After Conflict, South Sudanese Women Regroup to Spur Development

By Okech Francis

When the country reached an agreement to end crisis in 2018, it provided conducive environment for people to begin reworking the developments which had been block by insecurity.

The pact was agreed to stop the fighting which had begun in 2013. Opposition parties who agreed to it formed a government of national unity that has held peace and created security to allow people like 78 year old Susana Akiyo to return from refuge to her home in Magwi County in Eastern Equatoria.

Akiyo returned home last year after 3 years living as a refugee in neighboring Uganda where as she described, life was “very difficult.”

Back home, Akiyo sought the audience of fellow women and along with them, under the group ‘Women for Peace’ they shoulder each other in combatting issues which arise as they rebuild their livelihoods.

The group provides a village loan and saving project, counselling to members and also help each other in other livelihood programs like agriculture production.

Due to the “very difficult” situation in Uganda, Akiyo, and four grandchildren under her protection trekked to Magwi from Palabek in neighboring Uganda where she sought refuge.

“When I reached home, I got my relatives who gave me posho and beans and helped me to begin afresh,” Akiyo told The Dawn in Magwi.

“I was then asked by this group to join them, I registered and also they availed me with loans to help me,” she said.

“I use it for farming and then for treating the children and I pay back later.”

Akiyo embarked on agriculture and has also ensured the children return to the classroom.

“I plant maize, beans and there is completely no hunger in my family,” she said.

“I work on the farm daily and when my children come home from school, they join me on weekends.”

Women are considered globally to be the engine that quickly drives development of a nation.

China put this into practice from when it was still a poor nation and it has reaped benefits for the nation’s women folks. The founding leader of the People’s Republic of China Mao Zedong’s had a famous phrase; “Chinese women hold up half of the sky.” That phrase symbolizes an official commitment to gender equality dating back several decades.

Women have enrolled into groups and cooperatives which have quickly elevated their economic standards. According to Wiley Online  right from the early 1980s, when China was among one of the poorest countries in the world, its achievements in female human development outcome indicators and gender equality surpassed those in many middle-income countries-successes largely attributable to strong government commitments to promoting gender equality. 

But the women themselves were committed they succeeded along their male counterparts, and through hard work and unity, Chinese women have risen up on the economic front with many female billionaires in the country.

The ‘Women for Peace’ in Magwi has brought together over 30 enterprising women including people returning from refuge as well as those who were displaced internally.

Joska Aryemo is also a returnee from Uganda who faced difficulties in re-establishing herself back home until when she joined the group.

“When this group saw me so stranded, working for small wages in people’s gardens, they called me. They started giving me advice, reassuring me that I am able to push on and should not give up in life,” Aryemo told The Dawn from Magwi.

“They advised me very well. Now they are also helping me with loans for business. I borrow the money, use it for business and return the loan after getting my profit,” she said.

“Right now there are a lot of changes in my life and I feel strengthened again.”