By Bonifacio Taban Kuich
May 10, 2013 (BENTIU) - Women and children in South Sudan's Unity state have resorted to crashing gravels to fight hunger threat in the oil-rich region.
In a series of interviews with Sudan Tribune, women and children as young as 10 years, narrated how their daily lives depended on stones to not only earn a living, but also meet school needs.
Ruei Tena Bol, a 13-year old boy from Kordapdap village says he is engaged in the activity in order to raise money to pay school fees.
“I have no money to pay school fees that forced me into street jobs; I'm only brought up by a single parent after the death of my father. My mother struggles to bring us up through making alcohol for money. And I'm digging gravels in order to pay my school fees and to use some money in additional to our daily consumption”, said Bol.
The young lad, who has been in the business for the last one and half years, said he was forced into it after the school administration started demanding for money his mother could hardly afford.
Unity state has been severely hit by hunger, due to heavy floods that affected some areas, and the situation worsened after the closer of the border between Sudan and South Sudan.
Nyatuay Gatluak, 25 said she decided to collect gravels to make money in order to raise money for her sick seven year old child.
“My coming here today was because of my small son who got sick and this forced me to join these groups of women in digging gravels. I'm not a resident of this town. I came from GoliGoli deep in the village to collect gravels in order to take him to the hospital," she said.
Part of the money, she said, would help transport her back to village”, she said.
With the current austerity measures, initiated in the wake of last year's oil shut down, South Sudan's economy almost reached the verge of collapse, a leaked World Bank revealed.
Elizabeth Nyawuok Gai, a 40-year old woman says life has been extremely hard since South Sudan gained independence in July 2011. For her, raising her seven children as a single mum, has not been an easy walk.
“We have a lot of challenges in common as women. You may find a woman raising up children without [her] husband, and this really makes us suffer as women in this nation. This is why we came here as groups of women collecting gravels," she said.
Each woman, Gai stressed, could get about SSP 10 (about $3) daily, which they use to feed their children when they return home.
(ST)