School’s report in the period between July 1, 07 and October 30, 2007 

INTRODUCTION:

Ever since the existence of the Sudanese people in Philadelphia that goes back to the early nineties, there has been an ongoing plans to establish a comprehensive schooling system for the children of the community. In the past there were some successes, yet sustainability was the main challenge. The recent initiative started in the beginning of this year with a well attended community meeting on March 26, 2007. The meeting succeeded in forming a Board of Directors of twelve members. The meeting also suggested establishing two schools one in Southwest Philadelphia and the second in Northeast Philadelphia. Three months later both schools started and they are up and running since then.   

ACHIEVEMENTS:

The two Schools started with a few number of students, by now there is a total number of eighty students in both schools.

The teachers are still working in a volunteer basis. Yet the management of the two schools succeeded in ensuring the continuity of the educational process by demonstrating an outstanding leadership. They are at site each week, working side by side with the teachers and making sure that any thing goes wrong is immediately corrected.

 The existence of the schools over the past four months created a strong sense of eagerness and responsibility among our community to work hard towards common goals. Indeed it is our expectation that, this example will enrich our experiences and help ensuring capacity building.

CONSTRAINTS:

 Even though the teachers are currently working on a volunteer basis, yet we would have hoped if it was possible to provide small incentives for them as an encouragement. With the increasing cost of life expenses it is hard to ensure the continuity of having these teachers providing such essential service for longer period of time.

The current food supply approach is indeed not the most appropriate one. There is a need to create nutritionally satisfied and costly effective food supply approach.

FUTURE PLANS:

 The community is planning to have its own building (DAR). If succeeded; the place shall serve as the school location beside its other benefits. The plan is an ambitious one, yet the community despite its great dedication and enthusiasm lack the sufficient financial capabilities.

 As mentioned before the short term plan is to provide those teachers with small incentives, but the long term plan is to hire professional teachers and to create curriculums for the current subjects.

 Some parents are dropping their children and some are using the public transportation. Even though Philadelphia has a good transportation network of buses and subway lines, however transportation is an area that needs to be looked at, to ensure the proper attending of the students. The community is hoping to have its own bus for the purpose of transportation.

 The Sudanese Society of Greater Philadelphia