Working with communities in Bahr el-Ghazal, Southern Sudan

Latest News (2000-02)

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November 2001

The Shading Tree (Tim Atiep) would like to thank the many very generous folk who have made donations through CAF anonymously. There is no other way to express our thanks except by means of this general thank you. I hope you will follow our progress and will feel that your donations have been worth while. Thank you.

November 2001

On Saturday 10th a glittering, dazzling event was held in Millport - The Movie Stars Ball II. Organised by Jackie Mutch, with her able cohorts Christine Steverson and Ion McBay, and assisted by many others, the Ball was attended by a horde of Stars. The Reservoir Dogs were there gunning down all and sundry; Austin Powers, International Man of Mystery, wowed the girls; Scarlett O'Hara broke hearts; Robin Hood and his Merrie Men and Women robbed the poor and gave to the rich - sorry, other way round - and there were many others who looked as glamorous as Nicole Kidman, Marilyn Munro or Catherine Zeta Jones or as handsome as Sean Connery, Ewan McGregor and Brad Pitt.

The Cabaret kicked off with Millport's very own Cher, aka Lorraine Fraser, followed by the Pink Ladies, who performed their favourite Grease acts and then the boys or rather Can Can Girls who riotously staggered through their scenes from Moulin Rouge. The acts brought the house down and then somehow triggered off the fire alarms! After an orderly evacuation and the Fire Brigade doing their bit to check that all was OK, the party continued until very late.

The Town Hall was brilliantly decked out with film posters and other promotional items and looked wonderful and the raffle had so many prizes that some went unclaimed by the end of the night.

All in all, the Ball raised a staggering £1090! Many thanks to Jackie, Diane and Christine and Ion and all those too numerous to mention who helped with the buffet, supplied food and prizes and most of all who dressed up and had a wonderful evening.

September 2001
Fundraising continues apace, though we could do better! Our first Annual General Meeting took place on the 16th and ten members were present. Laura Pennick was elected Chair, Hamish Boyle, Treasurer and Beatrice Bath, Secretary. The meeting was chaired by Fergus, who presented a brief report on the activities of the Association. Details will be posted later. At the meeting it was suggested that we produce and sell a Christmas card and Fergus has produced a prototype which can be seen here. The card will not have a message in it, so does not have to be sent as a Xmas card. They will probably cost about 25p each including an envelope. Please note the colouring may be different in the final version, but the picture will be the same. The first STTA video has also been produced. It was filmed, edited and narrated by Fergus, who, knowing very little about the technology six months ago, has gradually improved his film-making skills. However, the video does have its quirks, but the next one will be better. It is just over 30 minutes long and gives a general overview of life in Bahr el-Ghazal, concentrating on the positive aspects.

Part 2 of Fergus's Sudan trip
I am now back at home and for a while, in April, found the climatic conditions a wee bit chilly. My final weeks in Sudan were spent mostly in Ajiep, a small community which leapt to international attention in 1998 when a devastating famine unfolded in northern Bahr el-Ghazal. Ajiep was one of the few places which was given flight clearance by the government in Khartoum. The denial of flight clearances is yet another weapon that the government use to disrupt relief interventions in Southern Sudan; as a result of so many other places being denied, desperately hungry people walked with their families to the few places where food and medical attention were available. Many never made it. Ajiep lies on the River Jur which during the rainy season floods into the surrounding countryside. During the months of July, August and September 1998, three new airstrips had to be cleared from the bush as the floodwaters successively made each previous one unlandable. From being a scattered community of a few hundred households Ajiep, suddenly, was accommodating thousands of people, most of whom had to find a dry spot around a tree on which to sleep, cook and eat. Cok Abyei a man in late middle age became the gravedigger for the area and, in July when up to 120 people were dying each day, he and his team had great difficulty keeping up. Suddenly, everyone from the international press wanted to be in Ajiep and thousands of dollars were spent on flying reporters and camera crews into the area. The international response was slow and, initially, inadequate and many people died before anyone would admit that a famine was in progress.

