Friends of Ibba Girls School (FIGS) is delighted to announce that the Zhejiang Wonder Public Foundation, from Zhejiang Province, China, has made a generous donation of USD135,000 to cover the costs of constructing a dormitory and washroom block this year.
This dormitory and washroom block will enable our third cohort of 40 ten-year-old girl students, who have recently started Primary Level 4 at Ibba Girls Boarding School (IGBS), to stay at the school safely and securely throughout their nine years of education right up to completing Senior Level 4, the final grade of secondary schooling. They will not have to risk long and sometimes dangerous walks to and from school, or to face the pressures of heavy domestic chores, early marriage and childbirth.
Instead, while on-site at the school, the girls will be supported by full-time pastoral staff and security guards, nourished with three meals each day, and taught all the subjects in the national curriculum to a high standard by qualified teachers. They will also no longer have to share Dormitory 2 with the Primary Level 5 cohort, as they have been doing for the past two months. The students’ parents will continue to visit their daughters and communicate with them, to serve on the Parent-Teacher Association (PTA), and to welcome them home to share their newfound knowledge with friends and family during the school holidays.
In a country with just 2,000 young women in Senior Level 4, the final grade of secondary schooling, these ten-year-old girls will therefore be able to receive an undisrupted full nine years of education, and will graduate with their School Certificates at age 18, equipped for further study, entrepreneurship and positions of leadership in South Sudan.
A number of Friends of Ibba Girls School have commented that this is a group that “gets things done” – a reputation which we intend to continue to uphold! Here, therefore, are some photographs of the dormitory foundation being dug and laid, and starting to be built upon.
To the Zhejiang Wonder Public Foundation, we would like to extend a heartfelt “谢谢” (pronounced “xie xie”, which means ‘thank you’ in Mandarin) for the high value that you place on education, and in particular for your generous support of the Ibba girl students. Please come and visit both us in the UK, as well as the students in Ibba, sometime soon!
