Tanya’s

Times
Serving in South Sudan with Wycliffe Canada

Opportunities Abound Spring 2023

As I write this long-overdue newsletter, I’m in the middle of sorting out some flights for
various meetings, trainings and conferences on three different continents. And this is Prayer
after making trips to the Netherlands and Washington DC in January and February from
Points
my temporary base in Calgary… and then moving my base back to my home in South
Sudan. So after a few years of reducing my carbon footprint, it seems this year is making • Praise for all the
up for lost time… and I’m not sure how I feel about that yet! great
opportunities that
The good thing is that it means opportunities for connecting with people and we’ve had in SIL
over the past
organizations is abounding! God has been opening doors and connecting resources, both
months!
human and financial, with language communities who He wants to see flourishing as they
use their languages for education, literacy and other opportunities for physical, mental • Praise for safe
and relatively
and spiritual growth. My big challenge is to balance all the opportunities and open doors uneventful travels
and figure out which ones should be a priority, which ones can be delegated (and to over the past
whom!) and which opportunities can be left for another time or another place. months.

• Pray for wisdom

Opportunities from the Netherlands for how to
respond to all the
opportunities and
My trip to the Netherlands in January was hosted by Prescience Labs, a wing of Wycliffe to balance my
Canada, who are designing a project to fund several literacy and education programs many work roles
and studies.
around the world. I was invited to join other Literacy & Education consultants from
different parts of the world to give input into the overall project design. Not only was it a • For the difficult
great time to talk about Literacy & Education all day, every day, but I also got to enjoy economic and
political situation
snacking on fresh stroop-waffles, pannekoek and croquetten, and I had a chance to bike in South Sudan
through the rain, hail and wind with some good friends who had recently moved back to and Sudan.
the Netherlands from South Sudan. We are continuing to work with the Lab to connect
them with the best possible language communities so they can continue more detailed
implementation plans. It’s encouraging to see that funders are looking at how they can
contribute not only to the Bible Translation work that’s being done, but also to programs
that will help to ensure language communities have the necessary skills to read and
engage with the Scriptures.
Opportunities from DC…
In February, before flying back to South Sudan, I also had the wonderful opportunity to represent SIL at the
Comparative and International Education Society Annual Conference, held this year in Washington DC. The theme of
the Conference was “Improving Education for a More Equitable World” - a theme that SIL can really get behind! I spent
a week connecting with academics and practitioners, listening to and discussing the hows and whys of the role of
education and literacy in opening opportunities for even the most disadvantaged learners in all corners of the globe.
There is increasing interest from scholars and international organizations on the role that language plays in giving
access to quality education, both for children and adults. While overwhelming at times due to the sheer number of
presentations and delegates at the conference (there were about 3,500 of us!), I was able to advocate for the work
that SIL does with Indigenous language speakers and also contribute to the conversations based on my experience on
the ground and the learning that I’ve done up to this point in my own study program. While in DC, I was also invited to
the offices of the Gates Foundation to a pre-conference meeting to discuss the question of “what works” for
foundational literacy and numeracy programs in sub-Saharan Africa. What an amazing opportunity and privilege it was
to be able to share what we know in SIL and to try to speak on behalf of the language communities that we work with,
to influence the thinking around the funding and programs of these global organizations and institutions.
On a more personal level, at the conference, I was also able to connect in-person with my Doctoral program
Supervisors, a few of my fellow students and other friends that I’ve made along the way at OISE! Having some time to
take in some of the tourist sites in DC, including the Library of Congress, the Capitol Building, the Smithsonians and the
Mall was also really interesting, and fun to see all those places that you see in the movies and on TV. I admit I was
surprised to see that there actually ARE fleets of black Suburbans roaming the DC streets!

… and South Sudan

Even though I was keeping up with my role as Literacy &
Education Coordinator for SIL in South Sudan via email,
WhatsApp and Zoom while I was in Canada and places
beyond, it was good to get back to working in person in
March. I’ve been working with the Lopit community to
develop an easy reading book that includes three short
stories for every letter of their alphabet. I’ve also worked
with the *M team on the development of several books on
a range of topics, including traditional songs, counting and
basic numeracy, mental health and how to construct toilets
and washing facilities for those in their community who are
living with physical disabilities. Some of these titles are
“Paused”
translations of materials that have been made available by
Mission Assist, an organization in the UK that provides
information and illustrations which can be adapted and
translated, especially targeted for adult learners.
I’ve also had the privilege to take part in a workshop that
was hosted by the Ministry of General Education and
Instruction (MoGEI), and facilitated by the Curriculum
Foundation which brought together MoGEI staff, professors
from the Education department at the University of Juba
and other teacher training institutions in the country, as
well as other International NGOs who are engaged in
teacher education. We got together to discuss a new
National Teacher Education policy. Not only did I get to
meet with old and new friends, but I got a front row seat
to policy development processes in this country—an area
that is becoming a focus of my doctoral studies.
I’ve also been working with some SIL colleagues in our SIL
Africa Learning & Development office to put together a
proposal to work with MoGEI on some Early Childhood
Development (Kindergarden) books in five languages, as
well as negotiating and discussing with MoGEI and the
Global Partnership for Education (GPE) a project to
develop P2 & P3 (Grade 2 and Grade 3) Language Arts
textbooks in those same five languages. In between that,
I’ve been attending meetings with other stakeholders in
the education sector here, including UNICEF and the
World Bank, to advocate for the benefits of using
children’s own languages as a foundation for learning.
There’s really never a dull moment and a wealth of
opportunities to take advantage of here in South Sudan.
 Contact Me!

