Home A transformative educational project for girls in South Sudan

A transformative educational project for girls in South Sudan

Published on

26 August 2026

Since 2008, the Loreto Sisters (Congregation of Jesus) have been running an educational complex in Rumbeck, South Sudan. This complex comprises a co-educational elementary school, a boarding high school for girls, a centre for primary healthcare, and a training centre. Their mission is a recognized model of sustainable community transformation, focusing on education, health, and the empowerment of women.

Five former students, who are now mothers and working in the north of the country, asked the sisters to launch a second educational complex in Aweil, in the state of Northern Bahr El Ghazal. In this region, just as in Rumbeck, children’s access to education, healthy food, and medical care is extremely limited. There are few schools, and the ones that exist are often set up under trees. Girls are particularly affected: 90 per cent are excluded from the school system due to early marriage, poverty, and unfavourable social norms.

In response to these pressing needs and at the request of their former students, the Loreto Sisters in South Sudan decided to establish a new mission in Aweil, replicating the integrated educational model already in place in Rumbek.

The Congregation of Jesus in Canada wanted to support this important project and approached the Roncalli Foundation, drawing on its expertise in international project management and its collaborations with religious congregations, to serve as a partner. Thanks to their generous donation and the strong mobilization of the Aweil community and local and religious authorities, the project got underway in 2025. For the Roncalli Foundation, it marks the beginning of a collaboration with a new trusted partner and its first presence in South Sudan since the country’s independence in 2011.

The initial phase of the project involves the construction of a block comprising four classrooms and two teachers’ offices for the high school—the cornerstone of the project—as well as the completion of a four-kilometre-long perimeter wall to ensure the safety of students and staff. The high school is expected to
accommodate 400 students from Aweil Centre County by the end of the project. A co-educational elementary school, a mother and child healthcare centre, a training centre, and various support facilities will be added gradually by 2030.