The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation is proud to announce that the second academic year has just begun at our high school in Marial Bai, Southern Sudan.

Thanks for all of your support of our students and school!

Our school is the first proper high school in the entire region, and thousands of students have applied to enroll. This year, we have more than 200 new students, bringing the entire student body to more than 300.

Construction is nearly complete on our new girls’ dormitories at the Marial Bai Secondary School campus. The school year had to start before the dorms were completed, but the construction workers in Marial Bai are working day and night to finish the buildings for our girl students.

The dorms will allow us to educate girls who have been prevented from continuing school, due to cultural and family pressures and the threat of early forced marriage. The dorms will accommodate nearly 100 young women—more female students than at any other high school across Southern Sudan. Click here to learn more about girls’ education in Southern Sudan, and what the Foundation is doing to help.

Thanks to everyone who supported the girls’ dorm!

We are also nearly finished with construction on the library. Located on the main school quad, this will be one of the first libraries in all of Southern Sudan. It will provide a rich collection of textbooks, reference materials, and literature—in a region where books are extremely scarce. Below, students visit inside the library, where work continues to build the floors. Later this summer, bookshelves will be built and the library will be stocked with tens of thousands of books.

To lead the school, a faculty of highly qualified teachers has been recruited from across East Africa. The majority of the teachers are Southern Sudanese, but three female Kenyan teachers have just been hired. Below, the teachers meet with students and parents, and relax after a day of classes in the teacher’s compound.

The secondary school is at the center of a large campus with more than fifteen structures, comprising the library, a dining hall and kitchen, the teachers’ compound and teacher-training hall, a community meeting hall, and the girls’ dormitories. The campus is a work in progress, and construction is ongoing; below are some images of the educational complex, a bulldozer clearing the land, and students help furnish the teachers’ compound with chairs:

After the start of the second academic school year, parents of the students were invited to visit the school, meet the teachers, and learn more about the work of the Foundation.

There are many ways you can get involved to support Valentino’s school. Here are some of the most common ways we’ve received support from individuals, schools, community groups, and others:

If you’ve donated to Valentino’s school, tell your friends and family members to do the same. Subscribe to our mailing list and join us on Facebook, then help us spread the word online.

Anyone can organize their own benefit for Valentino’s school. We rely on grassroots fundraising so no amount raised is too small, and every donation counts. We’ll send you brochures and everything you need—all you have to do is gather your friends, family members, or colleagues to host an event. For ideas and more info, check out our fundraising page.

Now that our school in Sudan is open, we hope to create “sister school” partnerships with schools from around the world! It’s a great way to promote culture-sharing and idea-exchanging among students across the globe.

Sister school relationships can take on different shapes and sizes, and we’ll work with each school’s individual needs. Here are some ideas:

School Unit on What is the What

What Is the What: The Autobiography of Valentino Achak Deng is now required reading at some universities, and is taught on high school and college campuses across the country. The book is a great starting point for establishing a relationship between your school and Valentino’s school in Sudan.

Teachers can design a unit devoted to learning about Sudan and international development, reading What Is the What, and focusing on Valentino’s efforts to educate young men and women in Southern Sudan. We have a reader’s guide and we can provide teaching materials that other educators have used in their classrooms.

Inviting Valentino to speak at your school

Valentino spends most of his time in Africa, overseeing the school in Sudan, but returns to the US occasionally to go on speaking tours and talk about his life, his collaboration with Dave Eggers on What Is the What, and his current work to educate young men and women in Sudan. Read more about his advocacy efforts here.

Valentino’s speaking engagements are organized by a leading speakers bureau called the Lavin Agency. Check out Valentino’s Lavin speaker profile. If you are interested in having him speak at your school, you can contact:

The Lavin Agency
info@thelavinagency.com

(800) 762-4234
(800) 265-4870

Pen Pal Program

We can establish a pen pal program between your school and the Marial Bai Secondary School. If your students want to send letters to Sudan, mail them to our office:

The Valentino Achak Deng Foundation
849 Valencia Street
San Francisco, CA 94110

It’s difficult for us to guarantee responses from our students in Sudan, though: Marial Bai is an incredibly remote village without electricity or running water or a postal system. It will be more difficult to get letters from students in Sudan to your school on a regular basis, but we will try to have our students respond.

