All in a Day’s Work

Survival mostly comes down to earning enough money to buy enough food to keep you from starving. That’s what many people are forced to do in South Sudan each and every day.

Road laborers
This is how it works: you get together with a friend of yours and borrow a shovel. Then you pick a particularly bad spot in one of the city roads. That’s the easy part, as most roads are in a deplorable condition. You throw one shovel full of dirt into one of the many potholes. And then you wait. As cars drive by, you put out your hands asking for a gratuity for “repairing” the roads. If you are lucky, you may come away with about 2 US dollars per day. That’s enough for two meals – for you and your friend. Just know that, next week, there will be another couple of kids at exactly same spot, throwing in one shovel of dirt… and waiting.

Truck loaders
Loading and unloading trucks is a decent job. But it’s back-breaking and filthy. Whenever a truck from Kenya or Uganda arrives at some warehouse, the boys come running. They start unloading for a few pennies an hour. They might be lucky and have a light load of boxes filled with plastic cups… or they might be unlucky and have to unload 50 pound (100 Kg) sacks of rice or cement. Either way the pay is the same. Each boy seldom earns enough to buy one decent meal for the day.

Car repairers
Some streets in Juba are choked with car repairers. It’s a good business, but repairmen can’t afford a warehouse or garage. High rents force many of them to occupy space alongside city roads. This means local traffic has to negotiate parked vehicles, tools laid out in the street, and discarded pieces of metal. These repair shops are immediately recognizable from the black ground that surrounds them: the result of spilled oil and grease that adds an extra pungent odor to the air.

Cigarette vendors
Men sit in small wooden shanty shacks selling cigarettes. They sell by the carton, by the box, or just one, if you ask. It is a passive way to earn money, but it relies on the fact that more and more people smoke. Because smoking distracts attention from the pangs of hunger. Cigarettes are expensive, but hungry people need to assuage the pains in their stomach somehow.

Corruption survivors
All of these street vendors are shaken down from time to time by the police. The same police who are supposed to protect the public, will confiscate their wares (food vendors, especially), and tell the poor vendors to visit the nearest city council office to pay a “tax”. When the vendors return, they find their supplies are diminished, or eaten. There is nothing they can do – except get out of the neighborhood as quickly as possible whenever the police show up. It’s just another survival technique.

One Man’s Success Story

This is the story of a young man who came to South Sudan in search of a new life. And found it.

High hopes
Tamale Godwin is soft-spoken. He came to South Sudan from Uganda in 2012 when he was 18. His sister had a friend in Juba who said there were opportunities here following independence. Godwin never attended college or technical school. When his mother died in 2007, his new responsibilities made it difficult for him even to finish High School. Godwin came to South Sudan looking for prospects… but what he found were hardships. For the first year, he worked as a laborer on construction jobs, making less than 1 US dollar per day. At times he felt treated like a slave, living in a tin shed with no water, no electricity and no latrine. He ate beans and stale chapatis for months on end.

Discovering a talent
By the end of that year, he’d managed to connect with his sister’s friend who ran a satellite TV appliance service. He showed Godwin how to adjust the signals for satellite televisions. Basically learning on the fly, and applying his strong spirit of initiative, Godwin quickly discovered he had a talent for this type of work. It wasn’t long before word was out he was one of the most reliable TV technicians on the market.

Building a business
He was building a sizeable clientele. Godwin began to dream, to save money, to plan and get organized. But there were other hurdles to overcome first: bureaucracy, bribes, unscrupulous business partners, people trying to cheat him out of his first meagre earnings. Still, Godwin’s business continued to expand as his clients realized he was someone they could trust. They knew they could let this hard-working and honest man into their homes, safely and without fear. Word of mouth is often the best form of advertising. Before long, Godwin was able to open his own store and set up a highly successful DishNet TV provider business.

Growing a business
Seven years later, this young man with only a High School education, is driving around in a luxury car. He justifies the choice saying that, when clients see him arrive like this (instead of on a motorcycle taxi), they show him greater respect and are more likely to refer him to others. There is another reason. Godwin simply likes cars. In fact, he has started another business: buying second-hand cars from Uganda and selling them at a profit in Juba. The paperwork and customs hassles are worth it, he says

Facing challenges
Right now, his main challenge is competition. There was a handful of TV satellite services in Juba when Godwin arrived. There are many more today. Godwin’s business-focused mind is looking at how he can move into more innovative fields of satellite services, and maintain his edge on the competition. After all these years, Goodwin still lives in a modest shack, although in a safer neighborhood. He has an Ugandan fiancé and they want to get married. His mantra is to save and save, spending only on what he needs. Sometimes, he says, even he finds it hard to understand how he’s managed to come this far. But he has. And he’s an example to young entrepreneurs everywhere

One Woman’s Success Story

The story of South Sudan is often the inspirational story of strong, energetic, hard-working women. Here is one of them.

Jackie the linguist
Bako Jackline (Jackie to her friends) makes a good first impression. She comes across as a confident, no-nonsense, self-made woman. Which is exactly what she is. She speaks good English, as well as Launguado, Lubara, and basic KiSwahili. After moving to South Sudan, she taught herself Zande and Arabic. Six languages. And she graduated from High School only.

