Food for the Hungry Fights Illiteracy in Southern Sudan

Since Sudan emerged from a 21-year civil war, Christian charity Food for the Hungry UK has been working in the vast Eastern province of the Upper Nile among the Nuer people where it is working to give individuals new hope for the future by fighting the alarmingly high illiteracy rates that plague the country.

As was the case with many aspects of the country's economic and social infrastructure, the education system was debilitated in Southern Sudan for around 18 years as a direct consequence of the prolonged conflict.

As a lingering result of this, the New Sudan Centre for Statistics and Evaluation estimates that 88 per cent of adult women are illiterate while 63 per cent of men in the region are illiterate.

But thanks to FHI's Christian Development Initiative (CDI), these men and women have the chance now not only to read but to read the most valuable book there is: the Bible.

The CDI aims to rapidly improve literacy but also basic knowledge of the Bible among 330 men and women each year across 11 of its centres which provide them with further information, books and writing materials.

The literacy programmes will directly impact the communities as pastors, church leaders and evangelists all learn together the basic skills that will enable them to play key roles in the spiritual and physical development of their communities.

And the trainers are handpicked from the local churches who are then provided with a part time salary, teaching materials, Bibles and elementary Christian books suitable for learners.

Students who complete the one-year programme may then go on to join self-help learning groups which encourage the students not to become over-dependent on CDI but rather to go forward with their lives by themselves, the key word being self-sufficiency.

FHI doesn't attempt to superimpose a foreign system onto the local community but implements its programmes through existing local churches wherever possible.

One programme participant, Martha Nyatut Banguot, said: "I feel joy when we were told about this CDI programme, because we as mothers, we never had the chance to attend school, but these days, we come to know how school is so important not only for our children but also for ourselves."

Even though Martha lives 5km away from the centre, which she has to walk to, she has promised to continue coming to the class.

FHI is urgently appealing for funds to go towards Bibles for those in the region who still do not own their own one.