About our Projects
Wadeng will not, of course, compete with UNICEF, but will work cooperatively with UNICEF and other organizations, specifically in the county of Jacob’s home, Duk Padiet. The focus of this project comes from Jacob himself, and is intended to give hope to the people of his home and the surrounding area. The county itself has 5,000 children of primary school age, and Wadeng will serve their needs and those of their community in stages. Jacob has already started, with his trip to Sudan in December of 2005, now familiar to many through Noah Pink’s documentary film of the trip, “Wings of Hope.” On this trip Jacob saw his sisters in Duk Padiet for the first time in eighteen years, and also secured land from the community as the site for the first school. To bring some hope on that visit, Jacob did not come empty-handed, but brought 120 goats, purchased through the fundraising of the “Goat Campaign.” Jacob remembered well the powerful leverage of goats, which got him out of a refugee camp over a decade earlier. Jacob returned to Sudan in April/May 2008 with twice as many goats as 2005, and the plans for our various projects were put into place. We continue to run the Goat Campaign annually, and the goats are distributed either by Jacob himself on return trips, or by a representative in Sudan, as was done in June 2009.
A school in Duk Padiet means something very different than it does in Canada. Not only a centre for education, it will also be a community centre, providing a meeting place for all, as well as offering health facilities for the village. The first step in making this possible is to drill a well, since clean water is fundamental to all other needs. That was completed in the summer of 2009, and the well, which produces clean water, is now in full use.
Wadeng cannot realize its goal of building a school (and eventually more schools) without the assistance of other organizations, including UNICEF, the UN mission in Southern Sudan, and other NGOs currently operating in the region. The logistics of building schools in a remote region will require advice and support from organizations with experience doing such things, and these contacts have now been developed. Funding will also be required for training teachers and health workers, and for school supplies as well as security. One of the preliminary steps was to supply sewing machines, material and supplies for the sewing of school uniforms, and Jacob did this in April 2008. Many children, and girls especially, would not be able to attend school because of the lack of clothes. No school supported by Wadeng will charge tuition fees or any other type of user fees, so sufficient funding will be provided for operating costs.
A country such as Sudan has an especially urgent need for the development of primary education. One sometimes finds the attitude in first-world countries that support should be given only to third-world countries that are peaceful and stable, but this ignores the reality that peace and stability are unlikely to come to countries with conflict unless the next generation is provided with the fundamentals of life. Without education, that is unlikely to happen, and with the dismal record on education in Southern Sudan, especially in the most remote areas such as the state of Jonglei, support must be a matter of the greatest priority. In 2009 we signed an MoU with the SPLM Women's League of Duk Padiet to be our partner in the building of the school.
