A New Dawn for Girls in Ofiriha

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Anite SPO -CARE posting a photo with CVO's ED Jane Amal

While access to quality education for all is a basic human right, in South Sudan many children of school-going age are out of school. South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates[1] in the World, with the highest drop-out rates. An estimated 2.8 million[2] children are out of school and the highest proportion of out-of-school children are girls. Poverty, Child marriage, and cultural norms are some of the factors that hinder access to education. It’s estimated that half of South Sudanese girls get married before the age of 18.

17-year-old Sandra*, a mother of one is a testament to the impact of early marriage due to the lack of education opportunities in her community. “Having a school keeps girls busy and protects girls. The lack of school makes girls to get married early like me.” Says Sandra

Sandra is a resident of Ofiriha, located between Magwi County and Torit west County of Eastern Equatoria. Ofiriha is 35 miles from Torit town and has five villages divided by seasonal streams with a population of about 6000 inhabitants majorly the community depends on agriculture for their livelihoods.

For many years access to education for children in Ofiriha has been a big challenge due to the lack of learning facilities. “Parents who can afford to send their children, especially the boys to either Magwi or Torit and those whose children couldn’t remain out of school as a result girls would get married early,” says Jane Amal-Executive Director for Christian Vision organization.

The lack of access to education in the community and the increasing cases of early marriage worried community members, especially the women who reached out to CARE’s partner Christian Vision implementing livelihoods and economic empowerment activities in the community to act.

“In 2019, Christian Vision carried out an assessment in the community, during the discussion the women were concerned about their children especially the girls getting married at the age of 15 not only girls but the boys were not in school” explains Jane why they had to advocate for a school to be established.

Although Christian Vision didn’t have an education project this didn’t stop them from advocating for policy change, they reached out to partners in Education to support the community of Ofiriha and BRAC established a community school for girls which has allowed girls and boys to enroll. ‘Reopening of school has reduced free movements of children while at our garden farming, we are stress-free since children are protected from people who used to abduct them and now children are well protected at school. Says Anita Kaku a happy parent.

It’s a new dawn for Sandra who joined Accelerated Learning Program for adults in June this year she already has big dreams for the future. “I am happy that we now have school in the area, girls are being saved from a lot of domestic work like cooking, fetching water, firewood, caring for siblings’ elderly persons, grinding sorghum & digging; dating boys which ends up to early and force marriage”.

“I hope to become a doctor, and help my village, and the future mothers and the communities because the lack of doctors in Ofiriha primary health unit is affecting many mothers and children”.  Concludes Sandra.

As the community of Ofirica celebrates this big Win for the girls, more yet needs to be done- more villages need schools, access during the rain season is a challenge and the mobile network is not operational as explains Jane of the gaps “More schools need to reach the villages, with more funding we could reach more villages. Ofirica’s road and mobile network are bad, the health facility has Traditional Birth Attendants (TBA) supporting women in their homes however in case of emergency they can’t handle it. Organizations like BRAC depend on funding once their funding is over the school program ends that’s why I call on the government, the Ministry of Education to support Ofirica with Education program so that more children can benefit “          

 Christian Vision organization (CVO)is a women-led organization founded in 2018, operating in Eastern Equatoria State, implementing Livelihoods and economic empowerment activities targeting Women and girls. CVO is one of CARE’s multi-year partner organizations supported by the Women Voices and Leadership (WVL) project funded by Global Affairs Canada (GAC). CARE has been funding Christian Vision since 2020 through direct funding and institutional capacity building in areas of resource mobilization, leadership, and advocacy.

 

*- Name changed to protect identity

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