Arek Tong tells about her life
"My name is Arek Tong, I am ten years old and I am in second grade. My father is dead and my mother, two brothers and two sisters live several hours away by foot. There is no school there, so I am living with my cousin. In return, I look after the home and the children. I wake up at dawn, six o'clock, and sweep the yard. Next, I grind sorghum into flour on a stone. Then I fetch water from a well that is twenty minutes away by foot. I can carry ten litres on my head. When I return home, I make porridge and tea. That is our breakfast, and I wash up afterwards. We eat with our fingers, so there is only a pot and a spoon to be washed.

After breakfast, I go to school. I like to go to school, especially reading books. After school I look after a couple of small children, until it is time for me to help make dinner. We only eat twice a day, in the morning and the evening. My favourite meals are maize porridge and soup. I love goat and ox meat, as well as fish, but we don't get that much of that. We only get milk in the rainy season, because the cows don't give milk when there is drought. When the sun sets at seven o'clock in the evening, I go to bed in the hut with the other children. We light a little fire with animal dung, as the smoke keeps the mosquitos and flies away."

Arek would like to be a teacher when she grows up. She would also like to get married, but not before she is 28 years old, at which time she wants to have ten children. Most girls are married when they are 14-15 years of age and have as many children as possible. Boys and girls alike are equated with wealth, as they provide fundamental help in the home. Most married women have up to 12 children, though it is rare that all of them survive.

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The fight for education – the fight for survival
By Charlotte Bøgh, Programme Assistant, Save the Children Denmark
 
There was a thorough briefing regarding security regulations and information about air evacuation, and I got my 'run-away-kit' – a belt bag with everything from a flashlight to condoms – issued in the event of having to flee from local assailants into the bush. The security chief in Logichokio reviewed the security situation in southern Sudan. Alarmingly many of the roads and villages were "no-go" – there was local unrest between militia groups, tribal conflicts over the theft of cattle, as well as unrest over the establishment of an oil pipeline. There has been a ceasefire between the Khartoum Government in the north and the SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) in the south since March 2003, however, meaning that there have not been any bombings or other forms of terror from the air.

Sudan gained independence from British colonisation in 1956. Since that time there has been more than 30 years of civil war, and it is impossible to find children who know of a life without war. Fathers, brothers and grandfathers are killed in war, older siblings have disappeared while fleeing, and younger siblings have fallen to illnesss after prolonged malnutrition.

Sudan covers an area of 2.5million km2, an area 58 times as large as Denmark[JJN2] . 34 million people live in the country, Arabic peoples in the north and black Africans [JJN3] in the south. There are 64 different languages. The government language is Arabic, but in southern Sudan only English is used in the schools. Southern Sudan alone is 20 times the size of Denmark and populated with Christian, Dinka, Nu, Luo, Shilluk and many smaller tribes. In Bahr el Ghazal in the north there are deserts and savannas, while in the Upper Nile in the west there are impassable swamps, and in East and West Equatorial in the south there are cultivated, fertile fields, forests and impassable mountains.

The schools in southern Sudan
Educational opportunities in southern Sudan are quite poor. A mere 75% og all boys and 25% of girls are given the opportunity to attend school – and only for a few years at that. However, everyone – children and adults alike – acknowledges that education is the key to progress, and great sacrifices are made to receive schooling. Most of the schools in southern Sudan only have five or six grades. Few schools go as far as the eighth grade. There are hardly any school buildings; teaching is carried out under a tree or in a mud-hut. Most schools only have male teachers.

There are two secondary schools in southern Sudan serving a population of 15 million spread over an area 20 times that of Denmark. It is too dangerous to send girls so far away from home in a war-torn country. If boys are to attend secondary school and pursue higher education, they are obligated to serve in the military in the government forces and risk fighting against their own brothers and friends in the south. Obviously education is for the select few whose parents can afford to pay for boarding school in Uganda and Kenya.

Teachers receive training
460 teachers participated in a training seminar for teachers in 2003/04 in the Bahr el Ghazal and Upper Nile regions. 46 of these were female teachers. At the same time, 479 girls aged 12-18 years who had never previously attended school were taught reading, writing and arithmetic in special classes. The teachers in southern Sudan usually have very limited schooling, as all schools end in fifth or sixth grade. Teachers' training often merely consists of a couple of courses. Save the Children Denmark therefore offers supplementary courses to render them better teachers.

240 teachers from the Dinka tribe received supplementary training in Bahr el Ghazal, of whom 28 were women. There are three teacher-training centres: one in Panliet, another in Akon, and a third in Yargot. There is an additional training centre in Nyadin in Upper Nile, where 220 teachers received training, 18 of whom were female. If a teacher fails the course requirements, he or she receives another chance the next year, as many teachers have not had previous opportunity to attain the required basic education to teach.

Girls in Bahr el Ghazal get married when they are 14-15 years of age. Most men have more than one wife, and the wealthiest chiefs can have up to 15 wives. It was therefore entirely extraordinary that 17 female teachers [JJN4] received the opportunity to participate in the teacher training. All of them indicated that they had made their own decision regarding their continued education, and their husbands supported this decision.

I close the window, for the wind is like trying to breathe in front of a blowdryer. Unrest has broken out in the truck, as our provisions, three goats and five chickens, begin to grow impatient. Water is a scarce resource, and one must walk a great distance to the closest water pump. We do not want to drink the brown, murky watery from the open watering holes. Electricity is only found in southern Sudan, so there are neither lights nor refrigerators with cold drinks. We must make it to Akon before nightfall, as it is too dangerous to drive at night in a war-torn country. We are to attend the graduation ceremonies for a training course for teachers.
 
8-10 hours walk from school
It is an important day. The course has taken three months, and now it is time for the teachers to return to their families after graduating. Some live up to ten hours on foot from Akon. The festivities begin, and we sit underneath a large, shady tree. There is a display of dance and song, boys jumping through burning hoops, and other entertainment. Of greatest importance, however, is the presentation of the diplomas. Of 100 teachers, 94 passed the exam, many attaining very fine results. Ten teachers received prizes for their exceptional efforts, and they were beaming with happiness after receiving rubber boots, long trousers and shirts.

I am standing together with some of the 15 women who have undergone the course.  The women are young, strong, slim, very tall and totally blue-black with white teeth in a smiling face, which is so typical among the Dinkas. With a single exception, the women are all married and have children. Four of the women stand with their infants in arm, and I enquire, a little naively, whether they live nearby. No, they all live more than eight hours by foot from the training centre. They must have their infants with them, as they are nursing; however, they have all had babysitters along from home. These are either older siblings or a girl 9-10 years of age. While taking the course, the women live together with their children and babysitters in small, round straw-thatched huts without water or electricity.

Investment in the future
The leader of the course tells of how there are actually fewer children along at the course than was the case last year, when 16 women had 17 children along with them. Two of the women were even pregnant, both of them having given birth to a little girl a few days prior to the exam. Subsequent to the course, they returned home on foot to their husbands with a fine diploma and a new baby. But the desire to become a better teacher overshadows any possible obstacle, even though teachers are unsalaried in southern Sudan. The women regard their education as an investment in the future equal to receiving an extra cow in their dowry. Their husbands supported their decision to travel away from home for three months to complete the course. The women are now looking forward to returning home to their husbands and showing off their diplomas.

Children from the schools in southern Sudan supported by Save the Children Denmark tell the following...