Blazing a trail from Bray to South Sudan

A pioneer in the world of education, she deserves to be much better known than she is, so the rule goes out the window in her case. As well as the no repeat rule, there is a guideline stipulating that interviews should be conducted in person, as far as possible within the laws of lockdown.

Yet she somehow contrived to evade this one too. Your reporter managed to catch up briefly by phone with the much-travelled Loreto nun as she made a recent flying visit to the country where she was born 48 years ago. She cheerfully took the call but explained that she was due on her way back to Africa and would be unable to meet up.

So, instead of sharing a pot of tea in Ireland, she shared her thoughts over a WhatsApp connection once back in her office in far-off Rumbek. Though two time zones and more than 9,000 kilometres away, her voice still came across firm, friendly and confident. Across that great distance, she spoke of life and learning in South Sudan, the country she now regards as home.

Sr Orla confirmed that she had been Ireland to receive a Presidential Distinguished Service Award at the Árus. She was one of 11 people so honoured by President Higgins, all of them high achievers from this country who have made their mark after emigrating elsewhere. Most of the others ply their various trades in the relatively familiar environments of Britain or North America.

However, she and fellow awardee Brother Colm O’Connell reside in Africa. Colm was nominated for his achievements as an athletics coach in Kenya. Meanwhile, Sr Orla was acknowledged for the way she has built up her school in neighbouring South Sudan.

It is a place a great deal bigger and a great deal hotter than Ireland and it is also, at the moment, a great deal drier. She reports that the rains came to Rumbek later than usual in 2021, so that crops were not quite what had been hoped for. In other areas of the country, the farmers had to cope with floods which also put the supply of food under pressure. But if hunger is on the agenda, she expects that everyone will cope: “People here are born into hardship and they are survivors, in good spirits.”

This is a Christian country, so the celebrations of Christmas gave a boost to morale. Their formal religion is mixed with respect for old traditions, setting great store on a sense of the continuing presence of their deceased ancestors. And polygamy is tolerated as part of a long-standing tradition, with one man believed to have taken on 74 wives.

Orla Treacy first came here in 2006, appointed by the local Roman Catholic bishop, an Italian national. He charged her with creating a school for girls in the provincial capital Rumbek. He originally hoped to bring in Kenyan sisters but had to settle for the tall, impossibly pale, Irish woman instead.

Though there were foreign donors prepared to back the initiative in this poorest of countries, she had precious little else going for her. A 100-acre site had been earmarked for a campus, but Rumbek had been wrecked by civil war that had blighted Sudan.

“The war had just ended and there was nothing left of the town – it was Ground Zero. People were living in the bush and the roads had been mined,” recalls Orla of the early days. As if all that were not bad enough, the concept of educating girls beyond the merest rudiments of learning did not square with local tradition.

Nevertheless, the town was revived, and the school began to take shape, while the mines were cleared and some semblance of normal life was re-established. In 2011, South Sudan achieved proud independence from the mainly Muslim state of Sudan, and the feelgood factor engendered by making the break persists.

But the director of Loreto Rumbek is very much aware that, though peace reigns at present, past conflict has left a legacy of trauma, while unemployment (or at least underemployment) and illiteracy remain stubbornly prevalent. There are those in the region who carry guns and who have been known to use them.

It is all a far cry from the Loreto Bray where she received her own secondary education up to the Leaving Certificate in 1991. She is a daughter of Blaise and the late Imelda Treacy, sibling of Pat and Darina. The school on the Vevay Road previously produced such well-known campaigning politicians as Mary O’Rourke and Gemma Hussey.

It is also well known for fostering sporting talent, and young Treacy’s particular sport was swimming. She was a member of Triton SC and worked occasionally as a lifeguard on the beach in Bray. As yet, there is no pool in Rumbek, but a substantial modern complex of buildings has been constructed during her 15 years there.

There were just 35 young women enrolled in the first year and the number on the books has risen to the current count of 340. They are all boarders, drawn from all of the 10 states which make up the republic, often undertaking long journeys from their homes in this vast country.

In response to requests from the local community, a hugely popular primary school has been added. Demand for places is so strong that the 1,300 young scholars are divided into two shifts, morning and afternoon.

With malaria a constant sapping presence in the population, a health clinic employing six nurses has also been developed. Over the past four years, secondary education for boys has also been on offer in Rumbek, thanks to the arrival of the De La Salle order.

Two other secondary schools, both co-educational, have sprung up too, catering for children from the immediate vicinity. School holds out to students an alternative to domestic drudgery and early marriage which is the lot of so many of their compatriots. Sr Orla is relentlessly optimistic about the prospects for her adopted country, but by no means blind to problems.

“We are very tribal and like fighting,” she reports drily: there are 64 different tribes. The predominant grouping in Rumbek is Dinka and she has at least a smattering of their language. Meanwhile, electricity is patchy throughout South Sudan and roads are not all they might be. A trip to the capital Juba on the banks of the White Nile takes at least 14 juddering hours overland, making the one-hour plane journey a much-desired alternative.

Education is increasingly prized: “It’s like Irish children going to Disneyland – they love going to school.” Sr Orla’s outpost in Rumbek does no more than scratch the surface of demand, she accepts. In a nation of 11 million population, many children never see the inside of a classroom at all, and just one girl in every 50 reaches secondary.

She radiates ambition for her students and they have responded by topping all academic league tables for their age group in South Sudan. Orla wants to see them make use of what they learn for the benefit of themselves, their families and their young country.

University is the goal which she sets for them, preferably a place in a Kenyan college where standards are higher. They have 15 teachers to encourage them, and the director (that’s her official title) still likes to take a class every now and then.

Away from their lessons, basketball is encouraged and the students share in the national passion roused by soccer. Orla takes her personal exercise by walking and she earnestly sings the praises of the beautiful countryside in the neighbourhood.

With temperatures regularly in the high thirties centigrade, much of life is lived outdoors, which has proven an effective defence against Covid.

She now finds Ireland very cold in contrast whenever she returns to keep in touch, not only with family, but also with supporters. Maintaining the finances of Loreto Rumbek in good order requires her to travel eight weeks each year with fundraising on her mind.

The Government of Ireland has been persuaded to weigh in along with charitable foundations and donors are spread across Germany, Spain, Australia, North America, England and beyond, as well as in Ireland. A website has been set up to tell the world about the school and to accept donations, all curated by a past pupil – www.loretorumbek.ie. It’s well worth checking out.