I work for the City of London Fire Department and my captain on Engine 11 is Glen Pearson, Director of the London Food Bank and former missionary. Having served for many years in Africa, Glen and his wife Jane Roy are currently assisting the people of South Sudan. This is an area suffering the results of 25 years of civil war.
One day, Glen told of receiving funding to build a new school in South Sudan, but there was no one in the area with the skills to handle the type of construction required and he did not know what he was going to do.
We responded with, “We could do that!” Four of us, Rob Warren, John Peter, Steven Beasley and I had also gone from London to New York City after 9/11. We are all on the same squad and regularly work together on emergency calls.
After a winter of fundraising we departed a year ago in January. Also, in our group was London businessman, Alex Lau, who is involved with a SmartAid project to provide sewing machines and training to the women of the area; Shaun Elliot, regional director of the YMCA wanted to set up “Y” programs for the youth; Jeff Lang of Stevenson Hunt was along as a member of SmartAid; and Kathy Mueller from the A Channel with cameraman Wayne Jennings to document our efforts. Jane Roy of Canadian Aid for Southern Sudan was with us to co-ordinate everything and was accompanied by her adopted daughter Abuk (who is from the area). London developer David Tennant and his nephew, London police officer Bill Tennant were already in the area working on a Smart-Aid project.
The four firefighters focused on construction of the school and we had our hands full dealing with the logistical concerns of finding necessary resources and getting them to the building site. Our agenda proved to be overly ambitious. No water or aggregate for concrete. A one hour drive to find each resource and we required enough of each to mix two cement trucks' worth. And the stones for aggregate were too large and had to be pounded with a hammer to reduce them to usable size. No handles for the tools. No bolts to put the steel structure together. Four flimsey shovels to dig several hundred feet. Choosing a site which had the least number of bomb craters.
Then dealing with a labour dispute which arose because the Sudanese thought we were being paid and so taking much needed jobs away from them.
All of this was sorted out agreeably and much was accomplished.
Everyone became ill at some point during the week, proving true the young Slovakian physician's catchphrase, “Welcome to Sudan, don't eat anything for two days.”
The men known as the Child Soldiers of Sudan worked with us and we all became great friends as we laboured, side by side and learned about each others lives.
As half of our allowable luggage on the journey we had each brought 25 kilograms of supplies to leave at the mission. I had a hockey equipment bag full of YMCA T-shirts, and some of our fellows had medical supplies, tools and deflated balls for soccer and basketball. All of this was dispensed in the community, with much excitement.
During my stay I became good friends with a soldier named Simon and met his wife and family. I gave him a radio powered by a hand-crank dynamo and I believe this radio quickly became Simon's most prized possession.
The generosity of the members of Knox, St. Thomas, allowed me to reach out to help people who have nowhere to turn for any type of aid or relief. For their support I am ever grateful. The people of Aweil East are also thankful.
