South Sudan

Diocese of Wau

The Diocese covers two states in South Sudan, Western Bahr el Ghazal and Warrap State, with an estimated population of 1.3 million. They are heavily involved in locally-led education and relief projects, all of which are overseen by HART partner Archbishop Moses Deng, one the country’s most respected peacebuilders.

Conflict in the region has forced many people to flee their homes. In March 2017, an estimated 5,000 people arrived at the Diocese compound in search of refuge. We provided life-saving food and shelter, while families of opposing tribes lay side-by-side. Their shared need for assistance and subsequent provision of aid broke down barriers.

The arrival of COVID-19 saw the Government of South Sudan and the UN send thousands of displaced persons, who had been residing in churches and displacement camps, back to their villages without preparation. Community tensions grew due to a lack of available water sources and overcrowding around the few water sources available. HART supported the Diocese to purchase a water tank that sold households water at a rate of less than 50 per cent of what was already available. Poorer households, who would otherwise travel long distances to overcrowded boreholes, could maintain social distancing and good hygiene practices.

Archbishop Moses Deng chairs numerous reconciliation committees, including the Inter-faith Committee on Peace and Reconciliation, and has played a central role in motivating the region to pursue long-term peace. He founded St. John’s College in Wau to train pastors, business students and teachers. He oversees multiple projects to deliver emergency medical assistance, food relief, clean water and shelter to displaced people in the area, as well as programmes to promote income generation and agricultural self-sufficiency.

Marol Academy

Marol Academy, near Luonyaker in Bahr-El-Ghazal, was founded in 2007 on the basis that ‘to build a healthy nation, girls must be educated equally with boys’.

Though boys are allowed to enrol, they do so recognising they are ‘guests’. There is no tuition to attend the school, but boys pay a nominal fee to ensure their parents are invested in the school and in their son’s achievement. Girls attend free.

The school has grown from a chalkboard under a tree in 2007 to seven buildings with 18 full-time teachers supporting 1,100 students eager to learn. We continue to be deeply grateful for the work of Naomi Pendle, a teacher from Wellington College, England, who came as a volunteer with a HART delegation in 2009, and who in 2010, on her own initiative, helped to develop the school and established a transformational teacher training programme based at the Academy.

The Academy has successfully evolved to become a sustainable organisation, which no longer requires our focus, although we are still able to pass on funds.