Southern Sudan’s Girls’ Education Day

Monday, 7 July was the annual Girls’ Education Day in Southern Sudan, an opportunity to celebrate achievements and target new initiatives in increasing the enrollment of girls in school. Girls’ Education Day is part of a larger campaign launched by the Government of Southern Sudan and UNICEF in 2006 to rebuild Southern Sudan’s education system. Enrollment of girls has jumped from 14% of total students in 2005 to 34% today.

ACDA is proud to join in this celebration. Our school, Pongborong Primary School, currently serves 800 students, about half of which are girls. We’re very proud of these numbers, which are unusual for Southern Sudan, but there’s still a lot of work to do. Many girls have to stay home to help with day-to-day tasks, such as fetching water from one of only four boreholes that serve a population of over 40,000. We’re also working to help parents and families understand the importance of girls’ education. Developments in water availability, transportation, and community education are vital to the success of retaining and increasing the numbers of female students.

We’ll keep you posted on our efforts. In the meantime, check out photos from Maketh Bul’s trip to Pongborong Primary School in December of 2006.