Thank you for all of your support to Africa ELI (formerly NESEI) throughout the years. Thanks to you, Africa ELI is surviving and thriving in South Sudan. This month, we had 54 students graduate from high school; a huge accomplishment! Our programs are currently helping students in 11 schools throughout South Sudan.

Please consider renewing your support to Africa ELI before December 31, to help us pay for school fees and program costs for the next semester, which starts in South Sudan in February. Your support will directly affect the wellbeing of all our students. I greatly hope you’ll consider making a donation right now.

Thank you again for your support and help during this critical period of South Sudan’s first year.

In Peace,

Mari Kenton Wright,

Board of Directors

On July 9 we celebrated a momentous event: South Sudan’s independence from North Sudan and the birth of a nation whose people have been oppressed for generations. Africa ELI has always believed in the people of South Sudan and their future, which is why we have been actively working for over three years to rebuild and enrich its secondary education system, so that when Independence Day finally came, the girls and boys of South Sudan would be ready for the challenge of building a new reality for themselves.  That day has come and gone, and I spent it marching through the streets with my South Sudanese friends, under a banner that emotionally proclaimed, “Free at Last!”

The ebullient celebrations continue daily, but so does the daily life that existed before Independence; this daily life is still filled serious challenges for South Sudan. It is time to get back to work.  While the people of South Sudan have emerged victorious on one front, there remain many battles to be fought: poverty, gender-based violence, illiteracy, high infant and maternal mortality rates, to list just a few. Jeffrey Gettleman of the New York Times recently summed it up best:

“…the world’s newest country and Africa’s 54th state, will take its place at the bottom of the developing world. A majority of its people live on less than a dollar a day. A 15-year-old girl has a higher chance of dying in childbirth than she does of finishing primary school. More than 10 percent of children do not make it to their fifth birthday. About three-quarters of adults cannot read. Only 1 percent of households have a bank account.”

As you know, Africa ELI works hard to reverse these troubling statistics, especially as they apply to girls and women. Against the odds, we have achieved incredible successes since our first school program launched in May 2008:

• 243 students in school, from 4 states. Many are students who are most in need and who come from the poorest and most dangerous regions in South Sudan.
• Over 500 mosquito nets distributed to students, families, and community members.
• 40+ students eligible to graduate in December 2011
• Sponsorship, health studies, or agriculture programs in 10 schools.
• 15 schools trained by Africa ELI in UNICEF’s Girls’ Education Movement program, which teaches girls and boys about the need to educate and respect women.

These successes are proof that our programs are working and that the people of South Sudan want and deserve better education opportunities. But as a new country, South Sudan is facing some pressing challenges that will potentially limit Africa ELI’s program capacity if they are not addressed. As the new country works to build its economy and establish itself on the world stage, the prices of food and fuel have skyrocketed, and these steep and unexpected price increases are forcing Africa ELI to re-work our budget for this year.

The cost of food has gone up, on average, by 130 percent since January, and the price of fuel for generators and vehicles has increased by nearly 70 percent, forcing us to re-allocate money from programming into money for our most basic and urgent needs: food, water, fuel for our vehicle that transports supplies and takes students to health clinics, and payment for health supplies and clinic visits (which have increased with the rise of shipping cost).

We know how much you have done for us in the past. Your support is the reason that 243 students are in school right now. But today, I am asking you to commit yourself to helping our programs once again, so that we can ensure that our programs continue to run at full capacity.

Without your help at this urgent juncture, there is a chance that we will have to scale back some aspects of our education programming in South Sudan as we ride out the new nation’s economic growing pains.

We need to raise $50,000 by September 1 to ensure our programs run at full capacity. Here’s how you can help us reach this urgent fundraising goal:

Medicine:

• $500 stocks our medicine cabinets and pays for clinic visits for a month  

Food:

• $60 buys a bag of flour, essential to making the staple South Sudan food “posho”
• $75 buys a bag of rice, an essential staple.
• $90 buys a bag of sugar  (imagine your life with NO sugar!)

