Updates

Check this page for updates on the Hands of Hope Community School, South Sudan or the region as a whole. We will try to keep up to date information on things which may impact our work or the people that we serve. 
Regarding the horrors happening in Sudan and South Sudan again: Our school is thankfully rather isolated in a village called Leer, which has been targeted in the past but seems okay now. When Mary Grace (UOCO (USA) president and liaison) was there for the first time in 2013, the new country of South Sudan was still setting up their political structure. During her stay, the Vice President of the new South Sudan was fired by President Salva Kiir. Because the Vice President was a Nuerman from our village, Leer, there were intense upheavals and attacks in Leer during the Civil War that followed independence from Sudan. That conflict has mostly settled down. However, the civil war in Sudan (across the border to the north) and increasing instability in Darfur (far to the west) is creating a crushing migrant flow, the greatest on the planet according to Amnesty International. The pressure of increased people fleeing, though not heading to Leer, destabilizes food sources and access for our kids and community. But the staff is dedicated.  Even when the school had to be quickly evacuated a couple years ago, children were hidden and protected in the bush, and thankfully, no children or staff have been killed or hurt since we started the school. 
Thank you for your love, prayer, support and concern for this good effort, half a world away.

We are profoundly grateful for any support you can offer. There are storms flooding that region now, tragically compounding the massive human flood, fleeing from war across the close-by border of Sudan, where the UN says that ten million people have been displaced. According to Search for Common Ground, “The numbers are staggering: 8 million people will require food aid this year in South Sudan, with 41 counties across the country experiencing emergency levels of food insecurity, and some communities already experiencing famine. But these are not just numbers; they represent real people – parents struggling to feed their children and desperate to provide for their families, while their children face a future stolen by hunger and war.”

 
Mary Grace, President and Liaison, UOCO (USA)