Now Ajiep is back to its normal size and the local residents are still trying to rebuild their own community. A large fig tree with a grass fence around it is the focal point for Sundays when young men, barely out of their teens, conduct basic church services and these services are always well attended. The congregation sit on the ground or on benches made by placing a long branch on two short forked branches dug into the ground. Most of the congregation put on their best clothes for the occasion and these are often their only spare set of clothes; many of the children are naked. Nearby the local administrator has mobilised the community and a school is being established around some more trees. At present the classrooms are fenced off areas around these trees, but some more permanent roofed structures are being built using local materials, such as branches, mud and grass, all of which is gathered by the community without payment. Two brick built buildings are also being built and the community have established a brick making and firing site some distance away. The bricks are made from mud, left to dry for a time in the sun and then fired for seven days. The schoolchildren are then mobilised to carry them to the site. The bricks are laid using a mortar made mostly from mud, but with a little added cement, which has been begged from or donated by any international agency working there. The work is done communally, organised by the local chiefs, who will provide some locally made sorghum beer as an incentive. The local administrator Aurelio Anyuc Deng, is very active and has been able to keep up the momentum admirably. There are six chiefs in the payam of Kuajok, four of whom are around the Ajiep area. These four are responsible for building three mudwalled classrooms each and whilst I was there two had made a start on their part of the project. I had a small amount of money with me at the time and made a small donation of $150 (£100) which would buy some food for the workers in lieu of payment and some cement from a market some 25 kms away. (Pictures here)
I met Cok Abyei, the gravedigger, now working as a community health visitor, under the supervision of MSF-B and his young son Abyei, both of whom were friends of mine from my previous time in Bahr el-Ghazal and I was delighted to find them in such good spirits and in relatively good health. Unfortunately, whilst another boy, Garang, who is a great friend of mine, had taken advantage of the basic schooling available, young Abyei seems to prefer to hang around the clinic to going to school. Garang, now about twelve years old lost his mother in 1996 and his father is mostly absent living in one of the government controlled garrisons to the north. He is looked after by his grandmother and older sister, but has made good progress in learning English and maths. They live in two small huts with a small patch of land around it, which will be planted in the wet season.

The Shading Tree Tim Atiep proposes to raise £5000 as a small initial support for the rehabilitation of the community in Ajiep. The money will go a long way towards obtaining materials such as cement, but will also be used to support the community members who are working on the school. Few people in Southern Sudan have much use for cash and wages are often paid in kind, usually by providing meals or grain. Some basic equipment will also need to be obtained for the school, though this would be supplementary to the exercise books, pencils and chalk normally provided by UNICEF. The money will be raised by various fundraising events and through the membership of the Shading Tree Tim Atiep and any donations will be gratefully received.. A full proposal for a larger project will be written and submitted to the various funding agencies at a later date. This full proposal will be for a more integrated community project, which will include, for example, dry season gardening, seed multiplication and school farms.

I was reminded at the last how precarious life can be when we were advised to relocate as a precaution after rumours of a raid by the government backed militia were relayed to us by the local authorities. In fact, militia did not in the end reach Ajiep, though there was some fighting to the west across the river Jur, but a few days later a village to the south, Achonchong, was attacked and the Executive Chief, Yel Longar, with whom I had worked during 1995-7 was killed. Much of the village was burned and looted and an outbreak of dysentery, from which a number of people had died before the attack, claimed more victims, as the MSF medical team, who had been dealing with it, were unable to return until the area was declared safe again.

During my visit to Sudan, I made use of a camcorder and will be putting together a short video to illustrate the conditions and situation in Southern Sudan. I would be very pleased to show the video as a fundraising tool and to give a presentation to any group or organisation interested in hearing more. Please do not hesitate to contact me.

April 2001 - Scotland
Fergus is back and feeling the cold a bit! An update of his trip will be posted shortly. Meanwhile he will be writing up a proposal for funding which will be submitted to various funding agencies for consideration.

