7th Annual WALK FOR SUDAN

Exciting things are happening at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School in Atiaba, Sudan. We are adding our third class of students this year, and practically doubling our teaching staff. We need your help to support these exciting changes.

7th Annual WALK FOR SUDAN

Sunday, May 2, 2010

Christ Church Episcopal * 5000 Pouncy Tract Rd * Glen Allen, VA

Registration 1:30 p.m. * Walk for Sudan 2:00 p.m.

Your time and donations support of the hardworking students at Hope & Resurrection and will provide textbooks, supplies, scholarships and meals for these eager students and faculty.

Join us for a fun-filled, family-friendly day of music, walking, door prizes and other fun activities. Meet locally-based Sudanese and learn more about their remarkable homeland, enjoy artwork created by Hope & Resurrection students, and check out photographs from recent trips to Sudan. We'll have door prizes, great t-shirts, face painting, bake sales, live music and more!

Raise funds and walk as an individual, or gather a group of friends, co-workers, family or classmates to form a more powerful walking and fundraising team. Simply gather your donations and join us on May 2!

Walk for Sudan and walk for our students!

*Note: This new location is a change from previous years.

Faces of Success: Joseph Makuei Kuarang

This is the fifth in a series of profiles from students currently enrolled at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School. In May 2009, Form One and Form Two students wrote short autobiographies, sharing information about their families, livelihood and desire for education. We hope these glimpses of life in Southern Sudan will inspire you.

I am 19 years old. As I am still young, I haven’t married.

My father has four wives: the first has three sons, the second has seven sons, the third has six sons, and the last wife has five sons. At the cattle camp we have a lot of cows, and at home we have goats sheep and hens.

Early in the morning, I wake up and take the oxen to the field for grazing, and then I get my schoolbag and head to school.

On Sunday, I go to church, and after the prayers I come back home to read and calculate mathematics.

When I complete school, I would like to attend university and study to be an engineer. I would like to help improve my community, and I think God will be with me in my education.

Faces of Success: Abraham Marial Akech

This is the third in a series of profiles from students currently enrolled at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School. In May 2009, Form One and Form Two students wrote short autobiographies, sharing information about their families, livelihood and desire for education. We hope these glimpses of life in Southern Sudan will inspire you.

I am Abraham Marial Akech and I am 19 years old. I live in Rumbek East County, South Sudan. I have three younger brothers, John, Daniel and Matthew. John is in Primary 8, Daniel in Primary 4 and Matthew is in Primary 2. We all live happily with each other.

I always give them advice that they should put their efforts on education, because the time will come when illiterate people may not be considered as citizens of the country.

“Try to learn more and you will be good citizens who will heal Sudan, without discrimination. Then there will be no nepotism, decentralized ruling and other (issues) that affect unity and peace.”

My family keeps poultry and goats in Akot. They are helpful when hungry and can pay for our school fees.

I wake up early in the morning … and walk a long distance (about 40 km) to come to school at Hope & Resurrection. So long as our country is not developed, nobody can drive anyone to where he or she is going. Also, students aren’t helped by drivers. Our students are affected by the lack of transportation.

On Sundays, I go to church and then spend the afternoon with my family. They are proud of me, since I spend five days on schooling. I am excited to meet with my family on Saturday and Sunday.

When I complete my senior education I would like to go to university, but there are factors that could prevent that, like paying down my school fees. If I attended University, I would study to be an engineer, and to help my community in so many ways.

I praise Hope for Humanity for the support they have given Southern Sudan. I would like to keep their support on my mind until my death. I am so happy to receive schooling and studying. I have given my schooling to the hands of God, and I study hard to achieve my goals.

Support us, and we will rejoice in God’s hands.

Teachers Arrive Safely in Uganda

In addition to the Hope & Resurrection Secondary School Headmaster Anthony, our school is staffed by four additional teachers. Anthony is Sudanese and a member of the Dinka tribe, as are most of our students, but our four other teachers are all Ugandan.

Clockwise from top left: Cleous, Irene, Zakayo, and Dovico

Each teacher sacrifices greatly in order to teach our students, leaving their families back in Uganda, and must travel on a long journey by road back and forth during school breaks.

We were thrilled to receive news from our Deputy Headmaster, Cleous, that everyone has arrived safely back in Kampala, Uganda, and has left for their respective homes. We hope they have a restful and restorative break, and return to us safely.

To learn more about how our academic program at Hope & Resurrection is structured, click here.

Archbishop of Sudan Visits Hope for Humanity Supporters

It's been a busy week of meetings, luncheons, and traveling with Archbishop Daniel and his wife, Deborah. After meetings in Washington, D.C., they will be visiting with their son, who is graduating from college, and then returning home to Juba, Sudan.

We had a fantastic dinner last night with about twenty folks who are involved or interested in Hope for Humanity and the Episcopal Church in Sudan.

