How the future of a nation rests on educating its young women

2019 Impact Summary

We see a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make a practical difference to the education and life chances of girls in South Sudan. Ibba Girls’ Boarding School (IGBS) aims to educate and empower young women with the values, knowledge and skills for life, work and leadership in their local communities and at all levels, in this newest African nation.

In 2011, a group of local community leaders, led by Bridget Nagomoro, then Ibba County Commissioner, came together with the support of a team in the United Kingdom to develop plans to open a girls’ residential school. The school offers safety, support, high-quality teaching, and an undisrupted route to gain an integrated education from primary to secondary. It links knowledge with “both the pen and the hoe”, balancing academic learning with practical education in life skills. In 2014, the school opened to its first 40 ten-year old girls, offering places to girls whatever their background or status. It now educates 220 girls (as of summer 2019). No girl is prevented from coming to school because of a lack of income. The school is rooted in Christian values, a central part of the lives of most of those living in South Sudan, but it is open to and actively welcomes girls of all faiths and none.

The school is led by Head Teacher Mrs Vicky Ajidiru, who along with her team of qualified teachers, matrons, nurses, and support staff, cares for and empowers these 220 girls to shape not only their own futures but the future of their country.

As IGBS plans to increase its student body to 360 by 2022, this report:

1. Reflects on the success of the school to date and highlights the impact it is having not just on the students, but their families and local communities;

2. Offers thanks to all those who have supported us;

3. Encourages individuals or organisations who are new to our work to join this movement, to revolutionise the future of South Sudan through high-quality education and the empowerment of its young women.

South Sudan is ranked the toughest place in the world for a girl to get an education.

Before joining the school, the parents of each girl must agree explicitly that they will support attendance, retention and progress through to the end of secondary school.

If I were not at Ibba Girls’ Boarding School (IGBS), there would be no hope in my life as it is now.

Friends of Ibba Girls’ School (FIGS) is a UK-based charity which has so far raised over £2 million for the school. FIGS is currently responsible for most of the ongoing funding needs of the school and continues to support its expansion and development, with plans for increasing self-reliance over the next 5 to 10 years.

Seba, Student, Secondary 1

Mrs Vicky Ajidiru, Head Teacher, Ibba Girls’ School (pictured above)

Ibba

South Sudan – The Facts

If you educate a man you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman you educate a nation.

Dr. James Emmanuel Kwegyir-Aggrey, (1875-1927)

It achieved independence from Sudan in 2011 after 4 decades of a brutal war which claimed the lives of over 1.5 million people.

South Sudan’s oil-dependent economy is shrinking, with inflation at nearly 60%; most people live in rural areas and subsist on less than a dollar a day.

South Sudan is located in sub-Saharan east Africa.

Around 90 per cent of South Sudan’s women are illiterate.

of the country’s children are out of school.

Women are more likely to die in childbirth than complete secondary school.

75%

Nearly half of the population of around 13 million is under 18.

of women and girls have experienced physical or sexual violence.

65% An estimated

Due to political and ethnic tensions and

the impact of climate change, South Sudan has the third largest refugee crisis after Syria and Afghanistan; 3.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes.

of all girls under 18 are married, often from age 14 or 15.

Over half

Set in verdant equatorial forest - a vibrant centre for learning

The school now has capacity to house 250 girls within five dormitories (funding is being sought for further dormitories). Other buildings on site include two classroom blocks, teacher and guest accommodation blocks, and a multi-purpose hall (a shared space which serves as dining hall, debating chamber, assembly hall, cinema, theatre and weekly place of worship!).

We are now just three years away from reaching our target of educating 360 girls from Primary 4 to the end of secondary school. These school leavers will make up 5% of the entire population of girls completing their schooling across South Sudan.

In 2018, Ibba Girls’ School was the only school in the country to achieve a 100% pass rate in the national primary school certificate.

The top six scorers in the whole of South Sudan were students from Ibba Girls’ School. This reflects the school’s high-quality teaching, small classes and interactive learning.

Monitoring and Evaluation

Every year a FIGS review team, led by Professor Jean Hartley, conducts a comprehensive Annual Developmental Review which aims to explore the school’s strengths, its development needs and its suggestions for the future. It is a formative evaluation, and the findings are used to fine-tune and adapt current activities and feed into strategic and operational plans. The team stays on site and talks with and spends time with students, teachers, other staff, parents, governors and community leaders, hearing about their experiences and views of the school.

The last developmental review was held in Ibba over two weeks in October 2018, and included a short survey undertaken with all the students. The team spoke in detail to 30 parents, who reported being very happy with their girls’ education and wellbeing. Common themes were that teaching is good and crucially that the girls are safe and protected from boys and men. Many felt that the whole family benefits from having a daughter at the school.

