Telling the ECSA Story

In the remote village of Gak Dong, nestled deep within Akobo County, a quiet battle unfolds each day against an invisible enemy: cholera. The cholera outbreak in South Sudan has escalated rapidly. As of 17 th March, there have been 40,231 cases with 694 confirmed deaths. The outbreak has affected 43 counties in nine states, with a significant impact on overcrowded Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps and Protection of Civilians (POC) sites in Juba, Rubkona, and northern regions of the country.  Khon Ajith, a mental psychosocial health worker with the Community Initiative for Development Organization (CIDO), CARE South Sudan’s partner, has seen firsthand the toll this outbreak has taken on families.   Community health workers in Gak Dong village in Akobo county attend to cholera-affected community members. CARE South Sudan “We receive anywhere from 15 to 50 patients daily,” Ajith explains. “Some patients recover and are discharged, but new ones arrive each day, often carri...

Marial and his with the CARE Medical Team 58-year-old Luba Marial was brought to Pariang hospital, in northern South Sudan sweating and with a fever, by family members after suffering years of pain, without apparent diagnosis. Little did he know at the time that he was in a life-or-death situation.   “It started 3 years ago as pain in the kidney.” he says, “I visited the hospital several times, but I didn’t get a cure. I was refereed from Hakima health Centre to Pariang with severe pain, I couldn’t eat nor drink, life was hard for me.”   Upon admission in Pariang referral hospital, Marial was found to have a severe tissue infection with intestinal obstruction that required urgent surgery. Marial’s condition is a rare but severe type of bacterial infection which can destroy the muscles, skin and underlying tissue and is very difficult to treat. It is a highly fatal condition with mortality rates of 30% and above. Most Patients present with septic shock and septicemia...

It’s a bright day in Koch, Gabriel Yatbouth-56 in white branded T-shirt, together with other members of the farmers group have gathered at the demonstration garden. This is the usual meeting place for the farmers group. Gabriel is married with 26 children and three wives. He is a businessman trading in a variety of items like sugar, sorghum, salt, and other items. Farming is a new skill that Gabriel and his group members have learnt. Koch, being a pastoral community, most of the people depend on keeping livestock for their livelihoods. Agriculture is done on a small scale. The area is however prone to flooding. Last year, the floods destroyed livelihoods causing displacements in flood affected communities aggravating the already dire humanitarian situation. To build community resilience in Koch, CARE and partners through the South Sudan Joint Response project, supported farmers like Gabriel with seeds and trained them on how to grow their own food to improve their food situation. “They...

Amach Elizabeth is a 28-year-old mother of two children; (4 months and 8 years old daughter) and a resident of Any Idi village in Bor.  Growing up with her siblings, Elizabeth says life was tranquil, since her parents were supportive, they endeavored to give them the opportunity to study in schools of their choice. However, during South Sudan conflict with the North, Elizabeth and her family were forced to flee their home in Bor in 2001 and they resettled in Yei IDP where she completed her senior four at St. Joseph’s Secondary School in 2014. All was well until Mary lost her parents and the support for her education ended since her relatives had limited resources to further her education. This led to Mary’s eventual dropping-out of school. “My real challenges started when I lost both of my parents and elder brother. My father died in 2011, elder brother in 2013 and mother in 2015.” explains teary Amach. Despite her challenges, Elizabeth progressed against odds. With support fr...

  Nyanyang with her daughter Nyanyang Marial is a 25 year old mother of two children. She used to reside in a PoC in Bentiu. In 2018, she returned to Koch when the country got some peace and she settled in Bhang village. Like many vulnerable community members, Nyanyang struggles to take care of her children and depends on her mother and brother for support. “I used to depend on my brother and mother. Both could provide me with financial support but the support couldn’t even sustain the children. It was not easy whenever my children fell sick. I could find it difficult to seek medical care beyond what the government is able to offer. We could only afford one meal in a day. I couldn’t even think of the luxury of clothes or nutritious meal,” she said. Nyanyang is physically challenged but that is not a barrier for her to work. Out of the little money she got as support, Nyayang joined a group of women to jointly start a business of buying and retailing of dry fish in Bhang durin...

T o many it’s just a box but for Nyamal and many other women in Koch and South Sudan, it holds the key to their economic success and empowerment. “ I feel really overjoyed to have benefited from the first cycle. This is unbelievable to have received 40,000 SSP worth 100 USD of my savings just in the first circle.” says a mesmerized 38-year-old Nyamal. This is a key milestone for Nyamal. With her proceeds, she was able to buy for herself and children a cow. Her success attracted two more women to join the savings group which filled the gap that was earlier created by the former group members of the first cycle. With the VSLA saving methodology introduced by CARE International, Nyamal is a testament to the change in lifestyle of participants. “If it hadn’t been for this savings group, I would have extravagantly squandered my dividends daily without putting it into proper use. When I bought the cow, this motivated my neighbors. They recently asked me to convince the other VSLA gro...

Awiel Jok in her shop Awiel Jok Mag ot, 27, is a mother of three children; aged 5, 3, and 2 years old sons. She runs a small-scale business in Hai Machuwar Market, in Bor County. Awiel dropped out of school in primary seven, and she decided to get married in 2015 due to peer influence. Unfortunately, her marriage life was short lived as she lost her husband last year. The lack of support from her in-law’s side forced Awiel to leave her matrimonial home and return to her parent’s house. Together with her children Awiel lives in her parent’s house with six other siblings. “I moved to my father’s house after my husband died due to long illness in 2020.” she says. With nowhere to run to, her father was the only hope. While at the parent’s house, Awiel got all the support she needed. First, she was introduced to a small business of selling chewing gum to generate some income, she started with just two packets of chewing gum. With the proceeds from the chewing gum, she bought powdered man...

