Project Education Sudan Spring Newsletter 2012

In This Issue

Executive Director Corner

Interview with Daniel Majok Gai, South Sudan Director

Girls Leadership Development Program

Half the Sky Fair: The Women's College at D.U.
In Appreciation

Executive Director Corner
Carol Girls Maar

Spring is upon us and the soil is being tilled for new seeds to be planted! Many fruits have been harvested this past year and buds of new fruit are blooming!

Daniel Majok Gai, South Sudan Director is doing a stellar job. He visited Denver in January to update us, only weeks after his marriage to Yom Anuul. We celebrated a "Daniel's Dinka Dowry & Wedding Party" with gifts to fund another bull to add to his dowry! Daniel returned to South Sudan last month after a gracious gift was provided by the Nagel Foundation. Mr. Ralph Nagel believes in Daniel's leadership ability and has invested in him as a future leader of South Sudan.

I was not able to join Daniel this year in South Sudan due to health issues contracted over the years in the line of duty! It is difficult not to be with the children, teachers, women and men whom I have grown to love so dearly. But with Daniel on the ground as a trusted capable leader, all is well! We work via Skype, email and cell calls once or twice a week.
When a door shuts, another opens and we have a very impressive door opening to PES: University Academics and Interns across the nation, along with professional international companies have been working the past two years on a comprehensive Community Leadership Development (CLD) pilot to be implemented upon funding in 2013. The CLD program has three components: Community, Girls and Teacher leadership modules. The purpose is in alignment with PES mission to empower, develop and train the local community leaders to learn to fish for themselves. With a new country comes great individual responsibility and response. It is capacity building with a sustainable outcome: empowered grass root community leaders who will be able to problem solve and make decisions for themselves without dependence on others.
To read about the many impressive partnerships, JKSIS, University of Denver, The Women's College, DU, OSU, Kansas State, Biola University, Ears to Our World, Stony Brook University; accomplishments to date and gifts from BloodSource, Virginia Gildersleeve International Fund, She's The First, CPR/NPR Interview, One Day on Earth, classrooms being built, and goings on, please read full update here . And don't forget to read Daniel's great interview as well as refer to the Appreciation acknowledgements listed!

Once again, thank you for for all you have made possible through your continued support. Without you the miracles, classrooms and programs would only be a dream. You make them a reality!

Please consider helping up reach our goal to complete the final 4-classroom building at Daniel's village Tong Pagook Primary School today.

With Gratitude,

Executive Director/Co-Founder

Daniel Majok Gai, South Sudan Director
Interview by Meera Rawat

What does it mean to you to be the South Sudan Director for PES?

It means a lot to me. I feel honored and take my work and role seriously. I want to do more and work hard to give back to the children. In 2008 I encountered a student at Ayak Anguei when I first came with PES to Konbeek. She was in Class 6, and is now ready to graduate. She expressed how grateful she is for the work that we've done for her community. I'd like to spend 2-5 more years here -I will return annually to visit the US and present what PES is accomplishing and how every dollar given is so greatly appreciated by the people.

"I want to thank the donors, volunteers, friends, and Board of Directors of PES. The organization's encouragement, trust and offering leadership development for me allows me to endure 9 months of mosquitoes, typhoid, malaria and mud! You all help with an open heart, working together for the benefit of the children. South Sudan is now free from an oppressive government and the free citizens need to be mentored with their new found equal rights and education for all. Don't leave us alone, we need the continued support. In 2-5 years, South Sudan will be a different country, the children will be leaders. As you empower me, you empower my community."

As South Sudan Director, how do you feel about your presence in Sudan, as a Sudanese working for PES? Do you find it empowers Sudanese people and inspires the children of South Sudan?

I feel great working as PES South Sudan Director; it is empowering both me and the community. I'm extremely proud of what I'm doing and the benefits to the Sudanese. I realize I am a role model for those whom I work with in the villages. Many of the International NGO's hire only European or Americans at top Director positions; not PES. Having received the leadership training funded by PES through the Leadership Institute of the New Sudan (L.I.O.N.S.) at the University of Juba in 2010 and the Nagel Foundation and Mr. Ralph Nagel, investing in my leadership ability has allowed me this incredible
opportunity to serve my people.

Continued interview...

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Girls Leadership Development Program

by Kelly O'Connor

Cheers erupt all around her; proud parents and family clap as sheaccepts her official exam certificate. She smiles proudly as she receives her school diploma; she is the first in her family to receive an education. How does a young girl in South Sudan get the chance to experience all of these things - these defining moments full of hope and imagination? Project Education Sudan is in the process of establishing a pilot program that aims to do just that - give the young girls in South Sudan the opportunity to be part of a championship soccer team, to one day run for office in the South Sudanese government, to graduate on time because she doesn't have to miss school to tend to feminine health needs and finally, to help find ways to lead in resolving conflict and reconciliation so South Sudan can finally break the cycle of violence that has plagued the region for so many years.

Project Education Sudan is happy to announce the launch of its Girls Leadership Development pilot program this year. PES has assembled a team to develop a three-tier girls leadership program to be implemented at the Ayak Anguei Girls` Primary School

in the winter of 2013. The program will be based on developing girls' leadership skills through sports, student government and conflict resolution training and improved knowledge of feminine health needs, HIV

education.

All of these areas have been identified by PES as integral in stimulating and developing these young girls to become the future leaders of their young country. The program adopts a multi-level approach to exposing young girls to different kinds of leadership through things such as teamwork and team building, negotiating and reconciliation skills, and basic feminine health and HIV education and promotion of positive body image. PES is committed to developing the future leaders of South Sudan while continuing to provide these young girls with the education opportunities to ensure an overall better quality of life that previous generations did not have the opportunity to pursue.

[Kelly O'Connor and Courtney Cohen, JKSIS MA Int'l Human Rights, will be PES summer interns in South Sudan this June-August 2012]

HalftheskyfairCarolRosanneAyor Half the Sky Fair: The Women's College at University of Denver

By Rosanne Juergens

A colorful cloth, beaded bracelets, and photos of smiling students from Ayak Anguei Girls Primary School, South Sudan, drew fairgoers to Project Education Sudan's table at the 2nd annual Half the Sky Fair November 5th and 6th, 2011, held at The Women's College at the University of Denver. Inspired by the book "Half the Sky," by Nick Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn, student groups Lambda Pi Eta and Women's Communication Network planned the event which featured 25 women-centered organizations and a silent auction which raised approximately $4500.

Ayak Anguei, sister school to The Women's College, was chosen as one of three recipients of the silent auction proceeds. Beyond the partnership with Project Education Sudan, The Women's College, students, faculty and staff feel a kinship with their little sisters in Konbeek, South Sudan. Auction proceeds will be apportioned to royal blue sweaters as part of the uniform for the orphans at Ayak Anguei, and for sanitary napkin hygiene kits. These kits will enable the girls to continue their studies with less absenteeism, and leave them less susceptible to early arranged marriages.

The Women's College student body showed up in numbers estimated at 500 attendees to bid on auction items, knowing that they would benefit their little sisters' education in South Sudan.