The Very Rev. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul Yak, Archbishop of Sudan, addressed the group at a dinner in his honor.

We discussed many potential opportunities to expand our reach in educating the youth of Southern Sudan, and addressed many of the needs in the region. Archbishop Daniel is a strong supporter of Hope & Resurrection Secondary School, and we continue to expect great things for our future!

Jennifer and Daryl Ernst with The Very Rev. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul Yak and wife Deborah.

We have some exciting plans for the immediate future that will require your help! Stay tuned for more information in the coming weeks about how you can be involved. If you have a heart for Southern Sudan, and believe in the future of her people, you will not want to miss out on this opportunity!

Buck Blanchard, Coordinator of World Mission for the Episcopal Diocese of Virginia, and Rev. Weezie Blanchard with The Very Rev. Dr. Daniel Deng Bul Yak and wife Deborah.

Faces of Success: Mary Paul

This is the second in a series of profiles from students currently enrolled at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School. In May 2009, Form One and Form Two students wrote short autobiographies, sharing information about their families, livlihood and desire for education. We hope these glimpses of life in Southern Sudan will inspire you.

I am Mary Paul, and I am 20 years old and I live in Akot. I started my studies in 1999 in Makuragar Primary School and I finished Grade 8 in that school in 2004.

I got married in 2005 and now I have a child called Joseph. He is two years old. I also have my brothers and sisters – we are seven in number – four girls and three boys.

I am a student of Hope & Resurrection. In morning hours I wake up early, then study my notes, take water for bathing, and come to school at 8:35.

On Sunday, I go to the church, then I spend the afternoon with my family. I like education very much, because education is a key of life. Even though I am married, I want to achieve an education.

 I thank those people who brought this school to our country.

Stories from Sudan: Angie Wilcox

This is the second of a series of four reflections on life in Southern Sudan. These reflections are written by members of St. James’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, who returned from a mission trip to Hope & Resurrection Secondary School in May 2009.

Moments of Connection: Angie Wilcox

During a mission trip, it is often those unplanned moments that are truly meaningful, and this year those were the moments that meant the most to me.

It was the spontaneous songs and games with the village children; the casual conversations with the students about their lives, hopes and dreams; sharing a birthday dinner with the Deputy Headmaster; the beauty of a blind man dancing as worship music washed over him. In all of these moments, it was clear that the Holy Spirit was present.

In a place where life is incredibly difficult and the people often feel forgotten by the world, it was an honor to be able to serve the people of Akot through our work. In a meeting with the church and village, residents shared their needs with us.

In a place where there are so many needs, it is often difficult to know where to start. But in reality, it is the small works of many people (teaching classes, bring supplies and sewing machines, raising awareness and funds, etc.) that can truly make a difference.

Faces of Success: Michael Marial Mangar

This is the first in a series of profiles from students currently enrolled at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School. In May 2009, Form One and Form Two students wrote short autobiographies, sharing information about their families, livlihood and desire for education. We hope these glimpses of life in Southern Sudan will inspire you.

I am Michael Marial Mangar. I am 21 years old. I live in Rumbek East County. I am short and have black skin. I am Southern Sudanese, from the Dinka tribe. I have five brothers and four sisters. I am in Form Two at Hope & Resurrection Secondary School.

I am living in Atiaba Village. We like keeping of livestock; like goats, cows, chickens and we even have three dogs. At home, we have four houses and one sitting room. I live at the farm, and it is full of beautiful trees with beautiful flowers.

After school hours, I read in the evening, and I also like to play volleyball. On Saturday I like to work on the farm. On Sunday I go to church and then I spend the afternoon with my best friends.

When I finish my senior year I would like to attend university and study finance and management to become a Minister of Finance. If I could be in that post, I could help my community in social stability, like hospitals, schools, and communications.

Stories from Sudan: Bill Branch

This is the first of a series of four reflections on life in Southern Sudan. These reflections are written by members of St. James’s Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, who returned from a mission trip to Hope & Resurrection Secondary School in May 2009.

Hope & Faith Feed the Soul: Bill Branch

On our daily 9 km drive from our camp to Hope & Resurrection Secondary School, it never ceased to amaze me how all the pre-school aged children would run from their mud or brick huts with thatched roofs, and wave to us as if we had just won the World Series. It was initially a boost to my ego, because I noticed that they weren’t waving quite as enthusiastically to the other U.N. / aid vehicles that drove by. I soon realized that they really weren’t waving at Bill, Laura, Angie, Janie and Randy, but rather the 1991 Toyota Hilux (think African Tacoma pickup truck), which belongs to the school, and is normally used by the four teachers from Uganda.

As they associated the pickup truck with the school, I soon realized that what they were really excited about was the hope of what an education could provide to them.

