Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng Celebrate First year of Sudanese School
The Guardian reports on the first year of the school in Sudan founded by Dave Eggers and Valentino Achak Deng, funded by the money raised by Dave’s book What is the What, which tells the story of Valentino’s life in Sudan and after as one of the so-called ‘Lost Boys’.
In this photograph by Greg Larson the first 85 students are pictured outside the secondary school — one of only a tiny number in a country where only 3% of people receive any secondary education at all.
In the words of Valentino: “Everything is possible, and its just the determination and faith people put into it. I know we didn’t have bulldozers, or big carriers, or even professional teachers at the time, but we could not wait and wait and wait until someone else came in and decided there was a school here. No. We needed to build it for ourselves.”