Fuel:

• $5 provides a motortaxi ride into town for our students, when they are sick and need to go to a clinic, or when they attend a debate team practice, or a health training.
• $70 provides fuel for our two vehicles for a week, allowing us to take groups of students into town for trainings and health workshops, bring them urgent supplies, and take them to a hospital when they fall ill.
• $1600 provides fuel through the end of the school year, ensuring we can reach our students whenever they need us, until school gets out in December.

And, of course, ANY amount helps us tremendously, as we truly need all hands on deck right now to keep our programs running at full capacity.

You can donate ONLINE , or you can send a donation to our TN office:

Africa ELI
1550 Centervue Crossing, #107
Knoxville, TN  37932

Now is not the time to fall into complacency.  Doing so would risk everything that the people of South Sudan have worked so hard to accomplish.  Please show them your support today.

Thank you for responding to this most urgent request.

Gratefully,

Anita Henderlight,

Executive Director

Victor promotes cooperation and collaboration among students

Today’s Champion Changemaker:

Victor Luke Odhiambo

“You can go it alone,” does not work.  According to Loyola Senior Secondary School principal, Victor Luke Odhiambo, “the world is a village. We are globalized.” He promotes cooperation and collaboration among the Loyola students – inclusive of Africa ELI-sponsored students – in Wau, Southern Sudan.

He tells the faculty, “Don’t make students feel small.” He explains that helping learners realize their potential and giving them encouragement to achieve goals are  also important lessons for them to understand.  He is committed to creating “classrooms of respect” and believes, “teachers set the standard for excellence.”

Having traveled in parts of Europe and America, Principal Odhiambo works to provide various cultural experiences at Loyola. Teachers are from Uganda, Kenya, America and Sudan. Each of them brings unique insights to teaching and they provide a very diverse environment in which young people may thrive.

To ensure accountability at the school, “micro-monitoring” has been implemented. Teachers take student attendance and students take teacher attendance. If someone is not present, peers and colleagues may follow-up with one another to send a message that for an optimal learning experience, presence matters. Everybody counts.

For his determination and vigilance to create an A+ environment for young people, today we recognize Victor Luke Odhiambo as a Champion Changemaker. His influence on the lives of our students will have a positive impact in years to come.

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Since 2006, Bud and Suzanne have been rallying the congregation and town friends to learn about Southern Sudan. They have encouraged them to take action to help raise up young Sudanese living in the African country, as well as refugees known as “The Lost Boys of Sudan” presently living in America.

To fully understand the circumstances in a post-war, developing country, Bud and Suzanne traveled to Southern Sudan – not just once, but twice! And both times they brought other people with them! The Joneses met with young people in Sudan, walked in their community, and played baseball with a group of girls at Yei Girls Boarding Secondary School. They taught special classes and even concocted banana pudding with the school cooks. Still to this day, our students ask, “When will South Carolina come back to make more banana pudding with us?”

Buoyed by the efforts of Bud and Suzanne, the good people of York have contributed to Africa ELI’s agriculture initiatives, given laptop computers for student usage, created handmade market bags for students, provided sewing machines for the Yei girls, crafted jewelry for fundraisers, and designed nativity sets to sell with proceeds going to Africa ELI student programs and scholarships. Along with these activities, and more – including the building of a bridge over a muddy road – their work has resulted in over $30,000 directed to help Sudanese young people achieve goals and gain access to education.

And they are not stopping! They keep going. Bud and Suzanne, along with some of their Trinity UMC friends are packing up beaded jewelry items to sell in a Christmas craft fair next week at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. Again, the beneficiaries of the sales will be Africa ELI students.

York residents have also written letters of advocacy to their elected leaders in Washington, DC alerting them to issues of importance and policy decision making relative to progress in Southern Sudan. Additionally, a local York newspaper has published articles submitted by Suzanne and York children have colored pictures and written letters to our students. The kids even had a (mini)tractor race down the church hallway to raise money for our farm.

