Who SSSF Supports Today

The original students who are currently being provided educational opportunities by SSSF’s donors are exemplary of the type of students SSSF strives to support. They were selected due to their vulnerable situations, their high-level of achievement in school, and their desire to continue their education. These are their stories:

Rhoda

Rhoda, a thirteen year-old, was rescued out of the violence of a forced marriage. Her parents, both blind, had received assistance from a local businessman whose motives went beyond charity. He intended to marry Rhoda in return for his gifts. Luckily Rhoda was rescued before her suitor and an armed gang could take her against her will. SSSF has been able to remove her from this dangerous situation and to provide her the education she would have been deprived of had she been married off at such a young age.

Magdalena

Magdalena, a fifteen year-old, was a top student in her school, something that meant very little to her parents. She refused early marriage proposals every year since she was ten, while her parents ridiculed her for being ungrateful, and called her a prostitute. During her interview she called her life at home “unbearable.” Magdalena repeatedly refused marriage because it would destroy her dream of becoming a doctor. SSSF now helps Magdalena obtain the education that she values so highly.

Manasseh

Manasseh was the only student who outperformed Magdalena in their school. He is an orphan who saw his parents murdered during the Sudanese Civil War. This left Manasseh, not even in his teens at the time, to care of himself and his aging grandmother. He would awake at four in the morning to do the chores around his grandmother’s home so that he had some time to read before school. His nights were made even shorter by hunger-pains. In the morning Manasseh would walk an hour through the forest to school. He was the only boy in his school that simply did not have the energy to play soccer during their midday break. Due to the generous donations of SSSF benefactors Manasseh is now healthy and happily in pursuit of his education while his community cares for his grandmother, thrilled to see her grandson with an opportunity that she never dreamed would become a reality.