Against all odds: supporting women in S. Sudan
- By Winnie Byanyima
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E-mail China.org.cn, March 8, 2015
Oxfam staff first met Josephine* in Juba in April 2013, in a UN base where she had fled to seek protection and medical help. She was pregnant and had left her home in the countryside with one of her five children. However her plans to return were overtaken by war and her entire life turned upside down. Since then, she hasn't seen or spoken to her husband and has been separated from the three children she left behind. Josephine is one of the two million people now displaced by war in South Sudan. This week, she wanted to us to help her relay a message, this is what she said:
"In many wars, women and children are left behind. This is happening in South Sudan and I'm sure it is happening in other parts of the world too. I want to tell women in a situation similar to mine to have courage. Take heart and be strong because your family needs you. Take good care of your children because sooner or later, you will go home and continue protecting their future. Sooner or later, we will need all families to come together".
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How to feed her six children has been a constant worry for Martha Nyandit since fighting in South Sudan forced the family to flee their home. Even though she is nursing, Nyandit herself sometimes has only one meal a day. [Photo: Pablo Tosco/Oxfam] |
The theme for this year's International Women's Day is "Make It Happen". Josephine is an inspiring example of the challenges that many women in South Sudan are stoically facing and overcoming, against all odds. But they need so much more help.
Women in South Sudan are resilient, empowered change-makers: they are farmers, journalists, youth leaders, teachers, poets. They support each other, their families and their communities. In a country at war, women have become the backbone of their communities because so many men have been killed or are away fighting. The women have been left to take care of homes and families, the sick and wounded, to tend the crops and livestock, and make all the decisions. Women are the unsung heroines in South Sudan's turbulent history.
However, despite their resilience and strength, the levels of sexual and gender-based violence they are facing are severe, shocking, debilitating – and getting worse by the day.
Rape, sexual assault, harassment, domestic violence, forced marriage, and survival sex were persistent problems in South Sudan even before the war, exacerbated by high levels of gender inequality and a lack of justice for survivors. Since December 2013, when this phase of the conflict blew up, the violence against women has worsened because of mass displacement, and the presence of more men with guns and the impunity under which they are left free to act.
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