2024 Holes Bay Walk The Holes Bay Walk, PWP's main fundraising event, took place on Saturday 13th July 2024, led by Karen, Bishop of Sherborne. The event (highlighted in Grapevine, the weekly e-newsletter from the Diocese of Salisbury) attracted 21 people and 2 dogs walking on the day and a further 6 who walked on a different day. Walkers set off on the 7-mile walk at 9.30 (see photo above) in ideal walking conditions (dry yet not too hot), but were rained on as they neared the end of the return leg. Spirits were however undampened as walkers got back to St Dunstan's Church for tea or coffee, pizza and ice cream. Many thanks to Bishop Karen and to all who took part or sponsored a walker. It will be a few weeks before we are able to confirm the total raised towards the finished touches needed for the new building at St John's College, Wau, but we hope to raise at east as much as in 2023. Final part of main construction of new building at St John’s College is well-advanced In a wonderful answer to prayer, work on the final stages of the main construction of the new Poole-Wau Partnership Building at St John’s College, Wau is proceeding rapidly (see photograph above), following the transfer of £15,000 from the Poole-Wau Partnership in November 2023. “We used the funding,” writes Principal Philip Abiel, “to purchase windows and doors; installation of electricity; and plastering and slabbing.” The additional grant of £5,000 kindly provided to PWP by the Slavanka Trust in February 2024 will be sufficient to complete the ceilings. There are, however, two finishing touches to the new building which remain to be done: interior and exterior painting (c.£6,500), and the construction of a verandah in front of the building (c.£4,000), a traditional feature of buildings in South Sudan which will provide shade for students and help to keep the temperature inside the building slightly cooler. The Trustees have decided to put all the money raised by this year’s Holes Bay Walk towards the verandah and we are planning to apply to other trusts for as much of the cost of the painting as we can get. More details about our fundraising of more than £40,000 for this vital building project may be found on the Appeal page of this website https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/appeal.html or in Newsletter 64 and 65: https://www.poolewaupartnership.com/newsletter.html Our grateful thanks go to all our supporters and churches in Poole & North Bournemouth Deanery who have contributed generously towards bringing this project to fruition, as well as to the Slavanka and Charis Trusts. |
Wanyjok Diocese is hit by serious flooding
Bishop Joseph Mamer has informed us in early September 2024 that serious flooding has hit parts of his diocese of Wanyjok (see photos in left-hand column). "The Diocese has been devastated as it's being massively hit by flooding," Bishop Joseph writes, "The lowlands have been heavily affected including Wanyjok town where our Diocesan office is situated." Returnees, children and the elderly are the sections of the population most affected by the floods and the cathedral compound is hosting some of the victims. Bishop Joseph asks us to uphold the people of Wanyjok Diocese in prayer. Conflict in Sudan "The world's worst humanitarian crisis" says 'The Economist' [Last update: 02/09/24] It is now almost eighteen months since the civil war in Sudan started and other conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East have often pushed Sudan out of the headlines. But in early September 2024, there was a burst of interest in the civil war in Sudan in the British media. Most accessible are an hour-long podcast, which is free to access on The Economist's website: https://www.economist.com/podcasts/2024/08/24/the-war-the-world-ignores and an episode of Radio 4's From Our Own Correspondent, which is available on BBC Sounds: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0022kdv Five pages of articles in The Economist's August 31st-September 6th issue paint a bleak picture, not only of the impending famine in many parts of Sudan, but also of the effects on neighbouring countries, including South Sudan. Here is a link one of the articles: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2024/08/29/anarchy-in-sudan-has-spawned-the-worlds-worst-famine-in-40-years [Although the magazine's website operates a paywall, it is possible to sign up for a free trial.] The following articles from The Guardian and The Church Times were published in July 2024, but are still available and worth reading if you have not already seen them: https://www.theguardian.com/world/article/2024/jul/11/civil-war-sudan-displacement-crisis https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2024/12-july/news/world/food-being-weaponised-in-sudan-bishop-says These sources, which are frequently updated, have more about the crisis in Sudan and its effects on South Sudan: https://www.theguardian.com/world/sudan https://unmiss.unmissions.org/ https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/South+Sudan St