Challenges in School Construction

Studying in a Sudanese school is often not easy. There are no quiet libraries. Instead, 50 students share a noisy mud hut. Other less fortunate pupils have trees as their roof. On rainy days, school is cancelled; otherwise, children and their textbooks will get soaked!

That is why schools that JEN is constructing will be so helpful. Each class can have its own room, and students can finish their homework at more peaceful and dry places.

  However, while Sudan is not an easy place to be a student, it is also not an easy place to carry out construction. Problems like violence during election times, tribal conflicts, and flash flooding are obviously serious issues. But sometimes challenges are less formidable. This week, we had to make sure someone was guarding our construction sites even during the night – not because of the threat of thieves, but to protect against roaming goats that like to walk on freshly paved cement, leaving their footprints on it and spoiling our progress!

  Not only is it difficult to go to school in Sudan, it is also difficult to construct one.