Building livelihoods and changing lives in South Sudan
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South Sudan was declared independent in July, 2011 and is the world’s youngest nation, with half of its population living below the international poverty life. Even though women account for over 60% of the population in South Sudan, conflicts, discrimination, negative social and cultural norms undermine their economic empowerment.
With support from UN Women Anika Women Group in Yambio is building rural women income generation and livelihood skills as a way of strengthening their recovery and resilience. Through this support, Anika has increased its women direct beneficiaries from 15 to 45 by additional 30 more beneficiaries and provided them with skills in tailoring and embroidery and management of the honey value chains. The additional 30 women in the group have contributed to Anika’s increased production and income base. For instance, through its tailoring programme, Anika has increased production of school uniforms supplied to African Development Trust, from 70 to 350, hence increasing incomes from $ 234.00 to $S1,167. Further, Anika has also managed to increase its production of bar soap from 10 to 30 per day and liquid soap from 20 liters to 60 liters in a day, from honey residues, thereby increasing daily sales from $67.00 to $234.00.
Through the UN Women support, Anika has also managed to buy land, which the group uses for beekeeping and honey production. The group has also increased the bee hives from 15 before the support to 30 currently. With this, they are anticipating to increase honey production by 50%. Narrates the deputy director of the organization, Rona Abel.
Adreza Faida, 36, is one of the Anika Women Group members benefiting from the UN Women funded programme. She narrates that before she joined the group in March this year, she was idle at home, and depended on her husband for the daily household supplies. This in most cases did not earn her respect from the husband. Through the skills gained from Anika, Adreza is able to make $67.00 per month from the sale of school uniforms. With this Adreza is able to pay school fees, medical bills and contribute to fending for her household. “I have earned a lot of respect from my husband. I can now participate in household decision making. My life has changed just in months. I thank God, and I thank UN Women for this great support”. She narrates with tears of joy on her face.
Since 2018, UN Women through its partner Change Agency Organization has been running a livelihood and GBV protection programme funded by the Government of Germany. The programme has reached out to 2,050 target population, 1,960 being women
For more information: Paulina Chiwangu; Email: [ Click to reveal ]