July 9, 2011 - Amsterdam

This is an historic day for South Sudan; it is the birth of the world’s newest nation, a nation forged through years of civil war with North Sudan which resulted in 2.5 million deaths and 3 million left homeless.

When the celebrations, which are expected to last the entire week, are over the South must focus on building their economy not just in the area of oil production but the other resources South Sudan has.  The oil regions are likely to be disputed with the North and many of us are fearful of what this will lead to.

Five members of CEDASS are presently traveling to South Sudan: Jeff Lang, Chairman; David Tennant, Executive Director; Ken Kalopsis, who will be investigating opening a child care centre; Stephen Bucciarelli, who will hopefully solve our bird problem through the use of falcons (last year birds consumed 60% of our crop); and last, but not least, Stu McCutcheon, who has been in Sudan since the beginning of June looking after the farm. Stu operates a large farm in the Thorndale, Ontario area and his expertise is proving to be invaluable. It is worth noting that all of the people in CEDASS are volunteers.

The planting of crops has gone well - we have 50 acres of soy beans; 50 acres of corn; and 16 acres of sorghum. If we are successful with the harvest and are able to control the birds we should be able to produce 150 metric tons of food. During this trip we will meet with the World Food Program, a United Nations agency, to discuss how the food will be handled.

We will also start training the local tribes on the care of machinery and will use our large cultivators to start planting vegetables. The land along the Nile (Jebel Lado is located 2km from the Nile) is very fertile and we believe vegetables will grow well. If it is successful, in addition to producing food for themselves, the people of the region will be able to sell the vegetables in the local markets thereby creating economic activity.

We face many challenges and nothing is easy in this part of the world however we are encouraged by the help we receive from Canadians, not only material help by messages of support and prayers. The challenges we face pale in comparison to those of this new nation; they have taken the first step along the road to nationhood but the road is a long one that will have many twists, turns and potholes. We will do our best to help.

Please check this page again soon for updates from South Sudan.

 

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