Wycliffe Opportunities to build capacities

4316 10th St. NE
Calgary, AB My colleague, Phodunze Martin and I worked together to plan and facilitate a
T2K 6K3 workshop for three language communities that have recently begun language
development and Bible Translation projects with SIL in South Sudan. We had
PO Box 628200 members of the Bongo, Jur ‘Beli and
Orlando, FL Lopit language communities together
32862-8200
for 3 full days. We talked together
about reading theory and what it
takes to teach someone to read,
Home Address: about the government policies
151 Valley Ridge Green NW relating to South Sudanese languages
Calgary, AB in both formal and non-formal
T3B 5L6 education, looked at different ways to develop literacy and education materials,
and how to make use of existing resources and strengths in those different
+1(403)970-1625
communities to plan for and implement literacy programs. We also included
tanya_spronk@sil.org
our new South Sudanese Literacy & Education Department Intern and a new
trspronk@gmail.com Wycliffe Member from Europe who is going to help part time in our
department. So they got a good overview of how SIL approaches the work with
www.wycliffe.ca the language communities and how the language communities can plan for
www.sil.org their future activities.
Even though the room was hot (it was 40*C every day, with no A/C in the
Conference Room!), everyone was so actively engaged and asked for even
SIL South Sudan now has more days of training! Our time together seemed to spark some creative ideas
its own website! in them and helped them to see the importance of planning for literacy
https://southsudan.sil.org/ activities within their communities. I’m excited to see how these newly trained
folks will take the opportunity to put some of their ideas into practice.

Future Opportunities
It seems that I’ll be spending a few more hours on airplanes in the coming few months! I’ve been invited
to some more face to face meetings with SIL’s Global Literacy & Education team… this time in Thailand!
I’m excited to see a completely new place and spend some time with other Coordinators from around the
world to share creative ideas, discuss issues of training and mentorship, and think about opportunities for
resourcing SIL’s literacy & education work in the future. I’ll go directly from Thailand to Uganda, where I’ll
be facilitating the Literacy course at the iDelta training program for 8 weeks. I’m looking forward to seeing
our students again, who are coming back for their 3rd and final year in this cohort. Somewhere in between
all of that, I’ll be trying to focus on my literature review for my doctoral research proposal and for two
book chapters that I’m working on—one about writing system testing and the second about language
policy development in South Sudan! I’m also in conversation with my immediate supervisor to re-shuffle
my job description to delegate more tasks to some of colleagues in South Sudan…. which will hopefully
allow me more time to engage with all of these incredible opportunities that God has put before me! I am
so thankful for your continued prayers and support—none of this would be possible without your faithful
interest and on-going contributions. Peace, Tanya
I got to take a trip to the Netherlands to meet with other SIL
Literacy & Education Consultants from around the world. I
promise, we did sit together for many hours to discuss and
brainstorm and think about “what works” for mother tongue
literacy… I just didn’t get any photos of that! I also got to
visit with some friends from South Sudan who have recently
moved back to Rotterdam, where they led me on some crazy
bike rides through the wind, rain and even hail!
Next stop was the CIES Conference in Washington DC.
Pictures of conferences would be boring for you, but it
was great to catch up with fellow scholars and colleagues.
I also got a chance to take in some of the tourist sites,
including the MLK Monument, the outside of the White
House, and the inside of the Library of Congress.

I got back to Juba in

March. We are enjoying
an increasing number of
women working in SIL
South Sudan, so
celebrated with lunch
together one day. I also
borrow my neighbour’s
cat once in a while for
some feline company.
 SIL South Sudan had a party to celebrate the
finishing of three of our Bible translation and
literacy projects! We sang and danced and prayed
and ate together with church and community
leaders from the language projects that are soon to
finish their New Testament translations.

We also had a lot of visitors from our SIL Regional Offices, as well as visit
from SIL’s Executive Director. Some of our visitors came to help us with
Strategic Planning, while others came to learn about our context and
encourage us in the work God has called us to.

And of course there

have been workshops!
Below are some of our
participants in the
Intro to Literacy
workshop that we
facilitated for our new
projects that are
starting up!