I would greatly appreciate if the moderators and contributors could help me out here with my essay. It is my first time write an essay
Prompt:.Describe an experience when you contributed to making a difference in your community
What need did you identify? How did you respond?
I was born and grew up in Riangaketh village, Aweil East County in South Sudan where community is in desperate need of education. This village had only one primary school since I was not born up to 2008 which accommodate a total number of 1800 pupils and above. Due to overpopulation in this school, I and three other friends of mine (Gabriel Malong, Malong Mawien and Abuor Gordon Nhial), came up with the decision of forming a community based organization to promote education in the rural areas.
We called a meeting in Riangaketh town to discuss this issue of overpopulation in the school and to pave a way out of how we could address this issue. Luckily, community turned up in a large number to attend the meeting which we set to take place on 13 January 2008. In our meeting we discussed about making contribution to form a community based organization which will deal with the provision of scholastic materials and opening up new primary schools within the area to reduce overpopulation in Riangaketh Primary School. Some elders supported our idea while others were complaining that it might be a scamming trick to take advantage of what community will contribute.
Despite mistrust from some of community members, ex-chief gave our decision go-ahead to walk in all households collecting whatever a person can afford to contribute. With no surprise we were able to collect 100 cows and 250 goats. Though some people were doubtful that we will use these contributions for our personal benefits, they contributed generously towards our proposed project. We were able to raised 65200 Sudanese Pounds equivalent of 13800 US Dollars after selling both cows and goats. We then called a meeting again to alert the community about what we collected. As we told them that we had collected 100 cows and 250 goats which we sold at 65200 Sudanese Pounds, everyone was smiling saying that we have done our part let's see those contributions die in your pockets. We could not mind of all these insults but we need to prove them wrong by implementing the project successfully. We therefore decided to form an organization that would be linked with Catholic Church so that they could help us in times of hardship. As I had learned the Spanish word "Cabra" which means goat in English from Father Diego, a priest from Spain, we therefore named the organization as Cabra Academic Missions because there were so many goats compare to cows.
After forming this community based organization, we opened up two more primary schools within Riangaeth village which we named Our Lady Help of Christian Primary School and Tiitchok Mareng Primary School respectively. However, we did not acquire registration certificate immediately after the formation mainly because we had no enough money to run both the schools as well as registering our organization with the ministry of Legal Affairs of the government of Southern Sudan, so we had to wait until things get better to apply for registration and that would be after South Sudan seceded from the Sudan.
I later on introduced our organization to Deng Chuor, a Sudanese born Australian citizen in 2011 who lives in Australia. Immediately he received my message, Deng did not hesitate to reply saying that he will fund the registration process of our organization to promote education in South Sudan. I was by then studying in Uganda. Deng told me to wait for him in Uganda then we will be travelling to South Sudan together in December 2011. He came exactly in December and we travelled to South Sudan. Within December we applied for registration certificate at the ministry of legal affairs. Our registration certificate was out in March 2012 which made our organization to be legal in South Sudan. Currently Cabra organizes fundraisers in South Sudan and Australia to support the project without obstruction because we are legal organization. Within 2012 we signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Salesian Mission in Australia so that our donations would go directly to their oversea funds section. Cabra Academic Missions now supports six primary schools in three counties of Northern Bahr el Ghazal State-Aweil with over 2700 pupils.
In conclusion, helping people gives you hope for everything in life and that was how we struggled to establish Cabra Academic Missions in South Sudan. This is how I have contributed to promote education in my community but I am still eager to do more if God blesses me to get better education.
Sanda, your essay is too long. Yes, I mean too long but well detailed.
I was born and grew up in
Riangaketh village, Aweil East
County in South Sudan where
community is in desperate need of
education. This village had only one
primary school since I was not
born up to 2008before I was born till 2008.whichThe school
accommodates a total number of
1800 pupils and above. Due to
overpopulation in this school, I and
three other friends of mine (Gabriel
Malong, Malong Mawien and Abuor
Gordon Nhial), came up with the
decision of forming a community
based organization to promote
education in the rural areas.
We called a meeting in Riangaketh
town to discuss this issue of
overpopulation in the school and
to pave athe way out,ofon how we couldcan
address this issue. Luckily,
community turned up in a large
number to attend the meeting
which we set to take place on 13
January 2008. In our meeting we
discussed about making
contribution to form a community
based organization which will deal
with the provision of scholastic
materials and opening up new
primary schools within the area to
reduce overpopulation in
Riangaketh Primary School. Some
elders supported our idea while
others were complaining that it
might be a scamming trick to take
advantage of what the community will
contribute.
Despite mistrust from some of
community members, ex-chief gave
our decision go-ahead to walk in
all households collecting whatever
a person can afford to contribute.
With no surprise we were able to
collect 100 cows and 250 goats Sounds like exaggeration. Why multiple of 10s? .
Though some people were
doubtful that we will use these
contributions for our personal
benefits, they contributed
generously towards our proposed
project. We were able to raised
65200 Sudanese Pounds
equivalent of 13800 US Dollars
after selling both cows and goats.
We then called a meeting again to
alert the community about what
we collected. As we told them that
we had collected 100 cows and
250 goats which we sold at 65200
Sudanese Pounds, everyone was
smiling saying that we have done
our part let's see those
contributions die in your pockets.
We could not mind of all these
insults but we need to prove them
wrong by implementing the project
successfully. We therefore decided
to form an organization that would
be linked with Catholic Church so
that they could help us in times of
hardship. As I had learned the
Spanish word "Cabra" which
means goat in English from Father
Diego, a priest from Spain, we
therefore named the organization
as Cabra Academic Missions
because there were so many goats
compare to cows.
After forming this community
based organization, we opened up
two more primary schools within
Riangaeth village which we named
Our Lady Help of Christian Primary
School and Tiitchok Mareng
Primary School respectively.
However, we did not acquire
registration certificate immediately
after the formation mainly because
we had no enough money to run
both the schools as well as
registering our organization with
the ministry of Legal Affairs of the
government of Southern Sudan, so
we had to wait until things get
better to apply for registration and
that would be after South Sudan
seceded from the Sudan.
I later on introduced our
organization to Deng Chuor, a
Sudanese born Australian citizen in
2011 who lives in Australia.
Immediately he received my
message, Deng did not hesitate to
reply saying that he will fund the
registration process of our
organization to promote education
in South Sudan. I was by then
studying in Uganda. Deng told me
to wait for him in Uganda then we
will be travelling to South Sudan
together in December 2011. He
came exactly in December and we
travelled to South Sudan. Within
December we applied for
registration certificate at the
ministry of legal affairs. Our
registration certificate was out in
March 2012 which made our
organization to be legal in South
Sudan. Currently Cabra organizes
fundraisers in South Sudan and
Australia to support the project
without obstruction because we
are legal organization. Within 2012
we signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with the Salesian
Mission in Australia so that our
donations would go directly to
their oversea funds section. Cabra
Academic Missions now supports
six primary schools in three
counties of Northern Bahr el Ghazal
State-Aweil with over 2700 pupils.
In conclusion, helping people gives
you hope for everything in life and
that was how we struggled to
establish Cabra Academic Missions
in South Sudan. This is how I have
contributed to promote education
in my community but I am still
eager to do more if God blesses me
to get better education.
