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Community Contributions for Korech SchoolNuba Mountains
Korech School, which hosts 200 students each day, is a cluster of makeshift buildings with grass roofs and sandy floors. Although the rooms are hot and dusty, the desks are in neat rows and the teachers are in command of their engaged students. Perhaps the oddest things about the school are the piles of rock and gravel that dot the yard between the thatched classrooms, piles which are growing daily as women bring buckets of sand from the nearby riverbed. Most of these women are doing double duty, as mothers of children who attend the school and members of the Women’s Association, which is gathering under a nearby tree to discuss progress towards the new school building and eventual rooftop water catchment system that will provide clean water to the staff and students.
These women have been labouring in love, faithfully carrying heavy loads to the school as part of the community contribution to the project. They are no strangers to hard work: in addition to their individual household work and gathering sand for the new school, they are also busy tending a communal garden, for which FAR provided seeds, that is now producing surplus vegetables that they are selling in the local market. They also look after the poultry unit, an important source of income and protein for the women and their families – a remarkable change, since traditionally in the area women and children did not eat eggs or manage money. The women have also formed a Women’s Solidarity Group that raises money for traditional festivals and sets aside funds for exceptional circumstances. Last year, after one of the member’s house burnt down, the group contributed money to buy clothes for the family and to purchase materials to rebuild the home.
 Together these women are working to improve life for themselves, their families and their community. By working through local grassroots organisations FAR is able to contribute to lasting change in villages like Korech. In addition to meeting the tangible need for healthy food (through a school feeding programme) and clean water (with a roof catchment system), FAR facilitates community empowerment. One woman says that “working with this group encourages us to talk, both in front of others and to each other”. The sense of community among these women is strong, they urge other groups like themselves “to organise if they want their work to go smoothly, then they can achieve anything they want”.
The success of the Korech Women’s Association is a beacon of hope for the village. After school, Nuur, a tall student from class five, joins her mother at the meeting. She hopes one day to be part of the Korech Women’s Association, and is particularly interested in the poultry unit. Her dream is to become a teacher and to teach in the new school for which her mother and the Women’s Association are tirelessly collecting gravel.
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