Book casts spotlight on one of the world’s poorest places
AFTER a lifelong, satisfying career as a primary teacher Padraig McKeon could have lazily stretched himself out on the easy chair of retirement.
Instead, after witnessing the conditions in which teachers worked during a number of holidays with his family to Africa, he decided to return there for a year to work as a volunteer.
In 2011, having retired the previous year as principal of Newport Primary School, Padraig applied for a placement with VSO (Voluntary Service Overseas) in Yambio, South Sudan. His application was successful and he was offered a role as education advisor, an offer he gladly accepted despite some initial wariness having read of conflict in Sudan over many years.
Padraig, a native of Louisburgh but now living in Castlebar with his family, has written a book about his experiences in Sudan; appropriately it is titled ‘From Mayo to Yambio’.
In it he explains how part of his job description was to help organise the training of teachers, inspectors and parent-teacher associations.
“After decades of neglect by the Khartoum government, the educational infrastructure in South Sudan was at ground zero. Schools had few resources, materials, textbooks were very scarce. There was little classroom furniture and many classes were taught under trees.
“But the locals were easy to get on with and appreciated our willingness to leave home and work to improve their lot. Gradually, with the cooperation of all involved, progress became evident,” he said.
Padraig writes that amongst all the poverty and illness in South Sudan there is ‘a wonderful atmosphere of life and fun’.
“It is easy,” he says, “to discern a sense of kinship, community and loyalty, with people quick to laugh and smile. There is the daily struggle for survival but there is grace and dignity in that struggle.”
Padraig’s appetite for volunteering wasn’t diminished in any way by his experiences in Sudan. Two years later, in 2014, he spent four months with the VSO in Mynamar, formerly Burma. And from March to June 2016, he worked in Uganda on a VSO teacher training programme.
What comes through most strongly in the book is Padraig's deep respect for the people who work for the poor in Yambio.
All profits from the sales of the book will be sent directly to them.
The chapters are a mixture of serious and humorous, with Padraig giving his personal insights into the lives of some of the poorest people in the world.
The book can be purchased for €20 at any of the following: Castle Bookshop, Castlebar; Duffy's Bookshop, Westport; Books at One, Louisburgh; and Tertulin Books, The Quay, Westport.