This article was last updated on May 25, 2022
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Women from the army, police, prison service, fire brigade joined by women farmers’ groups, businesswomen marched in freedom square in Bor to welcome the guest of honour Rebecca Nyandeng, the Presidential Advisor on Gender and Human Rights, who represented the president during the ceremony.
Nyandeng de Mabior urged the people to exercise women rights and equality at the local level.
The National Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare Agnes Kwaje Lasuba condemned payment of too much dowry especially in Jonglei.
She accused tribes who use girls as sources of income in their communities to avoid the practice of commercializing their girls to benefit in getting more wealth.
South Sudanese singers, including Mary Boyoy, from Murle tribe, Tarifa Pathay from Lou Nuer sang songs promoting unity between different tribes in South Sudan.
“Our fellow women are still suffering in the villages, fetching water for long distance,” said Nyandeng.
She called for women participation in all walks of life both in the state and national government.
“We the women, let us help our families by contributing to the family budget. If you don’t have anything [money] of your own, the husbands will be rough every time you ask them to give you more money to buy food. That is why they say what about that money I gave you, how did you finish it? We must not be receivers but producers of wealth,” she added.
She suggested that sending more girls to schools in the villages will help to reduce the gap of intellectuality between men and women in the new country, but denounced the current face of the villages’ schools as discouraging, calling up on the communities to rebuild the village schools with local materials in a nice way.
“Today’s school structures are discouraging, when children come to schools, they cannot see the differences between homes and the school. This makes some children to go back homes just to play,” she said.
She also encouraged the women to invest in agriculture as sources of income.
“Look me, I came from Juba to my farm, remove all the bangles and everything and cultivated for three months in my farm. I harvested over 1,000 bags which gave me about 400,000 Pounds; this is greater than my annual pay as the advisor to the president. If you do the same, you will be rich quickly,” she said.
The State Minister of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, Rachael Anok said that there is nothing wrong with pupils attending their classes even under trees in the state.
“I was taught in a grass-roof class, and now I am the minister”, she said.
The state governor, Kuol Manyang Juuk criticized the South Sudanese cultures that denied girls right to education, calling on parents to take both boys and girls to schools equally.
“During the war, the SPLA leaderships took all the boys to Ethiopia and Kenya to get better learning opportunities but girls remained with their mothers at home. Those who went to other places got good education,” he said.
He believed that men are the main cause of most domestic violence in the country.
Some men believe that beating women is the best way of disciplining them. Violence is not the best way of problem solving, but worsens the situation”, he said.
The national Gender, Child and Social Welfare Minister, Agnes Kwaje Lasuba urged the public to avoid gender related violence.
President Salva Kiir’s message assured the citizens that the government has not forgotten women in the conflict prone state.
The president asked for the abolition of cultures that encourage earlier marriages and urged for women empowerment by sending girls to schools to achieve the millennium development goals.
Meanwhile, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General in South Sudan and Head of UNMISS in statement said, “The full participation and empowerment of women in society is necessary if South Sudan is to achieve development and sustainable peace.”
Supporting the gender agenda of equality between women and men is a cross-cutting objective for the United Nations in South Sudan, where women and girls remain among the most vulnerable groups.
Life possibilities for women and girls in South Sudan remain constrained by social-cultural practices and laws that place women in a situation where maternity is the only social power open to them. According to last year’s Household Survey for South Sudan, less than one third of all South Sudanese aged 15 or older can read and write. The literacy rate among women is even lower – 19%.Although girls’ education has improved since the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in 2005, these figures show that much work lies ahead.
In South Sudan, girls continue to be marginalized and denied access to education, with only 37.1% of eligible girls enrolled in primary school and just 1.3% enrolled in secondary level education. SRSG Johnson has also noted that“child marriage remains a deterrent to education; it affects thousands of girls and young women, depriving them of the ability to achieve their full potential and to fully contribute to the building of this new nation”.
The United Nations continues to work closely with the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare and all relevant institutions to empower women, close the gender gap, and get more girls into schools.
“Girls and women that are educated are empowered are able to make informed decisions about their lives and the lives of their children,” according to UN Women Representative Ms. Izeduwa Derex- Briggs. The link between education and ending violence against women and girls is well documented, and Ms. Derex-Briggs has stressed that “if we educate the girls and women of South Sudan,we will equip half of the population to contribute to a society in which all–girls, boys, women and men—can enjoy a life of peace”.
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