Empower 103 Households for their Livelihoods

Project Title:  Empower 103 households for their livelihoods

The vicious cycle of poverty and mental health; the social drift pathway. So, poverty leads to poorer mental health – and vice versa – leading, in turn, to reduced opportunities for economic development and increasing the risk of lifelong poverty. Hence the vicious cycle. This cycle affects not just adults, but adolescents and children too.

South Sudan faces one of the world's worst food security situations and endemic poverty with at least 80 percent of the population defined as income-poor and living on equivalent of less than US$1 per day (FAO 2018). South Sudan is the World’s first illiterate Country with the literacy rate at 27.0% (https://www.infoplease.com/world/country-statistics/lowest-literacy-rates).

Young females in South Sudan and Yambio in particular, remain severely marginalized with lower education levels and fewer opportunities for work as compared to their male peers. Rural women and girls of reproductive age (13-49 years) have few or no assets at all and survive on less than $1 per day.

Being a woman or poor in South Sudan makes an individual twice as likely to suffer from poor access to low-quality public and private services in both urban and rural areas. Vulnerable women and their children have no access to any of the five basic public services and no access to decent quality services. This lack of access leads them to poverty.

The communities of Yambio County of Western Equatoria State, South Sudan depend heavily on agriculture, yet they practice shifting cultivation using rudimentary tools for subsistent purposes. Mechanized agriculture is the way forward to increase production. With the present practice, it is highly doubted if the population will be able to cross the line of absolute poverty to an average living condition. Majority 80% of the population cannot afford 2 meals per day.

Most homes are headed by females and there is acute hunger and children are malnourished. The situation is even worsened by the effect of COVID-19.  CSD keeps educating the civic population on sustainable agriculture practices. Very sadly again, Yambio community needs to learn how to mitigate the effects of drastic climate change other than depending entirely on the insufficient seasonal rainfall. We have to double effort and resources for the welfare of the desperate communities of Yambio.

Single mothers have the desire to seek remedies to their poverty. Community Skills Development keep organizing and teaming the women into groups; a) Women Farmers b) Tailoring group.

Each group needs support and engagement in capacity building for self-empowerment.

The single mothers have their own stories to tell

Community Skills Development majorly supports impoverished women in Western Equatoria State. Women are at the fore front of our focused activities; to empower them, offer them chances to equal opportunities and representation. The total number of our target population is 17,000 Households in Western Equatoria state for various services. Community Skill Development provides women farmers with agricultural tools, seeds and extension services, feeding malnourished children, sponsoring orphans and offering women tailoring skills. When needy women hear about community skills development, they come to express their interest to join the groups and we admit the neediest and the poorest of the poor.

Now we have 90 single mothers who are supported to do farming; growing vegetables and keeping small ruminants for home consumption and market. We hope to expand on the activities.

When the women get into their groups, they begin to build and enjoy strong bond of social cohesion and mutual support. Jonina, one of the women farmers, says that she got some money to pay for medical treatment and made payments for her children. That it sometimes takes her and her kids months before they can have the chance to some kind of balance diet.

The step taken to empower 103 households of single mothers for their livelihoods is only possible because of the support of distinct persons who provided the funds. This time, we want to purchase vegetable seeds, ground nuts, maize seeds, goats, and chickens. The cost of empowering women farmers each farming season totals to US$ 12,000 however we do receive less than a thousand Dollars.

We remain grateful and thanking you very much.