Every day in the news, it seems, there is a horror story from South Sudan—the world’s newest country. Civil war and famine are a deadly combination in ways we can hardly imagine. Here is some good news from South Sudan. An organization called Building Minds in South Sudan (BMISS) is building a girls’ school in the north of that war-torn country. It will succeed in part because the Bill Cook Foundation has provided a three-year grant to BMISS to train female teachers and hire a female principal. Without these human resources, families are hesitant to send their daughters to school. The photo shows me accepting a basket from the mothers of some of those girls, their statement of appreciation for what we are doing. They also presented me with a goat. Since it was hard to pack it for the trip home, I donated it to the current school, where it became a tasty lunch for the children.
