Other ways our supporters can help:

Ten students are accepted to our program, but not yet funded. It’s hard to say no to a deserving young person, but we simply cannot enroll students until sponsors are available. These students are eligible to enroll in school at any term during the year. If you are ready to make a larger commitment to the program, this is the best way. Click here to sponsor a student via one-time payment or monthly credit card donation.

Spread the word online about your support of Hope With South Sudan by “liking” us on Facebook
Share, posting about us to your friends, and inviting your friends and family to support us. Connecting online is also a great way to hear our latest news. We do not share your information with others.

Look for us at upcoming church presentations around the diocese. We love these opportunities to have supporters meet our South Sudanese Americans. Usually crafts are offered for sale as well. Contact us if you’d like to request a visit or craft sale at your parish.

Recent graduate Simon Thuc Mark writes: “The board of Hope with Sudan took the initiative and best displayed concern over the safety of the students. For that I say thank you.”

On the academic side, Rhoda Akur Mark and David Angok Atem both passed the Kenya Certificate of Primary Education exam and are ready for high school. Rhoda’s scores were high enough to gain invitations from seven schools, including “the best” schools in the area. We know many of you share our special concern for girls’ education and will be pleased to hear of her achievements.

This week, we are happy to report that the needed money has been wired to our student coordinator in Kenya and the students are preparing to travel to Kakuma camp, where a security presence can offer them stability.

Thank you to each and every one of you who gave money, posted to Facebook, and shared with your friends.

The situation remains of great concern, and we ask you to remember our students as you hear news of the Kenya elections in coming weeks.

Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Eliud Wabukala has called on all Kenyans to pray “fervently” for peace during the forthcoming general elections. “While in the past, electoral seasons have been characterized by animosity, tensions and violence, as happened on a grand scale in 2007/2008, we exhort Kenyans to seize the moment and do it differently this time by shunning violence,” said Wabukala.

If you did not have a chance to support this effort before our Feb. 14 deadline,  please donate today. It’s possible further travel funds will be needed, and support is always needed for our students’ ongoing living expenses in a climate of food instability and rising prices.

We are very grateful that your generosity has allowed us to prepare in advance for the safety of our students.

In the season of Lent, we are encouraged to remember Jesus’ last days by making sacrifices and taking on disciplines of prayer, study, giving and fasting.

Hope With South Sudan invites you this Lent to remember daily the South Sudanese children we are supporting in Kenya and Uganda by creating a mite box. Making the box is easy: simply print a label (download here: Mite Box Labels 2013), cut out and attach to a jar or box. During the Lenten season, children can be reminded daily about contributing their “mite”.

Encourage them to think what they might give up – the sweets, the special treat or even loose change. Pray together daily for the students and connect yourself to their lives.

Youth should bring their Mite Boxes to Church on Easter Sunday, March 31. Questions may go to Jerry Drino at jdrino@hopewithsudan.org.

Can you help us get 60 people to give $30 by Feb. 14?

Click here to donate now. Update: Join the 10 donors who committed funds in the first two days!

Here’s the situation. The forthcoming national election in Kenya on March 4 poses a great threat to our students there.  The Board of Hope With South Sudan has created a special fund to secure if not save the lives of the students we have invested in over the years. South Sudanese are in danger because they resemble the Luo minority tribe that is targeted by the Kikuyu majority.  During the riots following the election in 2008, more than 1,500 people lost their lives, and tens of thousands were injured and displaced. Many were Sudanese refugees. In the 2008 election season, one of our students was kidnapped and another stabbed seven times.

We need to provide for the security of our students and move half of them to the safety of Kakuma Refugee Camp under UN administration in Northern Kenya during the two to three week election season when all schools will be closed.  Cost of this effort will be $1,700.

How you can help:

1. Click here to give $30 online today.
2. Post a message to your Facebook page, asking friends for help (Sample: Friends, please donate $30 today to help ensure the safety of scholarship students in Kenya during the upcoming elections. Hope With South Sudan has a goal of 60 donations of $30 — please help today! http://www.hopewithsouthsudan.org/?page_id=361 )
3. Send email to 15 friends with the same message.

Many thanks in advance to all, and please remember our students as you hear news of the Kenya elections in coming weeks.

 In recent meetings, the Hope With South Sudan board has reaffirmed our priority to educate K-12 students. These children have no opportunity of receiving an education unless they are sponsored.

The dreams and accomplishments of our graduates also inspire us, and we are looking for new approaches to fund those seeking higher education. Can you join us in a project to find new funding for college students? Program graduate and high-performing student Simon Thuc Mark plans to become a doctor. Inspired by the health difficulties his grandfather endured without access to medical care, Simon has been accepted to medical school.Costs will be about $7,500/year for four years, more than our usual sponsorship model can cover. Look for more information in coming months about Simon’s medical school fund.Please join us in congratulating law student Garang Malual Deng, who has completed all coursework for his four-year degree and is working to turn in his final project for graduation in May. While HWSS has been proud to support Garang in his studies, our funds are committed to K-12 students, so we could not commit to covering Garang’s expenses during the next few months. He estimates $1,000 will be needed to supply rent, food, and fees needed to finish his law degree. Journalism student Michael Puot Rambang would like to continue his studies as well.

It’s hard to say no to such deserving requests, especially when considering the success of our university graduates. An update on Kur John Aleu, our civil engineer featured in the last e-newsletter: He has formed his own construction company in Juba, Rainshield Construction, with the intention of helping to employ more South Sudanese in competition with Chinese and Melanesian businesses that are flooding South Sudan.

Please email us if you would like to volunteer coordinating an initiative for South Sudanese college students.

