Elias Arkangelo at Loyola Secondary School in Wau, South Sudan

Education is a tool not only for imparting knowledge, but for achieving societal and political change.

This month, our colleague Noelle Fitzpatrick left Ireland for South Sudan, to take up a post as Country Director with the Jesuit Refugee Service. On a visit to the country last August for the Xavier Network, a group of 13 Jesuit organisations who work together for global justice, she visited Loyola Secondary School, in Wau and was touched by a story of resilience and courage from a young boy she met there.

Nyawuok in conversation with a client during a home visit in Kakuma refugee camp, Kenya 

‘My name is Nyawuok Chuol Mut. I am a South Sudanese refugee. My day starts at 6.00am, when I begin to the normal household chores like cleaning the house and my compound, before preparing breakfast. At around 7.30am, I start my journey to the work place, which takes me 30 minutes . I work for Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), in Kakuma refugee camp in the Turkana west part of Kenya as a Psychosocial Community Counsellor.

John Guiney SJ was working in St Joseph the Worker Parish in Kangemi, Nairobi at the time of the Rwandan genocide. On its 25th anniversary, he recalls how refugees from the conflict streamed into the country at that time, looking for safety.

Education is a tool not only for imparting knowledge, but for achieving societal and political change.

“Preventing war is the work of politicians, establishing peace is the work of educationists.”  Maria Montessori