Summer trips to Marial Bai

During the summers, it is possible for teachers and students to visit Marial Bai to train teachers, teach classes, and tutor students at the Marial Bai Secondary School. Perhaps eventually students from Marial Bai could visit your school down the road. See our volunteer page for more information, and to read about our 2009 volunteer team, click here.

Donating books & supplies

There are very few books available in war-torn Southern Sudan. One of our most urgent needs at the school is books and school supplies. We are nearly finished on construction of our library, but we still need books to fill the shelves.

We’re looking for schools, colleges, and libraries who can help us get books to Sudan. An annual fundraising campaign or book drive could be integrated at your school, with proceeds and book donations going to Valentino’s school and the library.

For the library, all books are welcome. General reference books are always needed: encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauruses, teaching books, maps and charts, etc.

At the school, the most urgent need is for basic level academic textbooks in all the core subjects: Math, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, etc. The history taught is regional and African history. There are also classes like Agriculture and Commerce and Christian Theology. Middle and high school level is preferred but we can use elementary level books, too. We are creating a library, and all educational books will be useful. 

School supplies are needed, too—especially pencils, notebooks, stationary, chalk, calculators, rulers, simple art supplies like colored pencils, etc. Personal and medical items such as first-aid kits, general medicines, and sanitary products items are useful as well.

Shipping costs for Sudan

The main obstacle with sending books to Sudan is the high cost of shipping. There is no postal system in Sudan, so we have to send through Kenya; we have to pay customs fees to the Kenyan government for receiving books in Nairobi, then we have to ship the boxes to Sudan by plane or truck. 

Combined with the high cost of international mailing to Africa, we can end up spending several hundred dollars just for a few boxes of books.

Instead of shipping from the US, the Foundation has learned that it’s cheaper and easier to purchase all books and supplies in Nairobi.

If your school can cover shipping charges, we will be grateful. If not, you can host a fundraiser—and generate money which can be used to purchase books and supplies in Nairobi. 

Check out our fundraising page for more info!

We are open to any and all possibilities, and would like to work with you and your school to design how the partnership could work! If you want more information or have any questions you can email us at info@valentinoackakdeng.org.

In this past Sunday’s New York Times, Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Nicholas Kristof writes about his recent trip to Valentino Deng’s hometown of Marial Bai, Southern Sudan, where he visited our high school and met with students.

Kristof describes Valentino’s school as an “exhilarating glimmer in a land laden with troubles.” Click here to read the full column.

Here’s a photo Kristof snapped of Valentino, in front of the school:

And here are a couple photos Valentino took of Kristof, interviewing a student from the school and enjoying a plate of the local food posho:

Kristof also wrote this blogpost while he was in Marial Bai, about girls’ education and Valentino’s efforts to increase girls’ enrollment at the high school.

Thanks to Mr. Kristof for all of the support.

Now that the Marial Bai Secondary School is open, we need your help to keep it running and to expand the campus of the educational center. (more…)

In March, Valentino Deng finished a ten-city speaking tour across the U.S., visiting schools, universities, churches, and community groups. (more…)

The Foundation has been selected as Charity of the Month by One Meaning Couture, a jewelry and apparel store with a philanthropic vision. As featured in Elle, One Meaning donates 8.13% of their proceeds to a different charity each month. (more…)

Valentino’s life and the new Marial Bai Secondary School in Southern Sudan were featured in Nicholas Kristof’s New York Times op-ed column in late December. Thanks very much to Mr. Kristof and to all of his readers who have supported our organization! (more…)

Please enjoy this video from Valentino’s new school in Marial Bai, Southern Sudan. For more videos from Marial Bai, visit our YouTube channel.


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Volunteer teacher program

Summer 2009 trip

From left to right: Gabrielle Galvez, Jen Nicholson, Valentino Achak Deng,
Colin Weaver, Kelly McDonough, and David Levine.

Below are testimonials written by a few of the volunteers.

