In “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” Producer Fergal McCarthy explores the issue of girls education in South Sudan.
South Sudan is one of the world’s youngest countries. It’s a country that has gone through an awful lot in recent times. After gaining its independence from the North in 2011 - arguably Africa’s longest running civil war - the country soon deteriorated into it’s own civil war. In addition to the ongoing war, there is also the issue of inter-tribal and inter-clan fighting.
Despite huge hopes after independence, educating girls in South Sudan is still a rarity. Only 35% of girls will attend school, and of those, a large majority will drop out. It’s not just a matter of getting girls into school, it’s a case of keeping them there too. This documentary looks at Loreto Secondary School, an all-girls boarding school on the edge of Rumbek Town, in the Lakes State – right in the heart of the country. It's the only school of its kind in the region.
One person who understands the importance of educating South Sudan’s girls is Loreto Sr. Orla Treacy. A County Wicklow native from Bray, Sr. Orla has dedicated her life to educating South Sudan’s girls. As Principal of the Loreto Secondary School, over the past 10 years, Sr. Orla has passed on her love and enthusiasm for education to all of her students. The Secondary School has grown from 35 students to 183, attracting girls from all across the country.
“We started with the Secondary School with two classes with 35 girls, and we now have 183 girls…They live with us pretty much like the Irish school timetable,”
“The girls live here with us for the four years. They have a home environment… they get their food here - three meals a day... they get videos on a Saturday night. They cultivate, one of the things they do is an income generating project. They all dig, and they all farm. The idea is that they are supposed to produce some of the food that they eat as well.”
“They also take leadership roles. The government has affirmative action where they give 25% of all government positions to women. The difficulty is that most of those positions are occupied by women who make tea or who sweep… because we don't have 25% of the population educated, who are women, to take those positions. So from an early stage when the girls are here, we try to give them responsibility. Either it's looking after their class, equipment, the farm or animals, they might be looking after the young students in the Primary School, they may be responsible for measuring the food or organising the dining room or whatever. It's a ‘prefect system’… but it's more than that.”
With the success of the Secondary School, the Loreto Sisters saw a great need for a Primary School in the area. Over the last four years, the Primary School has grown to 10 classes with just under 500 students – boys and girls from the surrounding communities.
This success has by no means been easy. South Sudan is plagued by continued civil war and the ongoing inter-clan conflict. The School also has to contend with many social issues such as forced marriage and a continued scepticism of the importance of a girl’s education. The documentary, “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” looks at the tireless work of Sr. Orla and her efforts in providing a good education to young girls of South Sudan.
BROADCAST TIMES: “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” will be broadcast on Newstalk 106-108fm this weekend, Saturday 12th March from 7-8am and repeated later that day from 10-11pm.
LISTEN LIVE: “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” can also be listened to online at: www.newstalk.com
PODCAST: Podcast available at: www.newstalk.com/documentaryonnewstalk after the broadcast.
CREDITS: “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” is part of the Spring Season of Documentary on Newstalk.
“South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” was Produced by Fergal McCarthy. Narration by Audrey Hamilton and sound supervision by Sean Hurley. This documentary was supported by a grant from Misean Cara.
QUOTES FROM “South Sudan 101; Education in the world’s youngest country” :
“…every young man has a gun. We have always had a problem with our young men and their guns… with their cows and their guns…. we have a big culture of revenge. So what happens here every day is that young men take the law into their own hands, killing one another.'
“I actually felt very drawn to the idea of coming here, and working in South Sudan. I had never been to Africa. I didn't know anything about the life of a missionary as such but there was just some attraction to it. That was 10 years ago, and I'm still here. I feel very much at home. There is a massive challenge every day. There is definitely a God-thing in it because I think the whole mission that we have here is one big miracle after another… it's been a great journey, and it's great to see the girls grow. It's great to see the school grow.”
“I suppose independence was a huge high, and we had to come down. Unfortunately we've been coming down ever since. People had that dream that life was going to be better and that there was going to be an instant fix to our problems. That we would have better roads and infrastructure, jobs, money, and security…”
“There is also a question of ethnicity, which is something we don't have in Ireland. We have it when we play GAA and whose county you are following but we don't really have it in the same context as Africa. In Africa, in South Sudan we have a lot of tribes, and people identify themselves with their tribe…”