Our program director, Diane Birungi, and I were hosted by Bud and Suzanne last year in York. We were humbled by the warmth of their welcome, inspired by their clear commitment to global outreach, and thankful for the opportunity to know such kind people. And we surely enjoyed the music of the church choir!

To Bud and Suzanne, and to their friends in York, South Carolina, we recognize you as Champion Changemakers for making a very positive difference in our world!

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In Southern Sudan, she is rare.  As a headmistress, she directs a predominantly male faculty.  She gives oversight to a campus with more that 300 young residents.  She coordinates the school’s public-private partnerships.  She drives her own motorbike to work and she hasn’t even had her 30th birthday!

Rita Harriett is the only female secondary school principal at the only all-girls boarding school in Yei County. Along with Africa ELI’s program director, Diane Birungi, Rita and I negotiated our first contract as public-private partners working together in Yei’s education sector. Rita is eager to work with organizations like Africa ELI who can help scale up students’ learning opportunities.

Rita subscribes not to the old adage, “anything a man can do a woman can do.” Rather, she believes, “anything a woman can do, a man can do too!” Both men and women are capable of accounting, or cooking, or leading a meeting, or caring for children. In a traditionally patriarchal environment, her thinking is progressive. For her vision, her tenacity, and sheer will to succeed, we recognize Rita Harriett as a “Champion Changemaker.” She is a role model  for any woman in Sudan or around the globe.

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In a crowded room, she handed a business card to me and said, “Call me if I can help with anything.” Lots of people do that. Many of them are well-meaning and fully intend to follow through on such an offer. I have even been one of those well-intentioned people and have sometimes fallen short of the goal. But today’s Africa ELI “Champion Changemaker” has followed through time and time and time again!

Dr. Mary Ryba Knepper from East Tennessee is a modern day wonder-woman. She teaches, consults, and rallies a host of other individuals to support Africa ELI students in Southern Sudan. She has worn her fingers to the bone drafting grant proposals, editing reports, and has enlisted her husband, Jay, to create good-looking charts filled with Africa ELI numbers and statistics. She’s the type of volunteer all organizations dream about finding.

Writing grants and proposals can often cause grimacing and night sweats. (Or maybe that’s just what happens to me.) However Mary masterfully and seemingly effortlessly whips words into shape and organizes them in such a way that makes Africa ELI’s work crystal clear to the reader. Her words definitely contribute to the health of our organization.

Dr. Mary, today we salute you. You are an extraordinary volunteer and a Champion Changemaker!

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David is a high school junior and ranked #1 in his class. Stephen is a sophomore and ranked #2. Together, they are peer mentors for their classmates who have performed poorly on exams and want to improve.

In Africa ELI’s first year of registering boys, David and Stephen have become bright stars in their school. In addition to excelling in their studies and boosting the grades of their peers, both are members of GEM Club (Girls’ Education Movement).They are strategic allies encouraging and supporting young people, especially marginalized girls, to stay in school. They recognize the benefits of gender equity and an educated civil society.

David calls his Mom to tell her that he is #1; she said “Shukran! Shurkran!” to Africa ELI, which is ‘thank you’ in Arabic

David lives with his mother; his father is deceased. Every day he walks 3 miles in the morning to attend school and returns home following his afternoon classes. He likes to read, enjoys science and wants to become a doctor or an engineer.

Stephen walks the same distance as David to get to school. His six mile daily trek is worth the effort as long as he gets to study with textbooks. When Africa ELI staff asked Stephen what he wished for as a reward for his good performance, he said, “more textbooks!” I wonder how many other 16-year-old young men would wish for such?

Africa ELI staff is convinced that David and Stephen are good influences and inspirational young men. Whatever profession they choose to pursue, they will be an asset to the professional work force of Southern Sudan.

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For those of you who did not receive the daily “Champion Changemakers” updates in December, stay tuned to our blog as we recap these talented, inspiring, and amazing individuals.

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