To apply to be a volunteer teacher in Marial Bai, click here or email volunteer@valentinoachakdeng.org.

VOLUNTEER REFLECTIONS

Colin Weaver
Vancounver, Canada
Teacher at Hong Kong International School

The courage and resiliency of the people of Marial Bai is truly inspiring. They are a people faced with the daunting task of rebuilding after over two decades of civil strife. Situated in a quiet farming village, the community is trying to progress despite being deeply affected by the horrors of a war. Comprehending such horrors is impossible for someone like me. Yet, these people – most notably, Valentino – continue to spend each day finding the positives in their lives. They find the motivation to carry on. They take pride in the opportunity to build a new South Sudan at a time when they could understandably be excused for being overwhelmed.

When I arrived in the village, I was welcomed with open arms. I was immediately treated as part of a family. Our group of volunteers was made to feel as comfortable as possible. We spent a large portion of our time at the Marial Bai Secondary School; the lone high school of the region. Working with the three full-time teachers, we helped model instruction techniques and have professional discussions about curriculum, assessment, and philosophy of education. The students, although short on supplies, are keen to learn. There is a thirst for knowledge as the options for schooling have been so limited for so long. The VAD Foundation is a beacon for a new South Sudan. It provides students with a daily structure, a meal, and most importantly, possibilities for the future. One such possibility is female high school education in a setting that is sensitive to local culture.

Looking back at my experience working in Marial Bai, one moment stands out. It was my final evening there, and Valentino gathered the student body. He spoke softly about all of us being advocates for the south Sudanese. That it is our responsibility to go forward into the world and make it a better place. Being a teacher, I had heard those words spoken many times to high schoolers, but in the context of this setting and with this group, you couldn’t help but realize that responsible action is imperative. That these students truly are the future for this particular region. A perspective, as is often the case in Marial Bai, that is both vast, and inspirational.

Gabrielle Galvez
Calgary, Canada
Teacher at Master’s Academy and College

When I first read What Is the What, a fleeting “man, I would love to go to Sudan someday” passed through my thoughts. I could not have even comprehended that I would be on a small plane two years later, flying into Marial Bai to help out at the school built by Valentino’s foundation.

On the trip I was struck by how rapidly Sudan has been developing (given that a peace agreement was signed just 4 years ago). It was amazing to see roads and buildings being built even during the short time we were there. Juxtaposed on this, however, was the great need I heard expressed from those I met. Most of the needs that I saw were in the field of education- teachers requesting formal teacher-training, teaching materials, and a living wage. I was shocked when I learned that many elementary and middle school instructors had not attended high school, and were requesting admission into the Marial Bai Secondary School.

I felt blessed by every day at the school. The students had a sense of pride in themselves and an incredible work ethic. The Sudanese teachers we worked with are tremendously gifted and flexible educators. I am excited by the Foundation’s goals- not just to build a school but to help teachers in Sudan receive solid professional development. A highlight for me was the opportunity to introduce numerous pieces of scientific equipment (microscopes, chemistry equipment and physics demonstrations) to the teachers and students. Most had only seen scientific equipment in books, and I was able to watch their faces light up with understanding as they worked with the hands-on tools. I also loved working with Gabriel Logo each day. I discovered that despite our differences in education and culture, we shared a common passion as teachers to help our students understand and to make learning interesting. Working through new ideas with him helped me to refine my own teaching practice and gain new insights into Sudan’s educational background. I am so grateful to Marial Bai and the VAD foundation for hosting us so graciously and allowing me to experience life in Sudan for a short time!

Kelly McDonough
San Francisco, California
Teacher at Brandeis Hillel Day School


Living in Marial Bai for a month was an incredible experience. People were curious, warm, friendly and always eager to shake our hands and greet us. We spent many afternoons at one of the many tea shops in the market, taking walks, trying to pet baby goats, hanging out and talking to people. At times it was really, really hot.

At first many of the students seemed shy and maybe even a little afraid of us. They warmed up quickly and were clearly eager to learn and wanted to share their experiences with us. My impression was that students seem grateful to have a school, teachers, uniforms and lunch. A very common question they asked toward the end of our time there was, “When will you come back?” And they were not satisfied with vague answers to this question. One Sunday at the volleyball match, Bakita, one of the girls in my after school class came up to me and held my hand as we walked.

