International Grants

 

The Majok-Chedhiop Primary School Project is an on-going project to provide a free, primary school education (grades 1-8) to children in the rural village of Majok-Chedhiop, South Sudan, and children from nearby villages. Currently, the greatest need is to raise funds to pay the teachers and staff of the school.

 

With the generosity of the Rotary Club of Lansing Foundation and other donors, we have successfully established 2 wells (a 3rd well was dug by the government), finished half of the permanent school building and most of the teachers' offices, started a school garden, and hired 15 qualified teachers. We now have about 450 registered students from 10 villages; about 1/3 are girls.

 

In addition, construction of a temporary building to house grades 1-4 is underway, the garden is being expanded to raise crops needed to support a free lunch program, and future plans include growing enough crops to sell excess produce at markets with the profits going to support the operation of the school. The goal is that one day, the school will be self-sustaining.

 

The government of South Sudan discontinued payment of our teacher salaries. Most recently, the eliminatin of funding for USAID by our government resulted in the loss of a grant to a village church that was the source of rice and vegetables that the church donated to the school for the free breakfast and lunch program. RSSVP now must concentrate the bulk of donations to teacher and staff salaries and to purchase food for the meal program.

 

Most of the teachers in South Sudan have no formal training and on average have completed only 4 years of schooling. All 15 teachers of our school are trained and qualified under South Sudan's official standards and requirements. However, due to inflation, to retain these qualified teachers, RSSVP needs to secure sufficient funds to increase salaries to provide a living wage. That is what this grant will provide.