January 31, 2007

• Wunlang School News

  Here’s the press release I wrote for Franco Majok and Ron Moulton’s talk on Wunlang School Feb. 5:

  Franco Majok, a Sudanese refugee in the 1990s, now an American citizen and a case manager for several Lost Boys of Sudan, will report on his efforts to build a primary school in his home village on Monday, Feb. 5, at 7:30 p.m. at Trinity Baptist Church, 115 Mass. Ave., Arlington.

   

  Mr. Majok became an American citizen in 2005. He traveled back to his village of Wunlang, near the town of Aweil, for the first time in 20 years. He found that the only school there is one that is held under the trees — no desks, no books, no paper or pencils (children learn to write by drawing in the dust), and one chalkboard that is too worn to see clearly. He returned to America determined to start a primary school. With the help of churches and private donors, he has raised the money to begin construction. Ron Moulton, the technology director of the Sudanese Education Fund, volunteered as project management coordinator. In November of 2006, Mr. Majok and Mr. Moulton went back to Sudan. The villagers have organized brick-making, local construction managers have been found, and construction should finish in 2007.

   

  The Ministry of Education of Southern Sudan requires that any new school drill a well. This was an unexpected requirement, but progress has been made in drilling that well, which will serve 800 families. Other plans include a school-lunch program provided by the UN, boys’ and girls’ latrines, a sewing project so the villagers can make school uniforms (often the only new clothes children have), bicycles, salaries, and continuing education for current teachers, a dormitory for volunteer teachers and specialists from America, a vegetable garden and cattle-grazing area so the school can become self-sufficient in food, and adult literacy for mothers who never went to school.

   

  The talk at Trinity, sponsored by Women’s Fellowship, begins at 7:30 p.m. It is preceded by a potluck supper at 6:30 p.m.. All are welcome. Those attending the supper should bring a dish to pass. Enter on the side door at Amsden St. For more information on the talk, call Trinity at 781-643-4771. For more information on the project, go to www.helpwunlang.org.

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  And here’s the link to the Boston Globe North section on their efforts: http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2007/01/28/returning_for_learning/ 

   

  Be sure to click on the photo gallery.

  • 5:18 pm
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