Jun 12, 2018
Over the past six months, the Loreto Rumbek community has been working in tandem with Misean Cara and the local community of Maker Kuei on their new Seeds of Knowledge project.
This project focused on helping 100 participants who have come from families that have been affected by local and national conflict. These families were struggling with severe poverty, and those participating in the project would have had very few resources to survive the upcoming lean season.
The Seeds of Knowledge project combined agricultural training and health education, with a “food for work” aspect which meant that each participant’s household received very welcome food and income.
The project finished at the end of April, just in time for the beginning of the rainy season. Each participant left the programme with two watering cans, one jembe (hoe), a small stock of seeds (including sorghum, groundnuts, kudra, and other vegetables), and a number of fruit-tree seedlings.
Many food security initiatives in South Sudan focus on increasing access and intake; the Seeds of Knowledge project, however, was the first to introduce early recovery and resiliency techniques in this area. In the face of the ongoing food crisis, this has given the households involved the tools for increased self-sufficiency, and vital resources in the face of hunger and poverty.
For the past year, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been working in partnership with Loreto Rumbek to bring hope to the people of Maker Kuei. We are proud to be able to support the Loreto Rumbek community in their ongoing work in South Sudan, and we extend our sincere thanks to our mission friends in Ireland and around the world for continuing to care.
For more news and updates from Loreto Rumbek, please visit their website.
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
Jun 5, 2018
Having graduated from the Loreto Secondary School in Rumbek, South Sudan, Salome Piath Gum began work in the Loreto Primary School as part of the Loreto Graduate Programme. In this role, she is gaining invaluable skills and taking the next steps towards a positive future as a successful, independent woman. Here, Salome tells us how the Loreto Graduate Programme has changed her life for the better.
“I love my job.”
“I am the office secretary at the Loreto Primary School. My daily tasks include typing, printing, photocopying, recording results, filing, and answering the office phone. I facilitate the students as they attend the clinic, I issue school uniforms, and I make sure that the offices and classrooms are locked securely after the school day. I also act as a translator at meetings with the local staff and teachers, and take minutes during these meetings. Sr Orla is my mentor.
I really enjoy working with the students, especially when I’m giving uniforms to small children. They are very funny – they always make me laugh when we talk, asking me different questions about what I’m doing and what different things in the office are used for.
My job can be quite pressurised at times, especially during examinations. At these times, I am kept very busy typing, photocopying, and recording results on the computer. Some teachers also pass work on to me. However, I love my job, and I try to complete my tasks as quickly as possible so that everything gets done.”
“At home, I face a bigger challenge… but I persevere.”
“At home, I face a bigger challenge. I am the eldest girl in the family, and I am an orphan. I want to continue with my education, but I face a lot of difficulties. My siblings are suffering, because they are in school and they don’t have enough food. My cousin paid my school fees during my secondary school education, but is unable to pay for my university studies.
I accept the situation and I persevere, hoping that I will get the chance to study further. My ambition is to go to university. I have already learned computer skills, communication skills, and administration skills. I was not expecting to have the opportunities to develop my translation skills, but I can now easily translate Dinka into English and vice versa.
In the future, I would like to be able to train others in clerical and administration skills. I can also use these skills to work anywhere in the community. I would like it if this programme could be expanded further in order to help more of our graduates who are looking for similar opportunities.”
We at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to be able to support the Loreto community in their graduate programme, and we extend our sincere thanks to our mission friends in Ireland and around the world for continuing to care.
PLEASE HELP US TO TRANSFORM LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
May 8, 2018
We are delighted to hear that the first group of Loreto graduates have moved into the MSC Graduate House & Women’s Shelter!
Last summer, we asked our mission friends in the Irish Province to join with us and reach out to help the Loreto Sisters to transform lives in South Sudan. A country in the grip of a terrible crisis, the community of Rumbek faced unimaginable struggles with violence, illness, and malnutrition – and it still does.
Thanks to the kindness and generosity of spirit shown by our mission friends in Ireland and around the world, the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart have been able to send support to the Loreto Sisters in Rumbek, where they run a primary school, a secondary school, a health care unit, and a graduate programme. They have already been able to make a difference to thousands of local people, and now, the MSC-funded Graduate House & Women’s Shelter has opened its doors to 16 young women who are working towards a brighter future.
The graduate programme will allow them to develop their skills and talents within various employment roles, giving them a solid foundation for future careers. This endeavour has lit a beacon of hope where the future once looked bleak, and we wish the Loreto community all the very best as they begin this exciting new chapter!
Read more about the work of the Loreto community in South Sudan as they celebrate 10 years in Rumbek.
You can also find out more about recent developments at Loreto Rumbek here.
PLEASE HELP US TO SAVE LIVES IN SOUTH SUDAN
You can also follow the Loreto Schools’ progress via Facebook or on their website.
