Education project for the poor in Africa has grown, thanks to support of Tipperary people

Above: Pictured at the presentation of a cheque for €3,500 from the Rotary Club of Clonmel for the Loreto Sisters school programme in South Sudan were Tom Duggan, Rotary project chairman; Sr Margaret Quirke and Sr Bridie Mullins, Loreto Convent, Clonmel; and Richie Molloy, president, Rotary Club of Clonmel

An education programme for girls in South Sudan, that has been supported by the Rotary Club of Clonmel for a number of years, has now expanded thanks to the generosity of the people of the town.

The Loreto Sisters project is located in Rumbek in the south of the country, one of the poorest in the world, but such has been its success that a new school is opening in the north of the country, near the border with Sudan.

Because of ongoing violence and conflict in Sudan, the work is dangerous but the project is going ahead because of the huge benefit it will provide to young girls in the region.

Accepting a cheque for €3,500 from the Rotary Club, Sr Bridie Mullins from the Loreto Convent in Clonmel said the money, collected at a flag day in the town, will be a huge boost to the project.

“The work on the new school had to stop recently because they didn’t have enough money to go onto the next stage. So, this donation is a huge boost and it will help change lives, not just for the girls who are being educated, but for the entire area”.
Rotary Clonmel has been supporting the Loreto-Rumbek project for a number of years. Started in 2006, its core function is to provide education, health care and well-being for young girls of school-going age.

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In a country ravaged by conflict and famine, young uneducated girls as young as 14 are regularly forced into arranged marriages by their family for a dowry, often in exchange for cattle.

The programme has ensured that girls are now able to continue their education, eventually move on to university and then return to their communities, where they play a vital role in the education of the next generation.

“At the start they could only get about 13 youngsters in the whole of the country to come because of the culture there. But now there could be anything up to 300 applying for places because they see the benefits of education,” said Sr Bridie as she accepted the cheque at a meeting of Clonmel Rotary.

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Following the success of the secondary boarding school, the Sisters realised that there was a need for a primary school so they started to educate young girls.

“And because they had no buildings, they taught them under the trees. Now there are over 1,000 girls in primary school, half in the morning and half in the afternoon. And they also give each child in the compound a meal every day, and that might be the only meal they get that day,” Sr Bridie explained.

The new project in the north of the country was another major undertaking, she added. Five past pupils from the area, about eleven hours by car from Rumbek, approached the Sisters and asked could they set up a school there.

“It is dangerous territory, near the border with Sudan, but they have taken it on. However, they cannot do anything without donors, they have to wait until they get the money,” Sr Bridie pointed out.

She added that the money from Clonmel might be able to fund an additional classroom in the school.

“We deeply, deeply appreciate the contribution you have made to us and we will be passing it on to the project in South Sudan in the name of Rotary Clonmel,” she added.

Club president Richie Molloy said Rotary was delighted to be able to support such a worthy project.
He also thanked the people of Clonmel who had been so generous in supporting the flag day fundraiser, and congratulated project chairman Tom Duggan for all his work.