The main objective for our being there was to train the teachers in best current practices in education. The teachers were interested in our workshops and training sessions but it became clear to us that the information we were presenting was so entirely new that it looked like it might take longer than we expected to see results. In addition to teacher training we held classes for the students, we did some individual tutoring, we tried to learn to speak Dinka, and we recorded some interviews with students and other community members. My hope that our being there reflected for the students and the people in Marial Bai that they are noticed by an international community that cares about what happened and what will happen next in their lives.

Valentino arrived in Marial Bai about half way into our stay and he brought chocolate from Nairobi with him. He was kind, generous and warm and so soft-spoken. He is a really tall man with an impossibly delicate voice and gentle demeanor. It was really painful to imagine him suffering.

It was interesting to watch Valentino straddle two worlds. One minute he was communicating and interacting easily with us and the next he’d switch to his role as community leader/organizer. In this role he negotiated with workers to get the library finished, arranged meetings with politicians to get their support for building roads toward the school and other seemingly endless tasks.

Overall, it’s clear that the students want to learn. They so badly want to have opportunities to develop their skills and their knowledge and do something with their lives. Their education and their whole lives have been disrupted by war, poverty and uncertainty and these students have dreams to become professionals that seem almost impossible to attain.

But Valentino’s school offers these students in Marial Bai some hope that they might have the chance to keep learning beyond primary levels. Moreover, Valentino’s support of education for girls is clear. He has made on-campus housing available for them so that they can attend school and hired a “den mother” to look after them and reassure their families that they will be safe. This school is central to the development of the community and it was an honor to participate in the efforts.

David Levine
Portland, Oregon
Teacher at Oregon Episcopal School


I really like what the other teachers wrote on this page. In particular I appreciate Kelly’s astute picture of Valentino, Colin’s description of our last night as Valentino spoke to the students, and Gabrielle’s comment about watching development occur in front of our very eyes.

To say it was an inspiring summer, doesn’t do the experience justice. There was a lot of observing and thinking, working and just simply being with others. One day while waiting in one of the many tea shacks to meet with the adult education administrator, I passed the time with my journal and an impromptu game called “One Minute in the Market” – a list of all you can observe in 60 seconds in “downtown” Marial Bai. Here are the results. I hope it provides a snapshot of the vibrancy of life in Marial Bai:

Women in colorful dresses
Men in western clothes and also in gowns
Men walking with canes, staffs, rifles
Water jugs carried on women’s heads
A soccer ball
A crying baby
Sorghum plants growing, blowing in breeze
Trash
A motorcycle. A bicycle. A donkey.
Big birds soaring 50 feet above
Primary school children on holiday
The beating motor of the sorghum mill
A boy rolling an inner tube
The tea lady walking a drink across the market
A man in camouflage. Another in light blue military clothes
Spicy coffee in a glass

David Levine, a teacher from Portland, Oregon, teaching math.

Melanie Borgman, a teacher from New Zealand currently teaching in Lausanne, Switzerland, with a seminar class of girl students from the Marial Bai Secondary School. (Photo credit: Jen Nicholson)

Teachers at the Marial Bai Secondary School: William Atak Deng, Mabior, and Gabriel Logo Kwach.

Melanie Borgman leading a regional teacher-training workshop attended by more than 500 local Sudanese teachers. (Photo credit: Jen Nicholson)

Front row: Gabriel Logo Kwach, David Levine, William Atak Deng, Colin Weaver. Back row: Greg Larson, Jen Nicholson, Gabrielle Galvez, Mabior Deng, Kelly McDonough, William Kolong.

The volunteer team with the Marial Bai Secondary School student body. (Photo credit: Jen Nicholson)

After spending most of the year in Sudan overseeing his new secondary school, Valentino made a brief visit to the US in November for a series of speaking engagements and fundraising events. He spoke to packed auditoriums about his life and his new school in Sudan at events in the Netherlands and at American colleges all across the country. In Wisconsin and Maryland, he and Dave gave presentations to huge groups of students who had read What Is the What as their required summer reading.

