Student Sponsorship
HOPE for Ariang Foundation recognizes the obstacles for a student to continue learning after completing their primary education at Ariang Primary School. The obstacles become even harder for a young girl in South Sudan. In order to provide increased opportunities for Ariang Primary School graduates to attend secondary school, HOPE for Ariang is launching a new scholarship program for qualified students.
Students will be selected through an application and interview process where grades, teacher recommendations, school attendance, and motivation are considered. Students will be admitted to a local secondary school with the option of boarding, especially for our female students.
Luil’s Story
Luil is a 15-year old boy that graduated from Ariang primary school in December 2017. He comes from a town that borders Sudan and South Sudan; a region that experiences frequent tribal clashes which succeeded the prolonged period of civil wars. The wars have left this area without a school where Luil can attend. The wars have also destroyed economic activities, therefore, leaving residents of this area very vulnerable to famine and poverty.
While still very young, Luil and his family had to flee into the bush multiple times in different years for safety. For this (and many other reasons), his father sent him and his younger brother to live with their older sister and her husband in the Ariang village. While here, Luil joined grade 2 at the Ariang primary school at the age of 9. He developed the passion for education and scored good marks in class which made his teachers to love and encourage him to continue excelling even more. He continued with school until December 2017 when he sat for his national exams.
He waited for the results with hopes of joining a high school so that he could continue scaling the heights of education. Results came out and Luil had passed with good marks but his father could not afford secondary school fees and other basic stuff such as uniforms and books for him.
Therefore, Luil stayed at home with hopes that someday, he would raise fees and continue his studies. On learning about this, Hope for Ariang Foundation rushed to his aid and donated to him 20,000 South Sudan pound (the equivalent of 90$) for his first year in secondary school. He has since enrolled at Akon Modern Secondary School (a new private secondary school in the area). He is happy to join the high school but there is a lot of challenges standing in his way. One of them is that he has no idea where the fees for his second year at the school will come from.
This is one case out of hundreds of them. Lots of young boys and girls in the village (and around the country) are passionate about education but they or their families have no sources of revenue to help fund it. They wait upon people of good heart to come to their aid so that they can be leaders of tomorrow. Basing our assumptions on Luil’s situation, an average secondary school’s one-year fee is around $100. This would total to around $400 for 4 years. An amount that will positively impact the life of a needy kid.
Research finds that when a girl has the opportunity to attend boarding school, they are more likely to stay in school and succeed academically. Appropriate schools will be identified in Kuajok and Wau, two larger towns that offer better secondary school options. As we launch this new initiative in 2018, we are excited to share the stories of our first cohort of sponsored students.
To sponsor an Ariang Primary School graduate, click here
HOPE for Ariang Foundation
P.O. Box 569
Syracuse, NY, 13214
info@hopeforariang.org