19 September 2006 — (Nairobi) — The governor of Jonglei state has urged the youth living abroad to return home and benefit from the available scholarships in the state so that they help in the reconstruction process there.

Speaking to citizen of Jonglei state living in Nairobi on Thursday, Mr. Philip thon said Jonglei state can not benefit from skills acquired by the youth living abroad unless they return home.

[Thon Leek:] “Your brain is needed by your people and if you don’t want to give it then you are the enemies of your own people. Don’t sit and blame saying it is the Governor failing, go and experience the difficulties. You come home. This is where you get the opportunities. We want to develop our youth and women and we have given apriority to them to go for training if they come and work when we see you are there when we get scholarship we will give you.”

The Governor said the state government is planning to open 1 hundred and 60 primary schools in the state. He added that the state is expecting to get about 1 thousand scholarships from European countries for the people of Jonglei.

Mr. Leek called on the UNHCR to hurry with the repatriation exercise so that people can return home and help in development.

Meanwhile parents from Jonglei state in Nairobi have expressed fear of returning to Jonglei state due to lack of better educational facilities for their children.

Speaking to Sudan Radio Service on Thursday, a community elder Reat Chany said the Jonglei state government must ensure that Kiswahili language is included in the state syllabus, besides building better schools so that learning of children returning from east Africa is not interrupted.

Mr. Chany urged the state government to also look into insecurity problem in the state so that people returning to Jonglei do not come back to the living abroad due to insecurity.

[Reat Chany:]  “You have mentioned the repatriation (referring to the governor) how many elementary, intermediate and clinics ready built for children who only know Kiswahili and English but don’t know Arabic and if we go home were have you put “Jalaba” in Bor, are they still there or they have gone?”

Mr. Chany advised the state authorities especially the Ministry of Education in the state to construct primary and secondary schools in all the counties to ensure that all the children go school.