Sr. Brigid Tunney:

I am a Loreto sister and my congregation is a member of Misean Cara. I would like to give the committee an insight into some of our work and experience with girls' education in South Sudan.

To educate girls is to reduce poverty. Study after study has taught us that there is no tool for development more effective than the education of girls and the empowerment of women.

These are the words of Mr. Kofi Annan from April 2003. South Sudan has been at war for 45 of the last 65 years. As a result, development in the country has been stifled and infrastructure is very poor. Four million people are displaced and another six million depend on food aid in order to survive. According to UNESCO, over 2.2 million children of schoolgoing age were out of school in 2015. More than half of secondary school aged children were out of school, with the rates reaching 75% for girls in rural areas.

As in many cultures in Africa, the payment of a dowry or bride price is common practice in South Sudan. Daughters are thus seen as a source of wealth for the family. Upon getting married, girls leave their birth family and become part of their husband’s family so investing in a girl’s future is seen as a waste of resources. The thinking is that it is better to marry a girl off quickly to bring the dowry in to the family. As a result, child marriage is common. A girl of 15 in South Sudan is more likely to be married with children than to be in school. Girls are taken from the classroom from as early as 11 years old to be married off. Keeping girls in school to complete their primary and secondary school education is a constant battle.

Following on a long tradition of Irish missionary education in developing countries, the Loreto girls’ secondary school in Maker Kuei, Rumbek, South Sudan opened in 2008 with 35 girls. Today the school has an enrolment of 291. It is a boarding school, providing a secure and safe environment for the girls to pursue their education. When the girls are within the compound, the risk of violence, rape and forced marriage is reduced. As I have said, keeping the girls in school is the most significant challenge. In 2011, the drop-out rate from the school was a very discouraging 68%. We decided to exploit the power of male family members to achieve our goal of full retention in education for our students. After much discussion, planning and negotiation, we introduced what we call a commitment form. This document is signed by a male family member and commits the family to ensuring that the girl in question completes the four years of the secondary cycle. No girl is admitted to the school without a signed commitment form and it is working. In 2018, the drop-out rate had fallen to 1.4%.

As I mentioned, this is a constant battle. At Christmas in 2018, two of our students did not want to go home for the holidays because they were certain they would be kept at home and married off against their will. In fact, cattle had already been given for one of the girls. Both girls opted to remain in the school compound instead. The heads of the two families were not happy with this but we managed to use the signed commitment forms to plead the girls’ cases. On the basis of the forms, the local paramount chief managed to secure a ministerial order from the ministry of education endorsing the girls' right to remain in school. This was a big step for us. One of those girls is Mary, a first year student. She had already been taken away twice by her family to be married off during the 2018 school year. She was tied up and beaten but managed to escape and returned to the school. At Christmas, we hid her in the convent until we had negotiated with her father that she could stay in school until she had completed her education. Mary will not leave the compound for another two years. She is quite restricted but she is happy to do this in order to get her education.

In the western world, the notion of a boarding school is generally associated with wealth and privilege but the Loreto boarding school in Rumbek creates a safe place for vulnerable girls to complete their education. It is heavily subsidised by donations. Another benefit of the school is the promotion of peace. Peace is fragile in South Sudan. When disagreements occur, violence is often the first rather than the last resort. Revenge killing is common and the violence often breaks down along ethnic lines. However, the girls in the boarding school come from different states and various ethnic groups and are learning that they can live together in peace. The school’s peace club and culture club play a part in this. The girls learn about one another‘s cultures and the need for all to live in harmony if the people of South Sudan are to have a future.

Misean Cara’s members warmly welcomed this committee’s February 2018 report on its review of the Irish Aid programme. We welcomed, in particular, the recommendations that the Government examine opportunities to increase funding to missionary bodies and that it review and consider an increase in support for education, placing a particular emphasis on quality education and girls’ education. The experience of the girls attending the Loreto school in Rumbek is a testimony to the power and impact of education on the individual and on society. A full 90% of our graduates have gone on to third level education. They are training in nursing and teaching, are employed with NGOs, in local radio and so on. In a social media post for Women’s Day 2017, one of those graduates, acknowledging the education received in Loreto Rumbek, wrote:

I promise you that South Sudan will have great women because of you. We are the source of strength and agents of change in our society.

These are words of hope for the fragile nation of South Sudan and particularly for the women of South Sudan. These words confirm the importance of girls’ education in forwarding women’s rights and in developing a new, emerging independent nation. I thank the committee for its support of our work. Long may that support continue and grow.