Starting out
Jackie was born in Arua, Uganda. In 2012, she married a Zande man and moved to Yambio, in South Sudan. Her husband was unemployed and money was short, so she decided to branch out into the market business. Jackie had no prior experience and starting out proved to be an immense struggle. With very little start-up cash, she purchased her first foodstuffs through credit from other marketers. Her lack of experience at buying and selling meant she was often cheated with rotten or bad produce. She was a total newcomer and struggled to build up a customer base. Added to that, she was considered a foreigner, and local government tax collectors gave her a hard time.

Turning the corner
But Jackie is a woman who meets challenges head on. It didn’t take her long to learn the tricks of the trade. Soon she was paying back her loans, and even managing to put some money aside. She started buying in larger and larger quantities, which allowed her profit margins to increase. Today, Jackie is recognized as one of the most respected and knowledgeable women in the market.

From markets to midwives
Jackie is also a woman who doesn’t rest on her laurels. With her market business thriving, she wanted to branch out and help others. So she enrolled in a course for midwives at the local hospital. Without neglecting her business, of course. Jackie brought her niece from Uganda to mind the market stall while she was studying. While attending classes from Monday through Friday, she still rushed back to the market every evening, just to make sure everything was alright. Jackie has a dream: one day she wants to open a clinic of her own. Meanwhile, Jackie’s sharp business sense has landed her a contract with the local Christian Brothers. She is a food purchasing agent for their HIV-AIDS support program in Yambio.

Save, plan, persevere
Jackie’s advice to other women seeking financial independence and professional satisfaction can be summed up in three words: save, plan, and persevere. She admits that too often it’s the women of South Sudan who support the family and hold it together. And many of them suffer as a result. Still, they don’t give up easily, or at all. Because they are strong, energetic, hard-working… and inspirational.

Women Working for Women

Women who are alone, abandoned or abused, find hope and help with a self-sustained organization which is run by other women.

Questions we don’t want to ask
How degrading is it to know you are considered less valuable than a cow? How frustrating is it to be prevented from completing your basic education? How desperate to be a widowed mother or an abandoned wife? How horrifying is it to be married off to an old man the moment you reach puberty? Or to be raped by combatants, or abused as a slave or a concubine – or worse?

Actions as answers
Emelia Yabang wasn’t afraid to ask these questions. She also knew that the answers are not to be found in pious words and good intentions. She saw the need, and took action. She founded a women’s group called ANIKA which, in the local Pazande language, means “We can do it”. Emelia had no outside funding, and found little support in government-run women’s support networks. So she brought together a group of like-minded and similarly-motivated women… and they began.

“We can do it”
The group makes handicrafts, soaps, shampoos, lotions, and other small items. They also sell biscuits and peanuts. ANIKA’s biggest source of income right now is making and selling women’s clothing. They purchase beautiful colored cloth from Congo or Uganda and create custom-made outfits for the local women in Yambio. The ANIKA offices are two rented rooms in a concrete stall on the east side of Yambio town. The walls are decorated with various posters advertising a series of workshops which the women have attended. All of them are volunteers. The only office furniture consists of two small desks. There are no computers. But there are stories…

One story
One of the stories is about a lady with seven children. Her first husband left her after the birth of child number four. She remarried and her second husband died. But only after she had given birth to three more children. She was left a widow – with no income, no job, no resources, and seven mouths to feed, excluding her own. She shared her experience at a Gender Based Violence Workshop, and the entire audience was moved to tears. ANIKA enrolled her in their program and set her up in a small business that earns her, at best, around 25 US dollars per month, allowing her and her family to survive. That’s only one story. But there are many more like it.

A Sea of Faith

Attending a Sunday liturgy in South Sudan is a faith-filled experience that engages all five senses. But you have to be ready to immerse yourself in the movement and the moment.

Sight, sound, and smell
If you’re allergic to the smell of incense, you may have trouble attending Mass in South Sudan. Because there’s a lot of it. There’s also a lot of singing: the deep voices of the men echoing off the walls, and the very active and energized choirs singing almost every response. There are drums and cymbals too. As the priest enters with an entourage of altar servers and a deacon or two, the church appears like a sea of color, with the women all dressed up in their printed saris and dresses and wraps. Every now and then (and especially during the elevation of the Host), they break into spontaneous ululations – those high-pitched trilling sounds that express grief or, in this case, joy.

Like the ocean
That maritime image is intensified by the sight of so many people in the congregation with their eyes closed, palms upward, swaying to the music as they pray in loud voices, totally immersed in the moment. Whenever the choir begins a rather upbeat hymn, the entire church appears to erupt in movement as everyone claps to the rhythm. Truly it seems as though the waves of the ocean are flowing back and forth.

Keeping the faith
These are the same people who have seen and experienced… just about everything. They have witnessed injustice and discrimination. They have endured corruption and incompetence. They have been the victims of countless atrocities. Their hopes for peace and unity in the world’s newest country have been shattered time and again. Most of them work hard all week long and get paid a pittance. Yet, here they are: keeping their faith despite all the pressures around them. It must be a strong faith. Easily as strong as the ocean. The ocean most of them will never see.