February 2001 - Akon
It is winter in Southern Sudan, and the people are complaining of the cold. For me, having returned to part of my former operational area, Gogrial county, and having left behind the snow and ice of late December in Scotland, it is an effort to remember how cold one can feel when one is used to extreme heat. Most people in this area, which has still not recovered from the devastation wreaked by Kerubino Kuanyin Bol, have few clothes and those they do have are mostly ragged and threadbare. Little protection from the chill of the night and early morning. Winter is a particularly hard time here as it is very dry and uncomfortably dusty and for most of the day very hot. Cracked lips and dry scaly skin are the norm and coughs and colds just add to the misery.
The weather, of course, is unpredictable and the harvest of 2000-2001 was generally poor, due to insufficient rains and, in the areas accessible from the railway line, from insecurity. The UN's World Food Programme has projected that 62000 metric tonnes of food aid is needed for 1.8 million people in Southern Sudan during the months up till the harvest in July-August. Even now some households are beginning to run short of food and will find it difficult to prepare for the new season's field preparation and planting in April and May.
However, now halfway through my visit on behalf of the Shading Tree Tim Atiep, I have been encouraged by the improvement in the conditions under which people are living. Kerubino is dead and the many thousands of people whom he terrorised for four years have largely been able to return to their homes and rebuild their lives. With the opening up of a secure route from the Ugandan border, some small trading is bringing items in, which, previously, were unobtainable. There is still insecurity, however, especially along the railway line which runs between the North and Wau, a large government occupied town, the capital of Bahr el-Ghazal. A government backed militia, the Popular Defence Force or Murahileen, ride on horseback ahead of the trains or out of government garrisons along the line, and loot food and livestock, burn houses and kidnap women and children, who are sold into slavery or sold back to their families, if they are able to raise the money. Just last week, two of my former colleagues with Save the Children Fund, had to run for their lives into the bush, when a PDF force attacked Barurud to the west of the railway. One person died when the long grass in which he was hiding was set alight and many people lost their meagre possessions in the fires. Before the horsemen left they also set fire to the MSF-Belgium hospital and clinic, destroying all the medicines and equipment. My friends lost all their personal belongings and field equipment and had to spend about six hours in the bush before the village was declared safe and they could be airlifted out. Thankfully, the government Antonovs, Russian built cargo planes, which periodically fly over and drop bombs, indiscriminately, though usually inaccurately, have so far not been active.
So far I have met with local authorities and community representatives in four locations in Gogrial county. The idea of community development is still a difficult one for people to understand, but the response so far has been encouraging. What is clear from most of the meetings I have attended is that education is considered the main priority. Children here have had little opportunity for schooling and the lack of trained teachers is also a problem. Even if the security situation allows uninterrupted attendance, only basic primary schooling is available. There is nowhere to go from here, unless one is able to leave for the refugee camps in Kenya or Uganda.
However, I still have three weeks remaining to talk to communities and to identify a suitable project. It is also an opportunity for me to renew acquaintances, find friends and meet new people. So far I have found many of my old friends, which is a relief as it is too easy to imagine that in this environment some may not have survived the last four years. Many of the children are no longer children but young adults, and their future is still very uncertain. I am sure that the Shading Tree Tim Atiep can do something positive which will be of lasting benefit for them.

December 2000
Fergus's trip to Bahr el-Ghazal has been very much eased by a very generous donation of 50,000 British Airways Air Miles from a former frequent flier which will allow Fergus to fly to Nairobi without having to spend any of The Shading Tree's funds. Fergus is flying to Nairobi on the evening of 6th January 2001 and he will then spend some weeks there meeting officials and other agency representatives before travelling north to Lokichoggio and then into Southern Sudan. He will return to Scotland at the end of March.

The purpose of the trip is to meet with and talk to communities and their representatives in Northern Bahr el-Ghazal and make plans with them for some initial projects.

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