Brooms to Beakers

Our Excel Academies boast an excellent health sciences and mathematics curriculum. Check out that lab equipment!

Coming Soon : International Women's Day

Mark your calendars for International Women's Day on March 8! It's a holiday that has celebrated and inspired women's progress and empowerment through annual special events and celebrations all over the world since the early 1900's. This year's official theme is CONNECTING GIRLS, INSPIRING FUTURES. Organizations, governments, and charities also develop a different theme each year to reflect their own efforts for the year. The United Nations, a main sponsor of IWD, has chosen the theme "Empower Rural Women -- End Hunger and Poverty."

We will be celebrating locally with the League of Women Voters in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, on Friday, March 9, from 12-4:30 p.m. at Roane State Community College. The forum is open to the public and will include speakers addressing issues such as domestic violence, human trafficking, drug and substance abuse, family planning and barriers to adequate reproductive health care, and trans-national parenting. Join us!

Africa ELI students participate each year in International Women's Day celebrations occurring in South Sudan. This year we are encouraging girls to write essays based on the theme. You just may see some of their work showing up here on the blog. Stay tuned.

We invite you to write and submit an essay to us regarding a women's issue or how you celebrate International Women's Day. The chosen essays will be featured on our blog, and possibly shared with our students in South Sudan. Send essays to anita.africaeli@gmail.com; deadline March 8. We want to hear from you!

Going Home to Lainya County

On Tuesday we shared with you the story of Kenneth Wani and the first Excel Academy. Today we are highlighting some key moments of our first five years sponsoring secondary students.

In our first year, Africa ELI constructed a secondary school in Lainya County which opened in early 2008. It is located near the childhood village of Kenneth's family. The school became home to 76 girls, four full-time teachers, and numerous volunteers. For students not quite ready for a first year of high school, transition classes were offered. Those students are on track to graduate this year on the heels of the 54 students who graduated in 2011.

As a result of insecurity experienced in early 2009, a decision was made to relocate our students and personnel from a very rural area to the security of Yei town. A public-private partnership was established with Yei Girls Boarding School. The next two years were spent expanding our sponsorships and partnerships with multiple schools and communities in four of South Sudan's ten states. And of course, Kenneth's founding of Excel Academy in Yei unfolded.(Read about that story here!)

This year, Africa ELI received a green-light to return to our original campus. Following meetings with village leaders and feeling secure in returning to Lainya County, it has been opened as the "Excel Academy - Mukaya campus." After being approached by neighboring county officials to run a new, freshly built school, a third campus is operating as "Excel Academy - Morobo campus." Kenneth is now the director of three school, with a carefully selected and dedicated staff and group of teachers. As of today, more than 1000 girls and boys are enrolled in an Excel Academy. Africa ELI continues to sponsor girls, teachers and programs in these secondary schools.

Half the Sky

Africa ELI girls read Half the Sky, a book co-written by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn that tells the stories of remarkable women across the world, and gives a voice to the importance of empowerment for women in developing countries. Kristof, also a New York Times columnist, is currently reporting from Sudan's Nuba Mountains.

Wani Kenneth Evans : Founder of Excel Academy

Ever wondered about the history of the Excel Academies that we sometimes mention? We'd like to break it down for you this week. Today we share with you the remarkable story of Wani "Kenneth" Evans, our current Director of Schools for Africa ELI, and the founder of the first Excel Academy.

After having recently departed the temporary refuge of Uganda to return to his homeland of South Sudan as it emerged from civil war conflict, Kenneth was walking along a sub-Saharan, narrow dirt road when Africa ELI personnel met him and offered him a ride to relieve him from the scorching direct sunlight. That chance meeting led Kenneth to his first employment position with Africa ELI in January 2008 --assisting us in building and establishing a secondary school in Mukaya Payam, Lainya County, Central Equatoria State, South Sudan. Kenneth's work ethic and leadership potential were soon obvious, earning him several promotions over the years.

In mid-2010, the local Episcopal Church gave Kenneth access to land in Yei, Central Equatoria state in South Sudan. With endorsements and support from Africa ELI, Kenneth rehabilitated buildings on the land and founded the first Excel Academy, a high school for boys and girls.  Having gained four years of practical, field experience with Africa ELI, he conferred with the Ministry of Education and local officials to establish the new school; he hired teachers; and he opened the doors for the inaugural class of students in March 2011. His student population in the first month of school operations stood at 86 seniors, 102 juniors, 100 sophomores, and 200 freshmen being taught by a faculty of 13. Today, over 600 students are currently receiving access to education through the efforts of one man and the cadre of business and education associates he acquired as a staff member at Africa ELI.  

In 2008 Kenneth met a special, bright young woman. They married and eventually became the proud parents of a baby girl born in 2009. In the midst of excitement and anticipation for South Sudan’s recognition of independence in July 2011, a second daughter was born to Kenneth and Nyoka.

Kenneth is doing more than simply hoping that the independence of South Sudan will lead to better opportunities for his daughters and the new nation’s young people. He is taking action to help it become a more just, equal, and prosperous society. Through his development of Excel Academy it seems Kenneth is giving a nod to the future generation and saying, “this is a good place to live and raise a family. Educate yourselves and contribute to the progress. Dare to imagine the possibilities ahead of you.”

Pop Quiz!

How many of the United Nation's Millennium Goals can you name? (Hint : there are 8!)

In case you've drawn a blank on this little pop quiz, we're going to spare you from the bleeding red ink X's of that ruthless 6th-grade teacher you once had (we wonder if any of our girls can relate!), and give you a little help today with a study guide.

Goal 1 : Eradicate Extreme Poverty & Hunger

Goal 2 : Achieve Universal Primary Education

Goal 3 : Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women (hmm...sounds vaguely familiar, right?)

Goal 4 : Reduce Child Mortality

Goal 5 : Improve Maternal Health

Goal 6 : Combat HIV/AIDS, Malaria, and Other Diseases

Goal 7 : Ensure Environmental Sustainability

Goal 8 : Develop A Global Partnership for Development

For current statistics and facts, as well as information about what the UN is doing to help achieve these goals, visit the UN's Development Goals website here.

Africa ELI pursues many of these goals simultaneously by sponsoring students at our academies in South Sudan. Our girls' secondary education further bridges the gender gap between them and their male peers; helps the girls remain healthy and informed regarding their bodies and good hygiene; and provides them opportunities to substantially provide for their current and future families. The results affect more than just our students--they affect the dynamics of the entire society and allow our girls to educate their own future children in similar manners.

So by sponsoring a girl with Africa ELI  (which you can do here) you empower girls like Helen (pictured below), and their entire families, and you actively participate in making the UN's Millennium Goals realities.

Comprehensive Peace Agreement

Ever wondered what a "comprehensive peace agreement" looks like? While most effective when put into practice, here is a picture of the 2005 North/South Sudan print version. The copies stored in this grain sack are used for civic education lessons with secondary students in South Sudan.