Last year, you helped teachers who must travel long distances by foot to teach in classrooms ranging from schools, grass huts or simply in the shade of trees.

By fundraising with us – your support has not only provided teachers in South Sudan, Malawi and Kenya with a bicycle to help shorten long journeys to students but has provided farmers the means to bring produce to markets or transport clay for stove production and cottage industries also!

Earlier this week, we highlighted the massive impact bicycles have made to rural farming communities in Malawi. (You can read that post: here)

In South Sudan, bicycles have made the lives of teachers grappling with many challenges easier.

Teachers despite having a hugely important role in building a brighter future for society at large – are often neglected by local government. State wages are very low and it’s common to go 3 or even 4 months without any pay at all.

Classrooms are packed with eager students and resources to teach them are very little.

A simple bicycle has made a huge difference not just by cutting commuting times but giving teachers the time to enrol in further trainings.

Thanks to your support in our bike appeal, the education needs in Renk, a refugee settlement and surrounding areas in Northern South Sudan, have been supported with 8 primary schools, (Abayok, Presbyterian, Renk 3, Chum Aliny, Nazarlun, Nujkur, Jok Yusuf, and Hai Anassr primary school) receiving bikes shared among 38 teachers.

Your generosity has major impact and has supported teachers, like Martin, who have overcome the unimaginable and are building their communities up.

Martin teaches at a blackboard in Renk.

Martin Adiang, a 36-year-old teacher took refuge in Sudan after the 2013 South Sudan crisis. While in Sudan, he lived with his stepbrother in Khartoum.

There he had a job as a teacher in Comboni Primary school where he taught Maths, Religion, life skills and Art to learners from primary two to six. Martin taught for 4 years and was a passionate and dedicated teacher, so much so that the Comboni sisters later supported and sent him to college to advance in his career.

Sadly, his studies were pulled away from him as Sudan erupted into a war still savaging the country to this day.

Martin, like many other refugees, fled to South Sudan. .’Getting to Renk safely through the gun fire, without even a scratch on my skin is the reason I haven’t lost faith in God’ he said.

As a refugee, although saddened by the separation with his brother (who thankfully fled to Egypt), Martin began volunteering in the refugee settlements keen to continue doing what he loved.

Martin volunteered to teach at Renk three primary, a very vulnerable school greatly affected by the 2016 crisis in South Sudan. The furniture and learning materials in the school were looted and much of the structures were destroyed.

Despite all this, Martin did his best to create a brighter future for them.

With a gift from the Xavier Network, JRS selected this school and started supporting the learners with learning materials and also facilitated the upskilling and training for teachers doing crucial work for refugee children. Martin was among them.

Today, Martin is now employed and doing what he loves.

He is able to rent a bigger house for himself and his mother and sister who were living in White Nile camp and to date, he is living a happy life reunited with family.

Martin thanks JRS for accompanying him and opening doors of opportunities.

He is still upskilling in the English course in the afternoons after teaching in the morning. ‘God has used JRS to attach a meaning to my life once again, I never thought I would ever work with an NGO in my Life’, he said.

You can do something amazing and help teachers like, Martin, change their communities for the better.

To purchase a bicycle that can support teachers or for other gifts that change lives, Visit: www.gifts.iji.ie