May 2, 2018
Khana Kockedhie Magel, a 16-year-old student at the Loreto Girls’ Secondary School in Rumbek, has been named winner of this year’s UN Missions essay-writing competition for secondary school students in South Sudan. As a young woman in a country that has been torn asunder by conflict and violence, Khana composed a message of hope and optimism in response to the topic set by the UNMISS contest: “How can women contribute to durable peace in South Sudan?”
“Women may be the only hope left to bring peace to South Sudan.”
12 Loreto students entered the contest, with two girls reaching the top five in the Lake State region. Ating Kaman Makoi won third prize, while Khana, a student from the Senior 3 class, was awarded the regional prize for the winning essay, with the message that “women may be the only hope left to bring peace to South Sudan”.
Khana’s message is clear: if South Sudan is to achieve lasting peace, women’s voices need to be heard. “Women play an important role in bringing up the future generation,” she says. “If they get the chance, they can provide permanent solutions to the conflict in South Sudan and assure the young that peace will come. Eventually it will result in economic growth and a better South Sudan for all of us, and for generations to come.”
“For women to make a difference, they need to be given a proper education.”
Mr Dut Makoi Kuok, Minister for Education in Western Lakes, spoke at the awards ceremony, acknowledging the crucial role of women as “builders of the nation”. “Women, in my understanding, are the builders of society,” he said. “They will always think about and do what is right for their children, and therefore for their society.”
Speaking at the awards, Mr Kwame Dwamena Aboagye, Head of the UN Mission’s Field Office in Rumbek, also gave words of encouragement to the students gathered, urging them to “study well”. “It is only through education that durable peace can be realised in South Sudan, and for women to make a difference, they need to be given a proper education,” he said.
This is exactly the message that the Loreto community promotes at their Rumbek schools, and we at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to support them in their efforts to help as many young women as possible.
“I hope that fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say: yes, women can.”
Khana has taken this message to heart, and her award-winning essay speaks clearly of the need for respect, mercy, and peace – beginning in the home. “If a mother fights with a neighbouring woman, her child on the following day will fight with the neighbour’s child, hence leading to disputes and hatred,” she writes. Peace must begin within every individual, Khana surmises: “If you find peace within yourself you become the kind of person who can live in peace with others.”
A national winner of the essay content will be named at an awards ceremony in Juba, the country’s capital, on May 9th. Khana will represent the Loreto schools at the ceremony – and she has already made her school and her community very proud. She closes her essay with a truly inspirational thought for us all: “I hope that fathers and mothers of little girls will look at them and say: yes, women can”.
Congratulations to Khana, from all at the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart!
PLEASE SUPPORT EDUCATION IN SOUTH SUDAN
Read more about Khana’s award on the Loreto Rumbek website and on ReliefWeb.
Apr 30, 2018
Early this April, the Loreto schools in Maker Kuei swapped their times tables for dancing and textbooks for cake as they celebrated their 10th anniversary in style!
The week-long celebration included a host of activities and events, alongside special meals with the students and the wider community of locals who work with the Loreto Sisters.
“This has been a wonderful week for us all.”
“The school has received immense support from Ireland,” says Benjamin Sprunger, the Loreto Programmes Manager in Rumbek. As well as aid from the Irish Province of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart, the school has also received funding from IrishAid through Misean Cara. IrishAid Ambassador Sonya Hyland travelled to Maker Kuei to join the celebrations, representing the Irish support for the Loreto schools and the great work that is done in the community. Construction of the Loreto Graduate House, supported by MSC funding, had such been completed, and Sonya Hyland was able to stay in one of the rooms on her visit, before the girls moved in just last week.
“This has been a wonderful week for us all,” says Sr Orla Treacy, principal of the Loreto schools. “Each day was packed with activities and fun.”
“We were, however, very conscious of the absence of two visionaries for our schools – our late Bishop Cesar, who dreamed the dream of the girls’ school, and our late Provincial, Sr Teresa MacPaul, who helped take the steps to make the dream a reality.”
The Loreto community first opened the doors of their secondary school in 2008, with just 35 students in Primary 8 and Senior 1. Today, two schools welcome 1057 primary school students and almost 300 secondary school girls. The Loreto Sisters have also set up a health care clinic, which provides medical aid and health education to women and children in the Maker Kuei community.
“Thanks to you all for joining hands with us in prayers and support to ensure this dream continues, from all of us in Loreto Rumbek,” says Sr Orla.
We send our heartiest congratulations to the Loreto Sisters and students in Rumbek on this wonderful occasion! We at the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart are proud to support the great work being done to bring hope to a country in peril; together, we are on the path to a brighter future.
PLEASE SUPPORT THE ONGOING WORK IN SOUTH SUDAN
