di Paola Moggi, CMS
Girls’ Education in South Sudan is still a challenge, and yet is considered the most effective way for breaking the vicious cycle of poverty. The country is blessed with many resources (vast oil fields, immense fertile land and abundance of water) but almost half of its about 11 million people live below the poverty line. The main reason for this tragedy is lack of competence in managing the wealth of this young nation, which came to life in 2011, after almost 50 years of the Sudan civil war.
The economy of looting, proper of any war, still persists and makes of South Sudan the second country in the Corruption Perceptions Index 2023 of Transparency International: only Somalia is more corrupt!
Could women make a difference?
Until now, only one girl in ten completes primary education, and girls comprise just a third of the secondary school population. Often they drop out because of early marriages or lack of school fees.
In the family, a girl is loaded with many house chores and has also to care for her younger sibling: while her brothers can study, she has to work. She is like a servant, often exploited and abused; but when she is married off she becomes the wealth for her family: the dowry can reach 200 cows and beyond!
Achuil was born near the town of Bor. She had just reached 12 years of age when the family decided to marry her off to a South Sudanese living in Australia but of the same Denka ethnic group.
The uncle’s intercession: a blessing
The fate of Achuil was decided, but her uncle, an army officer commissioned in Kajo Keji, near the border with Uganda, had seen many girls attending the Comboni Comprehensive College of Lomin. His mind was puzzled by this “alternative option”, and he managed to convince the family of Achuil to entrust the girl to him: he would pay for her studies. Without the help of her far-sighted uncle, an army officer who knew how of shoot well but not much how to read and write, Achuil would have ended up to be a wife among many others, since polygamy is still cherished by South Sudanese. But in 2008 she reached Lomin and was entrusted to the Comboni Missionary Sisters who were teaching in the Comboni Comprehensive College, a boarding school gathering students from all over Southern Sudan. Only during holidays would she stay with the family of her uncle. Achuil became a brilliant student, and after the first year her school fees were paid by the Dunstan Scholaship administered locally by Lily Grace Akumu, a Comboni Sister. After finishing secondary school, some relations helped Achuil to continue study in Kenya, where she became a certified accountant.
Her uncle died before he could see the “marvellous outcome” of his vision, but Achuil took care of his only son and now she pays for his studies. A virtuous circle!
Presently she works as an accountant in an Oil Company in Juba, the Capital city of South Sudan, and she provides also for her own extended family in Bor.
Beyond the challenges of a post-war society
This is the little wonder of Achuil, prompted by her caring uncle. Indeed, the vicious circle of girls’ marginalization can be broken.
In 2016 the Comboni Comprehensive College had to close: the South Sudan civil war, which had started on December 15 2013 in Juba, by then had reached also Kajo Keji and people had to run for their lives to neighbouring Uganda. Only last year some started to come back and rebuild their houses.
However, there are many other “Achuil” in South Sudan: when given a chance, they study with great dedication and work with great responsibility.
Girls education can continue and can shine forth in many other boarding schools. Educated women do not squander their resources to get married to many husbands, like most South Sudanese men still do to show their wealth and prestige.
Moreover, educated Achuil can not longer be “married off”: now she provides for herself and has already refused many marriage proposals. She wants to choose her partner carefully, and this is an other little miracle she tries to perform to break the cycle of poverty in South Sudan.