Click here to find Home of the Brave for sale on Amazon.

Can you help us get 60 people to give $30 by Feb. 14?

Click here to donate now. Update: Join the 10 donors who committed funds in the first two days!

Here’s the situation. The forthcoming national election in Kenya on March 4 poses a great threat to our students there.  The Board of Hope With South Sudan has created a special fund to secure if not save the lives of the students we have invested in over the years. South Sudanese are in danger because they resemble the Luo minority tribe that is targeted by the Kikuyu majority.  During the riots following the election in 2008, more than 1,500 people lost their lives, and tens of thousands were injured and displaced. Many were Sudanese refugees. In the 2008 election season, one of our students was kidnapped and another stabbed seven times.

We need to provide for the security of our students and move half of them to the safety of Kakuma Refugee Camp under UN administration in Northern Kenya during the two to three week election season when all schools will be closed.  Cost of this effort will be $1,700.

How you can help:

1. Click here to give $30 online today.
2. Post a message to your Facebook page, asking friends for help (Sample: Friends, please donate $30 today to help ensure the safety of scholarship students in Kenya during the upcoming elections. Hope With South Sudan has a goal of 60 donations of $30 — please help today! http://www.hopewithsouthsudan.org/?page_id=361 )
3. Send email to 15 friends with the same message.

Many thanks in advance to all, and please remember our students as you hear news of the Kenya elections in coming weeks.

In June, Kur John Aleu graduated in civil engineering from a university in Uganda and took a job as a civil engineer for Horizon Real Estate Construction Company, building a secondary boarding school called Malek Academy at Malek, the village where Christianity was first brought to the tribes of the Upper Nile in 1906. It is more than appropriate that he starts his career there, because it was in Malek that he found Jerry Drino, our founder, sleeping under a tree, and waited for him to wake up so that he could ask for help to go to school.

Deng Jongkuch, a former member of the Sudanese community in San Jose, played a leading role in building the first primary school in Malek. After earning his B.A. and M.A. in medical administration, he is contributing to his country as the Site Administrator of a hospital in  Jonglei State.

John Malek Kur graduated in August from a university in Nairobi, Kenya, with a diploma in International Relations and Diplomacy from the University of Cambridge (UK) Extension. Malek had been conscripted as a boy soldier in the 1990s, but by 2004 he had left the Sudanese People’s Liberation Army hoping to get an education. Philip found him living in the bush near Lockichokio, Kenya, barely surviving on scraps of food. He brought him to Jerry on the windswept landing strip at the airport. A very sensitive young man, longing to make a difference that did not include war, Malek John was mostly skin and bones. However, like Philip and Kur John, he had a deep faith that kept him going even for one more day. He graduated with ceremonies in Kisumu, Kenya, the ancestral home of President Obama’s father.

Philip Deng, their friend and advocate, is in the process of finishing his work on a Masters in Community Development and Reconciliation. He has a job offer to work in the area of inter-tribal conflict reduction and reconciliation back in South Sudan. He accompanied Jerry on his first trip to Sudan in 2003. They had been introduced by Canon Mark Atem Thuc in Nairobi, where Philip was living in a converted chicken coop with a worn-out foam rubber mat and stack of books. Jerry was amazed at his knowledge of current politics, history and social issues. He seemed to absorb information like a sponge and continues to do so now ten years into his academic career.

These are the forerunners of our students who are determined to make a difference through education and committed to learn against great odds.

Sadly, our South Sudanese children are not eligible for free schooling where they live in Kenya and Uganda. Their families continue to live in these neighboring countries after displacement from southern Sudan during long years of war. Only with sponsorship are they able to pursue an education. As the school year begins, we ask sponsors again to make an important commitment: to pay a student’s tuition for the full upcoming school year.

In addition to securing sponsor renewals, we have a special goal for this fall: we have 17 students on the waiting list hoping to attend school. Will you help our students move from the waiting list to the classroom?

Twelve are high school age, and five are in primary school. On average, annual tuition for our incoming primary school students is $624, while for secondary students in boarding school, tuition and fees are $1,284 each year. There are three options for sponsors:

1. A one-time gift to cover the year’s tuition.
2. An automatic monthly charge via PayPal, with 12 payments in the year.
3. A co-sponsorship, which commits you to half the required fees for the year and matches you with another co-sponsor.

When you commit to a sponsorship, we will match you with a child in our program. If sponsorship is not an option for you at this time, gifts to support the living expenses for our students are very appreciated. For the past two years, rising food prices and food shortages continue to be a major challenge in Kenya. Uniforms and mosquito nets also are among the important needs we try to meet.

Please know your generosity is very much appreciated and your donations are used wisely. Our overhead is very low, as our part-time staff is funded by a generous foundation grant, and our board is all volunteer.

Remember, the local impact of Hope With South Sudan is important. Our South Sudanese have been on a long and unimaginably difficult journey. Many left South Sudan on foot as young children, battling starvation, war and even wild animals to reach the meager comfort of a refugee camp. After years surviving in the permanent temporary life of the camps, they legally immigrated to the U.S. with dreams of an education and a better life. Like many immigrants, they carry with them the responsibility of supporting those family members left behind. By sponsoring overseas students, we also support the aspirations of our U.S. community of South Sudanese. It is an honor to be a small part of their unbelievable journey. (See About Us / The Lost Boys to learn more.)

At Hope With South Sudan, we continue to rely on education as the best hope for the future independence of our students. The achievement of an education is something that can never be taken from them. Please enroll our waiting list students in school by pledging your support today. We kindly ask for a response by August 20, by submitting a donation online.