Dave and Valentino showing a slideshow about the new school in Sudan for students at the University of Maryland. Photo credit: Jaclyn Borowski

Thanks to everyone who attended Valentino’s events! Read more about his visits to Swarthmore and the University of Tampa, and his all-school lectures with Dave Eggers at the University of Wisconsin and the University of Maryland.

If you weren’t able to catch Valentino this time, he’ll be back in the US next spring. If you’re interested in inviting Valentino to speak in your town, check out his profile at the Lavin Agency speakers bureau.

Valentino speaking in the Hague, Netherlands. Photo credit: Theo Wierema

Valentino meeting with Jan Pronk, former UN Special Representative for Sudan. Photo credit: Theo Wierema

Valentino with Rudd Lubbers, former high commissioner of the UNHCR. Photo credit: Theo Wierema

Valentino at the University of Tampa. Photo credit: Abby Sanford

This Friday, come to 826NYC in Brooklyn to see a new video and photos from Valentino’s recently opened high school in his hometown of Marial Bai, Southern Sudan. (more…)

Next Thursday in San Francisco, Bright Antenna Records will be screening the documentary “Jeff Buckley: Grace Around the World” as a fundraiser for the Valentino Achak Deng Foundation. (more…)

If you’d like to get involved with the Foundation’s work, we’re currently looking for interns and volunteers. (more…)

On February 10, the Voice of Witness book series hosted an event at the Center for American Progress to discuss the new book Out of Exile, a collection of oral histories about abduction, displacement, and slavery in Sudan. Editor Craig Walzer and Voice of Witness series editor Dave Eggers  addressed members of Congress at the event, which was co-hosted by the Enough Project. (more…)

McSweeney’s Voice of Witness is proud to announce the release of its latest title, Out of Exile: Narratives from the Abducted and Displaced People of Sudan. For information about the book tour, read on. (more…)

Dave Eggers’s What Is the What has recently been selected for three library programs that invite communities to read and discuss the same book. (more…)

Valentino just returned from Sudan, and will be appearing at various speaking engagements throughout the U.S. in April. (more…)

On March 20, Valentino will be speaking in Philadelphia at the closing event for the “One Book, One Philadelphia” festival. (more…)

In March, Valentino will return to the United States from Sudan, and will be available for public speaking engagements. (more…)

Please enjoy the video clips on our homepage showing footage from Valentino’s summer 2007 trip to southern Sudan. (more…)

On November 10, Valentino and Dave Eggers will participate in a panel discussion at the Chicago Humanities Festival. The theme of the festival is “Climate of Concern,” examining global environmental and ecological disruption. (more…)

On October 29, Valentino will be in conversation with Dave Eggers as part of the Pittsburgh Arts & Lectures speaker series.

In addition to discussing Valentino’s life in Sudan, his experiences at Kakuma Refugee Camp, and his collaboration with Dave on What Is the What, they will present pictures and video from their trip back to southern Sudan this summer. (more…)

On October 17, Valentino will meet with students from Ohio State University, discussing his life in Sudan and his collaboration with Dave Eggers on What Is The What. At 7:30 p.m., Valentino and Dave will have a public discussion at Mershon Auditorium on the OSU campus.

What Is the What was OSU’s 2007 selection for the Buckeye Book Community, a program that introduces incoming freshman students to the intellectual community through a shared reading experience.

On October 15, Valentino and Dave Eggers will speak at the International Rescue Committee’s Fifth Annual Bay Area Dinner in San Francisco, benefiting the IRC’s global efforts to help refugees. (more…)

A brief note about this account: After returning from Sudan, I tried for many weeks to make something artful from the notes and recordings I made during this most recent trip. I tried and struggled and half-started, and meanwhile too many weeks have come and gone and I felt I was being silly and precious. The important thing, I realize, is to produce some account of the trip, with useful information for those interested in the work of Valentino’s foundation (and others like it), and to do it quickly. (more…)

The Foundation recently made a grant to the Voice of Witness book series, to help fund a forthcoming book about slavery and forced displacement in Sudan. Click here to read an excerpt. (more…)