Present

Trustees: Karin Ayok-Loewenberg (chair of the meeting), Joseph Ayok-Loewenberg, Tony Evans, David Jenkins-Handy, Margaret Rudland and Ian Sykes
Christina Scholes (Winterthur), Peter Boyling (administrator)
And 28 other supporters.

Karin welcomed everyone and reported apologies from Ross Collins, chair of the charity, who was ill.

1. Where we are

Joseph said that he was glad to be able to report that the school was now open, and teaching 219 children. Teaching was not of European standard, but was already good by Southern Sudanese standards, and trustees were now looking ahead to making improvements as the school began to settle in.

The meeting watched a DVD of the opening of the school, filmed and produced by Ruedi Gebendinger, president of the Winterthur Association which supported UTS. There were many comments by supporters congratulating him on the professionalism of the DVD and the effective way it painted a picture of Malek, its people and the school. Karin said that it would be on the UTS website immediately.

In answer to questions, Joseph and others said:

1. the school includes a kindergarten for little ones, which was administered by UNICEF: it was a requirement for schools to include a kindergarten. The school age children were divided into 8 classes by age, except the youngest children, who were allocated to classes 1-3 by height. The children were receiving a daily meal funded by the World Food Programme;
2. adult education was planned, once we could afford to employ suitable teachers. We hoped that the Mennonites would provide teachers, or staff would probably be brought in from neighbouring countries. We wanted them to teach theology and vocational skills such as agriculture;
3. teaching was not a popular profession at the moment in Southern Sudan, as state salaries were paid infrequently. Malek was a long way from the main cities, and many people were reluctant to come this far. Our current teachers were local people who therefore had an interest in staying with us. Some had been funded by UTS through A levels in Kenya and Uganda. Others had limited education and we needed to train them. The Mennonites and teachers from neighbouring countries would be able to do training;
4. although the Government had promised to pay our teachers, as those in state schools, funding was lacking and we feared that little money might be forthcoming. We intended to provide a small loyalty premium to our staff to stay with us and so build a permanent cadre of teachers, without committing ourselves to taking on the full burden of the salary costs;
5. teaching would be in English as had been agreed for state schools. However Southern Sudan was close to Arabic speaking states, and children should also learn Arabic;
6. hearing little Akon on the DVD saying she wanted to be a doctor, it might indeed be that some of our children could move on to secondary school and university and thus become doctors, though there were few secondary school and university places in the country at present. Nurses are also called doctors in Southern Sudan;
7. Ian Sykes reported that supporters of UTS had raised £365,000 between October 2006 (when we had started with £25,000) and April 2009. More than 90% of this had been transferred to Sudan for the school, and a further amount had been spent on travel for Joseph between the UK and Malek. Over this period £107,000 had been raised by St Mary’s Barnes, £65,000 by Thomas church Basel, and £20,000 by the Winterthur Association. He congratulated all supporters for their generosity and commitment; and noted that small donations were just as welcome as larger ones. He encouraged everyone to make a Gift Aid declaration if they paid enough tax: UTS received about £8000 pa from the Government this way;
8. he noted that changes in exchange rates, and changes in prices of building materials (which were expensive in Southern Sudan) made accurate forward costing difficult. Changes in the ability of the Government to meet its commitments, eg on salaries, added to the complexity, which meant that UTS had to adjust its plans to meet needs as they developed. He felt it likely at present that UTS could be providing of the order of £25,000 pa for salary costs, and up to £10,000 pa on other running costs (food, teaching materials, fuel and maintenance of the truck we had bought etc). The cost of building the chapel, library and kitchen, with two more accommodation huts, was currently estimated at about £80,000, but no new building would begin until we had the funding for all the running costs secure.

2. Church and state relations in Southern Sudan

Joseph said that his post in the Government of Southern Sudan, Director of Religious Affairs, had involved a responsibility for promoting reconciliation between faiths and between tribes in the country. The civil war had been both a political war between north and south and a religious war between Muslims and Christians. The Comprehensive Peace Agreement had brought a measure of autonomy to Southern Sudan, and Muslims were a minority faith here. People of the south were hostile to the north, and to Islam, because of the persecution they had suffered. His role had been to seek to encourage closer relationships between Islam and Christian churches, to avoid a backlash against minorities which could lead to their persecution, in retaliation for the suffering of the south at the hands of the north over 50 years.

Other aspects of his work had included adjusting the school curriculum. It had been mostly Muslim based, and the new curriculum taught about both Christianity and Islam. It also reflects now the importance of learning Arabic, so that Southern Sudan was not cut off culturally from the northern Muslim Arabs, with whom the south had more in common culturally than with Uganda and Kenya. He had established a new multi-faith chaplaincy in the Armed Forces, ensuring that their role no longer included fighting but was based on counselling. The forces chaplaincy was now linked with those in the US and Britain, who were helping to train them to be a multi-faith organisation.

He had been asked to recommend legislation for Southern Sudan; and having seen his proposals the Council of Ministers had asked him to present a paper to the Parliament on the foundations for future relations between church and state. He would be giving the paper on 19 October.

His main argument was that although Christianity should not be a state religion Christian values should be integral to the new constitution for Southern Sudan. If this did not happen, then tribal values would be adopted; and the values of the many Southern Sudanese tribes involved protection of the family and tribe unit at the expense of fairness and justice across the whole country.

He compared this approach with the UK constitution which provided for adoption of a state religion of one Christian denomination; and the US constitution which avoided adopting one denomination as a state religion but which was based on the Ten Commandments and Isaiah chapter 33.

He felt it would be hugely challenging to change the national culture to one of forgiveness. Even the Anglican church in Sudan did not want a good relationship with the Muslim faith. The churches were less open to a forgiving approach than were neighbours in the street, even though southern Muslims were black, not Arab.

In answer to questions about the likely outcome of the Southern Sudanese elections next year and the Southern referendum on independence in 2011, he thought that most people would seek independence, because of the memories of their persecution during the civil war. However most of Sudan’s oil was in the south and to avoid losing revenues the North was likely to seek to prevent secession, if necessary by force. He personally favoured a compromise which gave the South greater autonomy within a federation structure which included a continued sharing of oil revenues.

However the law of the North was Shar’ia law, and to replace that with a democratic constitution would be too radical a change to hope for. Also the north was currently suspected of taking more than the 50% of oil revenues to which it was entitled under the CPA, and this was a serious cause of contention.

On the other hand prospects were not all bleak. The majority in both north and south did not want more war. The south would effectively be landlocked if they no longer had access for oil exports via Port Sudan in the north, as Mombasa and Dar es Salaam were a long way away. They would be wise to agree to share the oil.

Joseph was warmly thanked for a very enlightening session.

3. Future relationship between supporters and the school

Karin said that UTS trustees were determined to develop our links with Malek and the school into a continuing, living, relationship. She invited thoughts about what might be done, including by expanding our list of supporters.

Suggestions made included:

1. we could increase our feedback about the school to those who made donations. A newsletter every four months would be about right;
2. we should emphasise to supporters the genuine relationship we were developing;
3. how could we use the internet better to publicise UTS and to make it feasible for western schools to make contact with Malek? Joseph noted that we had unsuccessfully applied for a grant to install our own satellite dish at the school, and we could try other sources of donations. It was suggested that a communications company might be interested in making a grant;
4. could we get a slot on a children’s TV programme?

In conclusion…

Karin thanked all for coming, and thanked the St Mary’s team who provided the welcome and the refreshments.

PMB
13/10/2009