Fundraising progress for Phase 1 of the project:
GUA Africa has been granted 15 acres of land in Leer, West Upper Nile, by the government of South Sudan. Our goal is to build a high quality education centre for the whole community, which is to be called the Emma Academy, as a legacy to Emma McCune who lies at rest in Leer.
The twenty year long Sudanese civil war has meant that schooling in South Sudan today mostly consists of teaching under trees. Many former child soldiers have not found their way back into education, and traditionally only 1 in 5 girls are supported to finish High School.
Back in November 2008 GUA officials agreed with the local Leer community that the Emma Academy project should be split into two phases. The first phase will see the renovation of the existing Leer primary school, which was in desperate need of repair with only two out of four classrooms being fit for use. We have set up a partnership with locally based NGO Assistance Mission for Africa (AMA) to complete this renovation. The budget for Phase 1 has now been set at $220,000, which includes the construction of a new 5 classroom block for the school.
Due to some fantastic fundraising efforts we have been able to replace the collapsed roof and erect a strong perimeter fence around the whole site - essential to keep out roaming livestock. We have also been able to refurbish and repaint the school, plus begin construction on the school's first ever toilet blocks. The footings and flooring has been laid for two of the three toilet blocks, and the building of the walls for these two will commence now. Each of these improvements will make a massive difference to the welfare of the pupils attending the school.
In addition, the materials for the 5 classrooms have now arrived in Leer. Although we do not have all the funds in place yet, the decision was taken by Trustees, in conjunction with our local NGO partners AMA, to get the materials transported from Khartoum to Leer before the beginning of the rainy season. The journey takes at least a week and many of the roads would be impassable once the rains arrive. Conversely, construction is actually easier during the rainy season as before then the clay soil is far too dry and hard. So whilst we now have the materials ready in the compound, we still have all the labour and production costs to raise. We are now doubling our fundraising efforts to try and reach our target as quickly as possible so we can see the classrooms built and being used by the students of Leer Primary.
During the trip made by GUA officials in Jan 2010 more detailed plans were also completed for Phase 2 of the Emma Academy. This will see the development of a top quality educational establishment built on the 15 acres of land given to GUA. Our plans include a secondary school – the first in the area - as well as vocational training, sports, and teacher training facilities. We hope to introduce soil stabilisation technology to the area, which will enable us to make strong, durable building blocks using the local soil and sand. As well as being environmentally friendly, this will also generate income and development opportunities for the community in the years to come.
Click on the images below to view our architect's 3D drawings of the future Emma Academy site.
To donate to this project please visit our donate page.