2018 achievements

We are still in the early stages of this ground-breaking, long-term educational intervention, meaning that we are still a few years away from seeing the girls’ journeys after leaving school into further education, employment, and leadership, but the Ibba Girls’ School alumnae network will be critical for the future health, stability and prosperity of the country as a whole. What we are already able to measure is the impact which the girls’ education is having not only on them as individuals, but on their families and local communities.

www.friends.ibbagirlsschool.org/donate

When you invest in the education of a single student at Ibba Girls’ School, you are investing in a family, a community, and a nation. Your donation will also help to keep these young women safe from early marriage, FGM and pregnancy. £33 a month covers the costs of food for one student.Become a #friendforlife

The impact of the school on the girls’ families and local communities is assessed during our Annual Developmental Review. Part of the review involves surveying the students to find out more about how their education impacts those around them.

The impact of IGBS is felt in five main ways. First, the school is clearly a source of income for the community, as a rare source of employment and as a local purchaser. Second, the families benefit from girls’ literacy and numeracy and from their improved knowledge of health, hygiene, sanitation and the benefits of delaying pregnancy. Third, several girls cite their work in the community during holiday periods, such as going from house to house spreading knowledge about hygiene and sanitation to the women in their villages, and by helping those who cannot read, e.g. by reading dosage information on prescriptions.

Fourth, some girls were recruited to be involved in household nutritional surveys, giving them experience of how to conduct such surveys and contributing to the provision of humanitarian and healthcare assistance in their local area. Such activities increase the profile of IGBS and its value within the community and help the girls to practise their skills in English and as interpreters. Fifth, because the girls have better English than their counterparts, they are sometimes asked to support the local and state government on official business, such as accompanying visiting dignitaries or UN officials. This underlines the esteem of the school in the eyes of local officials, which is good for community support and security, and as with the support to humanitarian work, increases the girls’ confidence and capacity.

Community impact

Alongside the girls’ contribution to community development through their education in health and sanitation, the school employs as much local labour as possible. This helps to develop community ownership of the school and mobilises marginalised people, enhances skills for work, and contributes to peace and stability.

The school currently employs 40 valued members of the local community. These include teachers, matrons, cooks, cleaners, security staff and grounds staff. The on-site school nurse holds a morning surgery for pupils or members of staff and their families and conducts follow up care during the day, including home visits in Ibba village when required. Her role extends beyond the school, benefitting the local community.

When I met my family, I was able to share with my brothers and sisters what I have learnt from my school. My parents were so excited to see the change in me.

Susan, Student, Secondary 1

Every member of staff from support staff to teaching staff all feel they have a role to play in the success of these girls… together we work hard and achieve the goals of Ibba Girls’ School and in turn make South Sudan a better country

Mrs Eunice Laker Director of Studies for the Secondary School

Neither sustainable peace nor environmental protection is easy for South Sudan. Climate change is affecting the agricultural cycle, bringing unpredictable and extreme weather and changing nomadic patterns in many regions. Displacement of people is often a direct or indirect result of climate change, and violence in much of the country has both fuelled and led to widespread food insecurity. This means that despite a sparse and largely rural population and much fertile land, inflation in food prices stands at nearly 100%, the highest in the world.

The school sits on around 100 acres of land, donated by two local people: Bridget Nagomoro and local village elder Chief Severio. In our recent Annual Developmental Review, many of the parents we spoke with wanted the girls to learn more agriculture, which is part of the school’s original vision for self-sustainability, life skills, income generation and environmental protection. This will help to increase the variety of their diet and give them practical knowledge for their families and communities. We plan to develop an organic farm on site by 2021, which will act as a training and demonstration project for the community as well as an income-generating activity (especially for local women), and a sustainable source of food for the school. This will help to improve coping mechanisms for climate change, to increase local health, nutrition and incomes, and to reduce the school’s high food costs.

By donating to the development of the farm, you will be helping to secure the sustainability of the school and local community.

Environment

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We learned about the common water-borne diseases like bilharzia, typhoid, dysentery and cholera… While at home, I shared the good things I have learnt from my school like how to live healthily.

Foiza, Student, Secondary 1

One notable feature of wider learning at IGBS is students’ engagement with community health. They are among the few who are literate and can read prescriptions, and at school they have learned the importance of personal hygiene. In the holidays, girls help their families and communities with basic health and hygiene, applying what they have read about or learned at school. This knowledge quickly extends through families and communities and has a huge positive impact on household health.

By showing how useful girls’ education is, these voluntary interventions also raise awareness of and demand for girls’ education, and this in turns drives down rates of early and forced marriage and reduces the incidence of maternal mortality.

Given the quality of their education and of their written and spoken English (the country’s main official language), six girls aged 14 to 16 were selected last year by a local NGO to be involved in a nutritional survey in all the payams (districts) in Ibba County during the school holidays. The work involved 4 days of initial training, then going out across the locality to measure and weigh individuals, conduct health and nutrition interviews and record results in English. The NGO team gave a very favourable report of the girls’ contribution and the girls themselves said they found the experience a real eye-opener. It helped build their confidence as well as their skills, and several girls now dream of becoming doctors.

95% of the girls surveyed, from the two most senior classes, have taught their families the importance of washing their hands.

92% of those girls have taught their families numeracy skills.

