St. Mark Episcopal Church, Alero Boma
The idea to help construction a Pre-school for children St. Mark Episcopal Church in Alero was results of STAD chairperson’s visit to the newborn nation- the Rep. of South Sudan in January 2012. Alero Boma about 8 kilometres from Yei town and 15 kilometres from Kaya. It is a rural area with a population of about 8.700 persons from whom 3.000 are children. The population is growing since a number of refugees from surrounding cities and camps move to this area to start agricultural activities. Most households consist of single women with 4 to 6 children. Most of them are young children. And it has an estimated population of about 3.000 children in the school age.
The Bomas lack basic services like schools, hospitals, infrastructure, clean and safe drinking water, electricity etc. A big part of the population is young people without education, no jobs and any perspective for the future. The adult illiteracy rate is about 73%. There are only two schools for primary education each for 600 children. The other children, mainly girls have to stay at home and assist in the household or in the farms with their mothers. There are as well many children who have not finished their primary education. This is due to civil war and proper educational facilities and the level of education of the teachers which is low.
South Sudan hardly has any experiences in pre-school education, but we believe with this system we are able to prepare the children for a better education and make them more successful in future in the market labour or development of the country.
There is a big gap between the elderly and the youth who are supposed to be the future leaders or heirs of the nation in handling responsibilities and coping with hardships. About 70- 80 % of the young people are jobless, desperate – taking a day as it comes. It’s hard to do understand why some of the young people do what they are doing – drinking as a coping mechanism, marrying, producing children etc -desperation and frustration is written all over their faces. Perhaps these are some of the prices people pay as a result of prolonged wars, refuge & displacement.
In collaboration with St. Mark Episcopal church, STAD to raise funds to set up facilities and programs/activities especially children, the sick & elderly people, disabled, women and girls.
Proposed and planned activities include:
– construct of a preschool for the children aged 2- 5
– drilling of water borehole to provide clean and safe drinking water
– support training of the pastors and community members in general
– Organize awareness raising on human and women rights, gender equality and gender-based violence (GBV), women and youth empowerment programs, life skills for poverty reduction, environmental protection etc.
-Training and awareness raising, dialogue of peace, conflict, new methods of farming etc.