* Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
Our “office” in Bentiu consists of nothing more than five desks. CARE occupies half a trailer and shares the tiny space with two other organizations, but others “camp” in here whenever there is an empty chair. Right now, we are 14 people with 13 chairs, supporting the operations of five organizations. The desks are standard small desks. The chairs are a mish-mash of broken office chairs, plastic chairs and a funky red faux leather and chrome chair that I love, but is very unstable. The red one is currently occupied by our nutrition program manager. I’m on the chair with the seat that falls off if you don’t balance on it correctly.
We are all currently based in the UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) site. The PoC site is meant to be protecting people who are fleeing from the terrible violence that has displaced over a million people in South Sudan and affected over five million people’s ability to get food. The POC sites around the country currently house over 100,000 people. We know that this is just one-tenth of the people affected. But we haven’t been able to regularly reach the others. Most people have moved to places where they feel safe, out of the way of warring parties to remote places where soldiers can’t harm them. Humanitarians find it difficult to help them – they live in marshy swampy areas along the rivers or deep in thick of 6 foot (2 meter) high elephant grass. Now that the fighting has calmed in some areas around Bentiu, people are finally able to come to seek assistance. And some are coming in terrible states, hardly able to walk.
Angelina, a single mother with two small children, had walked from morning to night to get to the PoC site in Bentiu. She and her children had been eating grass because that was all the food they had. Still, life in the PoC, where she hasd been for seven days with only minimal water and shelter and a small mat to sit on, is better. At least there is food for her children. Most days, the daily life in Bentiu is horrific and beyond imagination. A few days ago, CARE transported the bodies of three children who had died from malnutrition to a burial site. The CARE team in Bentiu is working seven days a week in some of the most difficult conditions I’ve experienced – the office is luxurious compared to the living conditions for our team, most of whom are displaced themselves in the PoC site. They work in knee deep mud, our local staff have floods in their homes when it rains, and there is very limited water available for drinking, cleaning, cooking. One staff member told me she was lucky if her family gets ten litres of water per day. We are providing health, nutrition and sanitation to people who have fled into the PoCs. Although they are tired, although they are affected by the violence and the terrible conditions themselves, the team is extremely motivated. They work hard, long hours.
They are amazing.
I’ve been here in Bentiu for three days and the team is telling me that we’re not doing enough. They want to do more and help more people. It is sometimes insecure outside of the PoC areas, but that’s where the people in real need are – that’s where the people who can’t walk to the PoC are. How can we help them? How can CARE overcome the security concerns and get to the villages – to encourage people to return to them? The team is challenging me to help them find innovate solutions to overwhelming problems.
In a small hut, I met five families living together. They had travelled far. The children were making cows from mud – true artists. Two of their siblings, a boy and a girl were lying on mats, suffering from moderate malnutrition. They are in a CARE program to help them to recover. When I asked the mothers if they would return to their villages, they said they would never return. They didn’t trust the soldiers. Their husbands were gone, probably either fighting or dead.
Last year, for the second anniversary of independence of South Sudan, I wrote a blog – my first ever. I said that South Sudan was “slipping and sliding from the initial euphoria of independence through the hard work of state building hopefully leading to a prosperous and peaceful state where everyone lives in dignity and security. Sometimes the country seems as though it is traveling down a muddy road, alternately slipping and sliding into conflict and insecurity and then just barely moving forward, taking all the strength of the leaders who have the vision to see the way forward.” It’s hard to see that vision today, as we approach the third anniversary. The mud seems too deep to stop the country from slipping and sliding backward; there don’t seem to be many South Sudanese who are living in dignity and security now.
But one of our team, an energetic, ambitious, articulate woman asked me if there would be anything to help people return to their homes and start their lives again. The CARE community mobiliser is single and all she wants to do is get an education. She works for CARE to help people, to learn, and, most of all, to earn money so she can go back to school. Her house was burned down in the fighting. Could we give her a tent once it got safe?, she asked. Just until she could re-build her house?
Meeting people like her gives me hope for the future of this country. There’s so much suffering, so many sad stories. And then there are people who are looking to the future. They are thinking about what they can do to get themselves on their feet and push forward. These are the people who will be on the front line of getting back to their homes and rebuilding this country. It is for her that I sleep in tents, walk through the mud to get to work, and work in the office until 10 pm. Because if I can do something that helps her get an education, then I can contribute to helping all of South Sudan. And maybe someday she will work in a safer environment – with a proper chair.
About CARE: Founded in 1945, CARE is a leading humanitarian organization fighting global poverty. CARE has more than six decades of experience helping people prepare for disasters, providing lifesaving assistance when a crisis hits, and helping communities recover after the emergency has passed. CARE places special focus on women and children, who are often disproportionately affected by disasters. To learn more, visit www.care-international.org. CARE has been operating in Southern Sudan since 1993, initially providing humanitarian relief to internally displaced people in Western Equatoria. The signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005 allowed CARE to expand into Jonglei and Upper Nile States to support returnees from the refugee camps, and the organization has since broadened its operations to include development programs. Find out more at www.careinternational.org.
