Gone with the Wind

Aid workers in South Sudan wryly admit that "whatever can go wrong usually will go wrong." To wit, look at this photo: fierce winds ripped the roof from a newly built primary school in Yirol--crumpling the corrugated iron as if it were paper--even before the school had officially opened.   The accompanying rains flooded the storage room, ruining the books and the food supplies.

Educators in Sudanese must cope with more than their share of challenges: roads that are impassable much of the year, fellow teachers who are not yet trained, termites that eat the books, bandits who steal the stores, mosquitoes that bring malaria, scorpions that sting the unwary, weather that is either too hot or too wet (or both).... And yet the thirst for learning remains incredibly strong among girls and women in South Sudan, and Mercy Beyond Borders considers it a privilege to support efforts that provide for their formal education.