John's students win debating prize St. John’s College, Wau won the 3rd division in the South Sudan nationwide Inter-Universities debating competition in January 2024. The College organised a day of Thanksgiving and Celebration on 27th July and the guest patron of the day was Bishop Joseph Mamer Manot, who presented the trophy to the winning debaters, as shown in the photo above. Bishop Joseph comments: “It was a day of joyous and blessed celebration, attended by the Deputy Governor of Western Bahr El Ghazal State, H.E. Zachariah Joseph Garang, and many government officials. I was received warmly by Christians as their former Dean and first Principal of St John’s College.” St John's College plays important role in developing common courses for TEU St John’s College, Wau is taking the lead in the development of common courses in Business Studies across all the colleges affiliated to TEU, The Episcopal University, the recently formed federation of Anglican colleges in South Sudan. Philip Abiel, the Principal of St John’s, took part in a recent meeting in Juba of representatives of all of TEU’s affiliated colleges. TEU is developing common courses shared by each of the colleges in several subjects and St John’s has been developing the course in Business Studies since 2023. Principal Philip has told us that, "The college already did the development of the curriculum of Business since 2023 and the curriculum was submitted to TEU." The college has now been asked to develop additional foundational and university requirement courses in this subject. Philip added: "We have also developed and submitted to TEU a curriculum for primary school teachers to train and upgrade their curriculum level to become competent teachers." It is greatly encouraging that the expertise and good reputation of St John's College in these subject areas is recognised by TEU and that St John's is taking a leading role in developing these courses. South Sudan 'Bright Stars' compete in Olympics The South Sudan Mens Basketball team is playing in the Olympic Games for the first time ever. In a friendly warm-up tournament in London before the Paris Olympics, the Bright Stars, as they are known, beat the Great Britain team 84-81, and led the USA (the Number 1 basketball team in the world) in the Final for most of the match before finally being defeated by the narrowest of margins 101-100. https://apnews.com/article/south-sudan-usa-basketball-paris-olympics-c82d07445a8d43040915f300258c22a6 Archbishop Moses has commented on the Bright Stars’ performance on Facebook: “the Bright Stars have shown a positive image of South Sudan to the world” and added that the young people of South Sudan have the potential to excel in business or education or other fields if given the opportunity, following the fine example of the basketball team: https://www.facebook.com/mosesd.bol The team easily won their first match in Paris, against Puerto Rico, on Day Two of the Olympic Games, Sunday 28th July, but were later knocked out of the tournament. Links to find out more about South Sudan News Organisations: Sudan Tribune: https://sudantribune.com Radio Tamazuj: https://radiotamazuj.org/en Eye Radio: https://eyeradio.org Associated Press: https://apnews.com/hub/south-sudan The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/world/south-sudan BBC News: https://www.bbc.co.uk/search?q=South+Sudan Radio Miraya: https://audioboom.com/channel/radiomiraya News Now: https://www.newsnow.co.uk/h/World+News/Africa/South+Sudan Regular publications: Diocese of Salisbury Sudans Link, including quarterly Salisbury-Sudans Link Bulletin: https://www.salisbury.anglican.org/mission/the-sudan-link Renewal Magazine: https://anglican.us5.list-manage.com/subscribe?u=bc17f2b699f53a98ce265ecab&id=69d5549620 The Church Association for Sudan and South Sudan, including twice-yearly Sudan Church Review: https://www.casss.org.uk AFRECS (American Friends of the Episcopal Church of the Sudans), including fortnightly E-Blast: https://afrecs.org Church organisations in South Sudan: St John’s College Wau: https://stjohnscollegewau.org South Sudan Council of Churches: https://sscchurches.org The Epicopal Church of South Sudan: https://southsudan.anglican.org ECSS Northern Bahr El Ghazal province: https://www.facebook.com/northerbahrelghazal/ International organisations and charities working in South Sudan: Anglican International Development: www.anglicaninternationaldevelopment.org CRESS UK (Christian Relief and Education for South Sudan): https://cressuk.org/blog/ ECSSSUP (UK-based charity supporting The Episcopal University of South Sudan, of which St John's College Wau is a constituent institution): https://www.ecsssup.org/copy-of-home Health Initiative South Sudan: https://health-initiative-south-sudan.org/homepage TEAR Fund: https://www.tearfund.org/about-us/our-impact/where-we-work/south-sudan UNMISS (United Nations Mission in South Sudan): https://unmiss.unmissions.org World Food Programme: https://www.wfp.org/stories/south-sudans-road-out-hunger ECSSSUP: https://www.ecsssup.org/copy-of-home |
