Splendonor - Splendonor

The Mayen Abun Primary School for Orphans

The Mayen Abun Primary School for Orphans will initially serve approximately 600 elementary students, and within five years, intends to expand with residential facilities to serve approximately 1,000 students in total. The students will consist entirely of displaced youths and orphans, most of whom are refugees from the ongoing war in Sudan to the north.

Project budget: $350,000

Get involved

Funding Progress

The Mayen Abun Primary School project will be developed by Building Minds in South Sudan (BMISS), a US-based 501(c)3 non-profit organization based in Rochester, New York. BMISS was started in 2009 by two young men from the village of Mayen Abun in north-central South Sudan. Sebastian Maroundit and Mathon Noi, who were orphaned as children and adopted by US families, returned to South Sudan in the early 2000's with a dream of building a primary school for the children in their home village. This dream has been realized - and more! Their talents and hard work, combined with generous benefactors in the United States, have allowed BMISS to develop and operate four very successful public schools in their region: a primary school for boys and girls, a primary school for girls, and a high school. Their next hope, driven by the pressing refugee crises from the ongoing war in Sudan to the north, is to construct a primary school for orphans and displaced youths from that conflict.

The site for this important school for orphans has been identified and dedicated to this purpose by the local South Sudan government administration. The construction contractor who built the last three schools in that area is mobilized to begin. We wait only for adequate financing before breaking ground on construction.

The budget for phase 1 of the Mayen Abun School for Orphans construction is approximately $350,000. The program calls for eight classrooms, a library, science laboratory, and three rooms for office and staff. The facility will also include basketball courts, a volleyball court, and a football pitch.

Splendonor has committed to funding at least phase 1 of the Mayen Abun Primary School construction. Once Splendonor has approved the construction drawings, budget, schedule, and contractor, Splendonor will solicit donations from reliable donors and fund 100% of construction costs through incremental disbursements as construction progresses.

Splendonor will guarantee the budgeted amount as long as work progresses in compliance with approved schedule and design. BMSS will guarantee funding of any cost overruns.

The Republic of South Sudan Ministry of Education encourages the expansion of their rural school system through a private/public partnership with approved NGOs that transfers school ownership to the Ministry of Education after constructed and three years of successful school operation by the private NGOs. The Mayen Abun Elementary School has the option to enroll in this program. This would be the fifth school developed by BMISS successfully management under this program, with two BMSS primary schools already transferred to public ownership, an operating boy’s secondary school scheduled to be transferred in 2024, and an operating girl’s secondary school scheduled for transfer in 2025.

See the Building Minds for South Sudan website for further details:

Visit BMISS.org

The development of human capital—the knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate over their lives—is perhaps the primary driver of economic growth and poverty reduction in underdeveloped countries. Greater human capital leads to higher earnings for people, higher income for countries, and stronger cohesion in societies. According to the World Bank’s Human Capital lndex, sub-Sahara African countries have the lowest Human Capital Index scores in the world, and the primary driver of this crisis is the scarcity of education.

The population of sub-Saharan Africa is projected to double by 2050. Indeed, more than half of global population growth between now and 2050 is expected to occur in Africa. This means that many African countries, with already underperforming school systems, risk the near-future specter of an overwhelmingly illiterate population.

The combination of extreme poverty, the world's lowest literacy rates, and the world's highest population growth make the sponsorship of sustainable new schools in Africa the most critical humanitarian campaign in the world today.