“The MT4 project is turning Southern Sudan upside right. We have been upside down for many years. The MT4 device empowers our people to have a hand in the success or failure of our nation. This community based, grassroots approach is the best we have known.” - Yei County Administrator, Southern Sudan
Southern Sudan MT4 Project II
Project Cost: $2.3 million
MT4 Kits: 2009: 10,000 with three content chips. 2010: 11,000 with three content chips.
Summary: MT4 Project II is a large scale up project to cover all ten states of Southern Sudan with training in three areas: health, democracy/reconciliation, and Biblical teaching.
Background: MT4 Project II is the follow-up to a successful pilot project implemented by the Evangelical Presbyterian Church (EPC), Stonegate Fellowship Church (Midland, TX), and T4 Global in the Central Equatorial State. 500 MT4 players with three content chips (Comprehensive Peace Agreement, HIV/AIDS, Spiritual) in the Bari language were distributed. Based on the success of the pilot, many are interested in seeing a large scale up to cover all of Southern Sudan, including the Government of Southern Sudan (GoSS), several international NGOs and several churches.
Southern Sudan remains one of the poorest, least resourced and least educated regions in the world. After 50 years of civil war, very little infrastructure remains: no schools, no paved roads, etc. Per capita income, literacy, and most health indicators are some of the lowest in the world. With the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) in 2005, the GoSS was established in a power sharing arrangement with the Government of Sudan in the north (Khartoum). The situation in Sudan remains volatile. Many milestones for the CPA have been missed or delayed causing growing concern that civil war could return. The vast majority in Southern Sudan are oral culture people with very limited access to information and formal training. T4 Global?s oral and experiential learning process (MT4 project) is custom made for Southern Sudan.
EPC has a network of hundreds of churches throughout the central region of Southern Sudan. Over the past four years, one hundred new churches have been started. EPC has close relationships with several other major church networks (Anglican, Pentecostal, Presbyterian, Church of Christ) that will join the larger project, providing complete coverage in all 10 Southern Sudan States.
Project Scope: Over 20,000 MT4 mobile schools will be needed to reach the six million+ adults in Southern Sudan. The original chip contents will be reworked and expanded to include five languages: Arabic, Thuongjang (Dinka), Nuer, Bari, and Shilluk. Given the volatility of the situation and the upcoming elections, GoSS is anxious to see this expanded project started. The GoSS sees the MT4 mobile school as a means of moving democracy forward and sustaining peace in Sudan. International NGOs see the MT4 mobile school as an ideal way to educate people about HIV/AIDS, malaria and other health issues. The Sudan church sees the MT4 mobile school as a means to address struggles in their churches and strengthen them.
Goals/Results:
- Develop effective training content that leads to changes in knowledge, attitude and practice in areas of health, peace and reconciliation, and Christian living;
- Elicit further community leader involvement and support for the project, including political, village and religious leaders from different denominations;
- Strengthen the local church and the unity of the church in Southern Sudan;
- Equip the church to be an instrument of peace and a helping hand to the poor and sick in a country ravaged by civil war.