64% of those girls have advised other girls in their families and local community how to behave properly with boys to avoid pregnancy.

Health and sanitation

£3,960 is how much it costs to provide sanitary kits for every girl at the school for one year.

£2,992 is how much it costs to employ a trained nurse at the school for one year.

£1,877 is how much it costs to employ a matron at the school for one year.

Being in this school will change my life because I will be able to get a job and get a good income.

Elia, Student, Primary 5

The school focuses on girls because very few get the chance of education beyond the age of around 10, and because of the positive multiplier impact of girls’ education on women’s rights, mortality, health, empowerment, productivity and resilience. Reflecting the commitment of the Convention of the Rights of the Child to equal access, the school offers places to girls with potential, whatever their background, status or income. To fulfil the aim of combining excellence with accessibility, the school is residential, allowing girls from a wide catchment area (about the size of Scotland) to attend and study safely, without being forced or encouraged into marriage and pregnancy or withdrawn from education very early because of domestic pressures.

Extra-curricular activities and democratic structures also reinforce knowledge about human rights and encourage the right to participation as well as enabling future advocacy and freedom of speech and assembly as women.

Gender

The school’s focus is to educate and nurture girls in a safe and secure environment so that they can contribute to the development of their society (including building and maintaining peace and advocating for human rights), whether in local or national leadership roles, or simply having more control over their own lives through education.

As we empower the students of Ibba Girls’ School, as individuals and collectively, they have the power to foster the vision and direction of the world’s newest nation, to create new laws, lobby for constructive change and steer the country towards peace and prosperity.

Education is not only a basic human right, it is also an enabler of rights. Education is transformational, raising awareness of rights and building confidence to express these rights. The positive power of girls’ education in any context but especially in South Sudan cannot over overstated.

The success of Ibba Girls’ School has already given it a national profile and there is increasing interest in replicating this model across South Sudan.

The Friends of Ibba Girls’ School are working with partners in the ministry of education and the UN, donor and NGO communities to develop a pilot project to improve the quality of leadership, management, teaching and learning across a network of schools initially in Western Equatoria but expanding to the rest of the country if successful.

At the same time, the priority remains to secure the funding necessary to continue to grow and develop Ibba Girls’ School and its vision for to be a centre of excellence for the whole country and an educational, social and economic hub for the whole community.

Future plans

Peace-building

The risk of financial mismanagement in poor and war-torn countries can be especially high, and we fully recognise this. Friends of Ibba Girls’ School is responsible for all fundraising and has established tight procedures to ensure that money donated is focused on developing and sustaining the school. Money goes directly to the school from the FIGS Treasurer Gary

Bandy, a highly-qualified accountant and experienced public financial

manager. Financial management on site at the school is led by the Head Teacher and by the Finance Assistant, Anna Joyce Mborifue (pictured).

FinanceWe are committed to transparency and accountability. The accounts for Friends of Ibba Girls’ School are publicly available on the Charity Commission website and independently examined.

Our longer-term plan from 2022-2030 is that Ibba Girls’ Boarding School will move progressively towards financial self-reliance and organisational sustainability, with the South Sudanese Trustees and Board of Governors gradually taking on responsibility for raising more funding for the school.

Staff salaries(40 staff in South Sudan & 1 in UK)£157,71336.9%

School furniture, uniforms etc.£20,447 4.8%

Other IGBS running costs

£15,584 3.6%

School construction£110,470

25.9%

Staff travel & subsistence£11,366 2.7%

Fundraising & marketing£19,238 4.5%

Governance, ICT, bank charges, exchange loss &

other charitable expenses£19,797 4.6%

School meals for students & staff

£72,39817%

Throughout 2019, we need funding to:

1. feed the students and staff for three school terms, so that the residential school continues its track record of always being open and working during terms, providing a balanced diet to enable learning;

2. continue to staff the growing school with enough trained teachers, matrons, cooks and cleaners, and security groundsmen, to keep the girl students safe, healthy and focused on high-quality learning, as well as creating local employment;

3. continue to upgrade the school and maintain a safe environment for learning in the current South Sudanese context;

4. build new buildings in order to continue expanding the school to its planned capacity of 360.

If you would like to sponsor the development of a new building, please contact

This is what we are currently fundraising for:

An on-site health clinic

£20,100A science lab

£29,240

A kitchen

£33,725An administration block

£45,460

A new dormitory

£73,850

A classroom block

£82,610

Other key funding priorities

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We welcome organisations, groups, businesses or individuals who wish to sponsor the development of new buildings. In return you will get:

• the opportunity to name a building or choose other ways in which your donation is recognised;

• public acknowledgement (or assured anonymity if preferred);

• regular updates from the team.

heidi@ibbagirlsschool.org

in time for the new cohort’s arrival in February 2020

which can cope with a growing school and a storeroom which helps to reduce costs by buying in bulk

providing a staff room and private spaces for parent-teacher meetings and financial management

for the new secondary school

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FIGS is a UK-registered charity no. 1146220

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