Starting in 1999, as a result of an on-going
civil war in Sudan, many southern Sudanese began arriving
in the United States. At that time, Jennifer Ernst and
her husband Darryl began helping a small community of
Sudanese through their local Richmond, Virginia church.
During these early days when many of the “Lost Boys”
arrived in Richmond, Jennifer and Darryl often heard cries
for education. Then, in 2002, Jennifer participated in
a diocese-sponsored mission trip to Kenya and Uganda that
was focused on projects relating to the southern Sudanese
people. Among the areas visited was Kakuma Refugee Camp
in northern Kenya. The 10-square-mile camp was home to
approximately 52,000 southern Sudanese refugees. Again,
there was a strong cry among the refugees for education.
Jennifer returned from that mission trip
with numerous letters from young Sudanese requesting scholarships
to Kenyan and Ugandan secondary schools. Since Sudanese
are not allowed to work in these countries and all students,
even citizens, are required to pay for secondary education,
scholarships are necessary to cover the school fees. After
sharing her experience with Darryl, a decision was made
to work with their church to raise funds to help the Sudanese
living in Richmond and on their own they began soliciting
friends and family to become private sponsors for Sudanese
who wanted to attend secondary school. Among them was
a brother and three relatives of Richmond “Lost Boy,”
Maker Marial. While in Kitale, Kenya, Jennifer had met
with them and they had expressed their intense desire
to become educated men so they could return and help their
people. They asked on behalf of themselves and other relatives
that Jennifer consider sponsoring them. Jennifer and Darryl
were able to sponsor four of them and they found sponsors
for eight others.
Within southern Sudan itself there was
and still is a great need for educational resources and
facilities. Only 20% of children attend school because
there are so few schools available. As a result, the literacy
rate of 20% is among the lowest in the world. The typical
“school” in southern Sudan is held under a large
tree year-round. When it rains, school is canceled. There
are very few textbooks or other supplies and teachers
are unpaid volunteers, often with no training. In the
Rumbek region alone there are 1.5 million youth in need
of education and only ONE secondary school that can only
accommodate 725 students.
In the summer of 2004, the first “Walk
for Sudan” fundraiser was held in Richmond and the
proceeds were split between Rumbek and Renk, another region
in southern Sudan. The people of Rumbek asked if additional
funds could be raised in order to build a badly needed
school and this became another focus of the group's fundraising
efforts. On a recent mission trip, groundwork was laid
for the construction of this new school in Rumbek.
Hope for Humanity, Inc. was founded by
Jennifer, Darryl, and Maker in December 2004 as an organization
dedicated to growing educational opportunities for the
future leaders of Sudan. They are committed to the idea
that education is the best way to help the southern Sudanese
to grow and become self-supporting.