Rhoda is a 32-year-old mother of four children. She stays in Rier village located in Koch County with her four children (2 boys and 2 girls) and her elderly husband in his 70’s and other relatives. Due to his advancing age, Rhoda’s husband is unable to cater for his family. As a result, Rhoda bears the burden of supporting the family solely. “I started my tea business with distress after failing to find answers to my family needs.” she said. “My children need clothes, school fees, food and other needs and my husband is now 70 and he hasn’t been able to feed the family for the last 10 years, it has always been me struggling.” Amidst difficulty of raising capital to start her tea business, Rhoda convinced the husband to let her sell off their only cow which he agreed to. In 2016 during the South Sudan crisis, Rhoda started her business with a capital of 25,000 SSP which she made from the cow sale. She used the money to buy utensils such as a kettle, cups, tables, sugar, and food for th...

On the anniversary of World Food Day which is observed every year on October 16 th , the world should celebrate resilient communities in South Sudan that continue to fight to survive amidst the impact of climate change, violence and displacement that disrupts livelihoods and the key driver for food insecurity.  Food is a basic human right which means everybody is entitled to enjoy the right to food however many can’t.   Across the globe, and South Sudan in particular hunger is one of the most significant causes of Malnutrition related death exacerbated every year due to the shortage of food as many vulnerable people can’t afford even a single square meal per day and women and children continue to bear the brunt. According to integrated phase classification (IPC)analysis released in October 2020 estimated 6.35 million people (52.6% of the population) to face Crisis (IPC Phase 3) or worse acute food insecurity, of whi ch 2.102 million people faced Emergency (IPC Phase 4) acu...

  Mary Athou, 45 “Agriculture is one of the ways to empower women at the grassroots level because it does not need one to write but dig with the skills they acquire from different organizations,”  says Mary Athou, 45. Her words may sound simple but are powerful and carry a lot of weight.   This words come from a place of disappointment due to gender inequality that is triggered by cultural norms. This gender inequality has for years deprived girls and women of their right to attain an education making women lag. The mother of five, who is the bread winner of her family, depends purely on agriculture as her source of income. Mary in her farm She recalls that during her childhood, growing up was not easy. “As a woman in my community, we had limited opportunities which made life quite challenging but am glad that a lot has changed today because Organizations like CARE are here, not only to provide help, but build resilience and make us self-reliant.” she says. Mary is a FEED...

Anneta Ayuru Aliga, 52 years old, is a widow, and mother of six children. Anneta takes care of her seven grandchildren in Mugali Payam located in Eastern Equatorial. Annetta was in the refugee camp in Uganda but returned to her village in 2009 and thereafter in 2010 lost her husband leaving her a huge responsibility of taking care of their grandchildren single handedly. “ The toughest time in my life was when my husband died, leaving me with seven orphaned grandchildren. My day starts with preparing breakfast, followed by fetching water, cooking, bathing the children then attend to my income generating activities like fetching firewood and burning charcoal, and during the dry season my main source of income is cutting grass for sale .” Annetta says as she explains her typical day. Anneta in her farm  Besides being a farmer, Anneta completed senior three and acquired skills in sewing table clothes and bed sheets from Juba and Gulu Uganda. Her skill set earned her a job as a Hygi...

*Names have been changed to ensure the safety of CARE staff and clients When South Sudan was celebrating its independence nine years ago, *Grace was months away from having her first child after an unexpected pregnancy that meant she had to leave her family home and get married to a boyfriend she had known at school. The marriage quickly became abusive, with Grace doing small jobs to provide for the family and pay for school fees and hide from her husband, a soldier, who would take the money to buy alcohol. “All the time you are in fear. All the time you are not happy and you have that in your mind and have to make money and then he will come and take it,” recalls Grace. In late 2013, just two years after independence, civil war broke out in South Sudan’s capital Juba and spread across the country. To date, the fighting has caused 2.25 million people to flee to refugee camps in neighboring countries and displaced 1.6 million people within the country. South Su...

International Women’s Day 2020 – REMARKS  Rosalind Crowther, CD, South Sudan 11/03/2020 Undersecretary of the Ministry of Gender, Honourable Angelina Teny, representatives of Government, Donors, Women-Peace&Security WG, UNWOMEN, GBVSub-Cluster, WLOs, and Civil society, Welcome and Thank you for the opportunity to speak on behalf of CARE International.  A Special Thank you to the Government of Canada for supporting this event. •Today we come together to mark International Women’s Day and seize the moment to advance gender equality in South Sudan. The international theme for this year is “I am generation equality: realizing women’s rights”. o Gender equality means creating a conducive environment for women & girls so that they can enjoy equal rights and opportunities, and o CARE is committed to putting women & girls Front and Centre of all our programming in SS. o Our mandate, ‘fighting Poverty, defending dignity’, compels us to promote gender equalit...

October 1, 2018 My name is Towongo Richard, I am 23 years old from Yei, South Sudan. I married my wife in 2016 and we are blessed with a baby girl, who is now 1-year old. We started our journey to refuge in October 2017 around 6:00pm on a Sunday due to the ongoing civil war and target killings in South Sudan. Soldiers were killing people in our village without discrimination. We went about 1-mile into the bush to avoid the soldiers from the main road. I was moving with my bicycle, however it got spoiled and I had to abandon it. My wife, being very pregnant, was only able to carry some flour for cooking. We reached a water point and decided to make some food. The water tasted bitter but we were thirsty and hungry and had no choice but to use it. At around 2:00am we reached the foot of Nyangliba mountain and decided to rest there for the night. Role Model Men and Boys in training. After a couple days, we reached the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) border. We entere...