With the end of the second Sudanese civil war four years ago, schools such as Hope & Resurrection are beginning to provide basic education. A secondary/high school education in southern Sudan means walking to school two or three hours each way, wearing the same (yet surprisingly clean) clothes everyday, and sitting on benches in cramped classrooms with only minimal educational resources.

The fact that the ages of the 77 students range from 16 to 41, that 85% are male, and that a few of the students were former soldiers, are indicative of the disruption of the educational system in Sudan. They are fortunate as the school started providing them with lunch, which alternates between porridge and rice and beans. They are also fortunate because at the primary school down the dirt road, the students there are not given lunch, and a classroom is literally a tree with a blackboard.

The vast majority of the student at Hope & Resurrection were dedicated and sincere. When asked what they wanted to do following their secondary education, a common theme was to study at a university in Kenya or Uganda, and then become an engineer, physician, or teacher, so that they can return to their village and improve the conditions in their community.

Most had experienced death of family members from conflict or disease, and deprivation unheard of here in the United States. Yet they still had a sense of pride and hope for their communities that can only be described as humbling. Many of the students walked to the Episcopal Church of Sudan service on Sunday, and prayed with us for strength and faith.

While our mission to Atiaba, Sudan was brief, my experience of what hope and faith can provide to the soul will last forever.

Walk for Sudan 2009

The Midlothian Exchange covered our Walk for Sudan in their May 6, 2009 edition. 

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Building the Future for a Village

by Elizabeth Farina, Midlothian Exchange

One could clearly hear the joyous call of song and the beating of drums from area Sudanese as the large group of walkers circled the track at the high school in spite of the threatening afternoon rain on Sunday, May 3.

Walkers made laps around the high school track in support of Hope for Humanity’s 6th annual charity walk. photo by Elizabeth Farina

For Jody Wilcox of Chesterfield, the local Hope for Humanity event at Deep Run High School was a tangible way to continue contributing to Atiaba village’s secondary school, where he helped build teacher housing last spring and learned how to make bricks. Jody’s wife Angie unfortunately would miss out on the sixth annual event because she was thousands of miles away at the same African school. She is currently a volunteer teacher at the Hope and Resurrection Secondary School in the village.

The Wilcox couple had heard Darryl and Jennifer Ernst, founders of the Richmond-based charity organization, speak at St. James Episcopal Church about the many needs the African country is facing after a 20-year civil war. Both decided Southern Sudan was a place they could help make a difference in the future of the tentatively peaceful nation, which the U.S. helped establish. 

“When you go there, you are amazed at the resilience of the people there – because they need so much,” Jody Wilcox said. “The villages are welcoming.”

Jody Wilcox at the 2009 Walk for Sudan - Photo by Elizabeth Farina

Wilcox explained that one of the top issues the country is facing today is in education. The highest level of education for most who have survived the civil war is at the eighth-grade level. There are only 22 secondary schools in Southern Sudan, which is geographically the size of the Eastern seaboard of the U.S. from the Mississippi River to the Atlantic Ocean. “That’s the first thing,” he said.

Medical issues were also an emergency need because clinics have been developed at the pace of schools in the country. “It needs a stable government, to be honest. And food, as well,” Wilcox said.

Darryl Ernst, who was also at the event, said that building and operating a secondary school in the Southern Sudan began with a little idea. The Ernst couple became involved through their former church in 1999, he explained. They became good friends with one of the “lost” boys of Sudan, Maker Marial, who arrived in Richmond in 2000. “He became like our adopted son,” Ernst said.

In 2005, the Ernst family took Marial back to his native country to be reunited with his family in Atiaba. They saw the need for education to extend beyond the elementary level and started fundraising the same year. Last May, the school opened for 64 of the estimated 1.5 million school-aged children in Southern Sudan, according to Hope for Humanity. “We have 100 this year in the ninth and tenth grade level,” Ernst said.

The walk that is annually held the first Sunday of May is in its sixth year. Instead of focusing on construction, the walk on May 3 focused on feeding students lunch and teachers’ salaries. “Those are the biggest parts of the budget,” Ernst added.

Marial, who had finished walking the track laps, said that education gives the Sudanese a chance to contribute to their country. “It is the most beautiful school in the area,” he said.

Marial added that Deep Run High School was more of the size of a university in Southern Sudan than a secondary school. The Hope for Humanity school is a one-story brick building that is open to boys and girls ranging in age from 15 to 37 – because of the interrupted education from the country’s civil war. The peace treaty has been in place for three years, but there are numerous challenges with corruption and tribalism. However, the school does provide opportunity to break the cycle of those challenges. “Education has been lost,” he said. “What we are doing in Southern Sudan is preparing the leadership of the country.”

For more information about Hope for Humanity, Inc. visit http://www.hopeforhumanityinc.org.