News from Br. Christian Mbam
This is an update on Solidarity with South Sudan. I just yesterday, 5th of March, joined the Malakal Teacher Training after six weeks in Wau to give a course in Biology to Incoming Training Nurses there.
There are now eighty-nine resident students training to be registered nurses or mid-wives in our Health Training Institute in Wau. We have just finished the delivery of another year of the eight-week in-service teacher training programme to 431 teachers, in six different locations. 59 of these teachers have just completed the fourth and final year of the in-service curriculum. Official openings of the two teacher training colleges Solidarity has constructed in Yambio and Malakal took place in mid-February and a significant graduation ceremony for the Malakal graduates from 2012 was held. In Agok, we had five tutors living in tents and delivering the first year of in-service to 88 teachers displaced from the disputed region of Abyei. These are teachers who speak Arabic but who are determined to graduate to teach in English in the new country of South Sudan.
Solidarityis also offering extensive, pastoral programmes as well as developing agricultural initiatives in Riimenze and Wau. One less-publicised aspect of the work of Solidarity is the hospitality extended here in the central administration house in Juba. This is an eleven bedroom house, with two beds in some rooms, and the rooms are frequently full. People turn to Solidarity for comfort, support, guidance and assistance. Solidarity has become, both formally and informally, an integral service arm of the Church in South Sudan.
Solidaritynow has 34 members living in South Sudan: Sisters, Brothers and Priests from a variety of congregations plus lay volunteers.
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Br. Christian Mbam
Other news: 19 September 2012: FMSI – Solidarity with South Sudan
23 August 2012: Br Christian Mbam will take part in the project