous traditional rhyme, ‘Christmas is a-coming and the geese are getting fat’.  This is partly to improve their halting English diction by using rhyme and partly to be ready for our Christmas celebration. 

The rhyme couldn’t be more appropriate.  It is from the point of view of a ‘poor old man’, who is begging with his hat out.  He describes the expectant atmosphere of those looking forward to feasting on fattened goose.  This is then contrasted when he asks for a penny.  When that is not possible, a ha’penny.  When that is not forthcoming, he blesses his fellow pauper.  If people had been able to put money in his hat I am sure he would have blessed them too.

As you may know from previous posts, we are giving the children much needed shoes.  I have been told that the shoes are now on their way from America.  Thank you so much, those donors who I know about and those who gave anonymously.  The shoes are still a closely guarded secret. I can’t wait to see the children’s faces when they receive them. 

Our teachers and cooks are very generously giving of themselves for a small amount of money, much less than local salaries.  This is because they also want to be able to help the school.  The amount they receive varies each month according to the exchange rate and also according to the need for other school necessities, so they live with uncertainty very patiently.  The majority of these staff have HIV, adding to their difficulties.

I visited the home of one teacher a few weeks ago when she was sick.  She lives in a small mud-built round hut which she shares with her husband and young children.  They all live in a space of no more than 8 foot diameter.  There are two beds for the whole family.  There is no electricity.  Water must be fetched from a borehole some way off.  Firewood for cooking must also be bought and carried home.  The market is miles away with no transport.  This is all ‘women’s work’ with the help of their children.  Culturally, men do no domestic duties.  Rose’s children are too young to help.  Living in this way is usual for the vast majority of people in Nimule, but in Rose’s case it is made worse by HIV.  The drugs used to treat HIV patients require good feeding.  Without food, the drugs have terrible side effects, making the patient terribly ill. 

As you can imagine, when a mother is ill, things are desperate.  Fortunately in this case neighbours pitched in to fetch water and cook for the family, but there was no money for medicine until I paid for it myself.

I have plans!  As well as the shoes for the children, I want to do something for the teachers and cooks.  I don’t want to give them something unnecessary when they have desperate, unaddressed needs and families to care for.  Instead, I want to give a Christmas bonus which they can spend as they want, whether on new clothes for Christmas, food, something essential or something special.  I am hoping some of you can give a one-off December donation for this purpose.  There are now four teachers and two cooks. 

That is one thing.  The second is that we have a new teacher called Alex.  The reason for taking him on, is that from the next academic year, we will be ready to start a Primary 2 class.  Up till now all the children have been at the same basic Primary 1 level, but clearly we must not hold back those who are ready to move to the next level.  There is an unused room in the building.  All that remained was to find another teacher and make a blackboard for the new classroom. 

Alex asked to join us. He has excellent teaching qualifications and experience.  He has been with us for a week on a trial basis and he really is good!  Definitely a ‘roll up your sleeves’ type.  He spotted a wasp nest in the rafters and burnt it down the next morning.  We explained to him the poor salary situation, but he still wants to help us.  He is a married man, although his family are currently all in a refugee camp in Uganda due to the situation in South Sudan.  He must support them somehow.  Is anyone willing to join our donors in making a monthly donation?

School exams take place shortly before Christmas.  All other schools here dismiss the children immediately afterwards, without any ceremony.  At Cece I am planning to do things a bit differently. 

The children will recite ‘Christmas is a-coming’.  Then we will have a Nativity drama.  One of the cooks has a small baby, who will be Jesus.  We will choose the other characters from among the children and have a living re-enactment of the Nativity story. 

Afterwards, the children’s shoes will be distributed and I will give the Christmas bonus to all our staff.  If your donations suffice, there will be something special to eat too.  Then the school will close until the new academic year which starts in late January.

If you are able to help with either a one-off Christmas bonus donation or a standing order to boost our income from January to pay for the new teacher we will all be deeply grateful. 

Please send donations to Santander, account name: Ms R Mallinson, account number: 48996636, sort code 09-01-28.  Mark with reference ‘CECE School’ to avoid confusion.

People here are embarrassingly grateful for all I have been able to provide with your help.  I am stopped in the street by people who grab my hand and shake it and shake it.  Without your assistance, I would not have been able to start the school.  Sixty children would be without education and the hope for the future that education brings. 

If you are not able to help, remember that the poor man still blesses, with a loud ‘If you haven’t got a ha’penny then God bless you’!