April 2020 Update
Isaiah Mathieu
At our quarterly board meeting, March 15, 2020, Founder/Executive Director, Professor Jok said the schools had opened in February with an enrollment of over 1200 pupils—950 of them in primary school grades. In the first week of March, the schools closed to prevent the spread of Covid-19.
I’d like to share what pulled me into active support of Jok Madut Jok’s plan to build a school for girls in his rural home village of Marol. His vision was born of his life experiences growing up in Marol Village. His father had taught him from an early age, that the “measure of a person is how s/he stands for others.” Jok has lived his life based on his father’s principled wisdom. As a boy, he chose to help his mother, Angieth, with her chores. His mother bore six sons, but no daughter to share the heavy tasks which culturally, are ‘women’s work.’ Years later, his anthropology and public health doctoral study and dissertation at UCLA was titled, “The Effects of War on the Reproductive Health of Women.” Jok has dedicated his professional and personal life to promoting gender equity and parity. He states that a society cannot achieve its full potential if half its population is illiterate. In South Sudan, a girl is more likely to die in childbirth than be able to read or write.
When the school opened in 2008--under the trees--only 2% of South Sudanese girls had a primary level of education. The stark evidence of this fact is that today only one of the 18 full time teachers is female. In the school’s formative months, our USA board of directors stressed the importance of having female teachers in a girl’s school to attract girl pupils, to reassure parents about the security of their daughters, and to serve as role models to girls. We then learned of the extreme scarcity of educated and qualified women teachers. This is a matter the Marol Schools is successfully addressing, thanks to your generous and continuing support!
Though boys can enroll in the Marol School for girls, they do so recognizing they are ‘guests.’ There is no tuition, but boys pay a nominal fee to insure their parents are invested in the school and in their son’s achievement. Girls attend free.
We are grateful to the Pasadena Rotary International Projects Committee which has granted funding for purchase of needed equipment for the School’s science lab.
Below are two photos taken before the school closed temporarily due to Covid-19:
Marol pupils at recess
Girls sweeping school yard
- Barbara Mathieu, Advisor with the USA board of directors, April 22, 2020