Impact stories

When I was an aid worker in southern Sudan in the 1990s, the fight for independence against Sudan had already been running for many years. It was Africa’s longest civil war

Walking into the CARE supported clinic in Pariang, I see a little girl with edema – her belly is swollen because she hasn’t got enough to eat.

Happy International Women’s Day. You are only 2 years old so it doesn’t mean so much to you now. I hope it will in the future, as it will for all women here in South Sudan.

South Sudan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates – yet with the proper investment and resources, we can make safe births a reality.

“We were drinking unclean water before CARE came. We feared our children would fall sick from drinking water from the river and the swamp,” Rebecca Utou told me when I met her in Rom, a small town north of Malakal on the Nile River.

“We stay in our tent every night because bad things happen at night here. It’s not safe,” says Josephine, who sits with her four children in a tent the size of a small closet.

The oldest of seven children, fifteen-year old Nyabel* is the de-facto leader of her family. Less than one year ago, she was in Form 4 (year 10) at her school in Bongki, and doing well in her studies, particularly in English and Arabic.

In the shower in the Malakal UN Protection of Civilians (PoC) site, as I dodged a swarm of mosquitoes, I realize how deeply angry I am at the situation in South Sudan.

“What did you think?”, I’m asked by Isaac Ibrahim, a CARE-employed nurse, as our truck pulls away from his workplace of Pariang Hospital.