Unity state: Women crush stones to fight poverty

By Bonifacio Taban Kuich

May 10, 2013 (BENTIU) – Women and children in South Sudan’s Unity state have resorted to crushing gravel to fight the threat of hunger in the oil-rich region.

In a series of interviews with Sudan Tribune, women and children as young as 10, narrated how their daily lives depended on stones to not only earn a living, but also to meet education costs.

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 [is what] 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 addition to our daily consumption”, said Bol.

The young boy, who has been crushing gravel for the past one-and-a-half years, said he was forced into the business after his school’s administration started demanding fees his mother could not afford.

Unity state has been severely hit by hunger due to heavy floods that affected some areas, and the situation has worsened after the closure of the border between Sudan and South Sudan.

Nyatuay Gatluak, 25 said she decided to collect gravel 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 says, helps cover travel costs when she returns to the village.

Following the introduction of tough austerity measures, initiated in the wake of last year’s oil shut down, South Sudan’s economy has verged on collapse, a leaked World Bank report revealed.

Forty-year-old single mum Elizabeth Nyawuok Gai says her life has been extremely difficult since South Sudan gained independence in July 2011 and raising her seven children alone has not been an easy task.

“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.

According to Gai, each woman makes about 10 South Sudanese pounds (about $3) a day, which they use to feed their children when they return home.

(ST)