CHILDREN’S CHALLENGES AND CHOICES
Before he was bishop, Peter Yuol Gur of Tonj, South Sudan felt called to serve the children of his home area. He met many youth who had lost family or whose family could not take care of them as a result of the ongoing conflicts and dire economic stress. Peter decided to find sponsors that would help the children attend school in Kenya, which would provide them with much greater academic opportunities and advancement, since South Sudanese schools are so erratic because of the ongoing crisis situation. Each of the 20 students need sponsors to cover their educational expenses, which range from about $625-$1300 for the calendar year, including school tuition, room and board, school supplies, uniforms, transportation, medical fund, school holiday expenses at home. The Diversity Serves website profiles some of the students who still need sponsors, but there are also students who have had sponsorship relationships with individuals and churches from the Diocese of Southwestern Virginia, but circumstances have changed such that they need new sponsors. This is a new endeavor for Diversity Serves: recruiting sponsors for individual children. We fervently hope that people in this area will find it very rewarding to form personal partnerships with these students who are excelling academically, even with all the challenges they face!
Beyond the few children who are going to school in Kenya, there are still many hundreds of children desiring to go school back in the Tonj area. The church is often the only source of schooling in many places. Bishop Peter has formed a school in Tonj town where parents pay for most of the expenses, but which still needs help with basic administration costs such as printing certificates, government registration, making copies, and buying school supplies. Diversity Serves helps with these expenses on occasion, and recently partnered with the Gadsden Endowment Fund at Grace Church to provide the school with a printer to assist in many of the administrative needs.
Diversity Serves’ 2018 goal to for school sponsorships is
$10,000
Beyond the few children who are going to school in Kenya, there are still many hundreds of children desiring to go school back in the Tonj area. The church is often the only source of schooling in many places. Bishop Peter has formed a school in Tonj town where parents pay for most of the expenses, but which still needs help with basic administration costs such as printing certificates, government registration, making copies, and buying school supplies. Diversity Serves helps with these expenses on occasion, and recently partnered with the Gadsden Endowment Fund at Grace Church to provide the school with a printer to assist in many of the administrative needs.
Diversity Serves’ 2018 goal to for school sponsorships is
$10,000