The first classroom
The story of how a dream of a classroom was shattered, just to be restored
It all started under a mango tree, then the flood water took the better of it.
To get to the tree and to Cango Mamur in Maban, you have to fly for two hours from the capital Juba to Bunj in the north eastern corner of South Sudan. From there, you have to drive 45 minutes on a dusty dirt road made up of the red soil this area is known for.
When the liberation war between Sudan and South Sudan ended, people returned home to this area only to find that there were no education opportunities for their children. As refugees in Sudan, the children went to school, but Cango Mamur didn’t even have a school building and there were no teachers.
“The turning point for our children was when UNICEF came in and established a Early Childhood Development (ECD) centre in 2016. This was the first ever school,” says Jujule Guffa. He is the headteacher of Cangu Mamur primary school. There was no building or structure in place, just the necessary tools and a teacher under a big tree, providing the needed protection from the scorching sun.
The need for a primary school grew in parallel with children learning more of the alphabet and increasingly getting to higher numbers when counting.
“UNICEF decided to add primary one to primary three classes, but we still didn’t have the money for a proper structure, we had to continue the education under the tree,” says Amuda Scopas, UNICEF education officer in South Sudan.
Kamal Sukar, currently in primary 2, was part of the first group of first graders in the school. “I can now count from 1-20. I also can identify the letters in my name.”
After securing funding to build a semi-permanent structure, UNICEF started building the first ever classrooms in the village. The school was designed to operate in sunny and rainy weather, but unprecedented rain in 2019 flushed away the much-needed classrooms, even before they were finished.
Once again, Cangu Mamur was without a school.
USAID has agreed to help rebuild the school, and now the main structure and the roof is already up. Soon, the children will have a proper classroom to learn and grown in, creating a better future for themselves and their country.
