Lost Boy Returns Home to Open Wau School

(WAU) – A school founded by a South Sudanese man and his American wife is providing education to 259 children in northwestern South Sudan, operating without outside funding since it opened its doors.

Atur Ci Raan Tok Cuet Nursery and Primary School in Wau was started by Ajang Tor Nhial and his wife Pennguan Awel Nhial. The school serves pupils from preschool through eighth grade, with students enrolled up to the age of 19. Tuition is set at 100 US Dollars for an entire year. A one time fee of 50 US Dollars covers a school uniform that includes a backpack, shoes, socks, a shirt and either a skirt or shorts.

The couple first visited South Sudan together in 2010, before the country gained independence from Sudan in 2011. During that visit they purchased three plots of land in Wau, each measuring about 5,400 square feet and costing about 20 US Dollars each. Two plots were set aside for the future school and one for their home.

Pennguan Awel Nhial, originally named April Lehman, is a 2006 graduate of Perham High School in Minnesota, United States. She earned an associate degree in early childhood education and paraprofessional training from M State in Wadena. She met her husband in 2008 while working at a Walmart store in Moorhead. Ajang Tor Nhial was one of the Lost Boys who fled war in Sudan, walking to Kenya where a refugee camp became his home. He later arrived in the United States through a programme run by Lutheran Social Services.

The couple married two years after they met. Pennguan Awel Nhial changed her full name to Dinka, her husband’s native language. She said she chose Pennguan, meaning April, to honour the name her family gave her, Awel in memory of her husband’s mother who died of breast cancer when he was an infant, and Nhial as the family surname.

In 2012, after saving money, they moved permanently to Wau. The town is home to upwards of 300,000 people and lacks reliable electricity and clean running water in homes. They moved into their unfinished house built of bricks, cement and aluminium sheeting, choosing to put all their resources into the school instead.

The preschool opened in 2018, with Pennguan Awel Nhial teaching children aged four to six. After completing official paperwork in late 2018 and preparing the grounds in 2019, the school expanded to include one preschool room and eight classrooms for pupils up to eighth grade. The full school opened in 2020 with 350 students enrolled, but was forced to close that same year when COVID-19 shut its doors for a full year. Classes resumed in 2021 and have continued since.

Enrolment has fallen from 350 to 259 students in the current year, which Pennguan Awel Nhial attributes to a struggling economy that makes tuition unaffordable for many families. She said seeing the lives of children improve through education, and the opportunities it brings for young adults to become more self sufficient, has been a dream come true. The couple have three children of their own, aged between five and 14, all of whom attend the school.

There is no official channel for donations, but Pennguan Awel Nhial invited anyone interested in supporting a student or the school to contact her through Facebook.