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South Sudan’s displaced women hold communities together

In displacement camps and across fractured rural communities, women are holding what remains together.

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A young Shilluk woman has her eyebrows dyed with black henna in a tent designated a 'women-friendly space' inside Malakal PoC camp. Women in the camp have few opportunities to escape the grim conditions, and they come to this space to relax, socialise and exchange information. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
By Ashley Hamer
Published On 20 Oct 2015

Malakal, South Sudan –More than 45,000 people shelter in Malakal “Protection of Civilians” (PoC) camp, which sprawls near the Nile River in South Sudan’s tortured Upper Nile State. The majority of PoC inhabitants – over 25,000 – are women and girls. They are protected by a barbed-wire fence, a muddy berm, and 1,500 United Nations peacekeepers.

Many families have been trapped inside the camp since December 2013, when South Sudan – the world’s youngest country – exploded into civil war. As fighting tore through Malakal, people ran to the nearby UN base, which opened its gates.

Now, 21 months of near-ceaseless fighting across the country has left tens of thousands of people dead, an estimated two million displaced, and four million facing starvation. In the displacement camps and across fractured rural communities, South Sudan’s women are the ones holding what remains together.

Living conditions in the Malakal PoC are congested, filthy and dangerous. The camp is a sweltering mass of tents and grey tarp shacks – many housing up to 10 people, crushed together across bare earth. When storms roll in, the site camp turns to putrid swamp: Communal latrines leak into walkways, and sewage floods people’s homes, festering for days. Water-borne diseases such as malaria abound.

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It is dangerous for people to leave the camp. Beyond the fence, Malakal, once a thriving Nile-side oil hub, is largely empty and destroyed. Currently, it’s occupied by government soldiers. Women who venture outside the UN gates do so mainly in search of food and firewood for cooking. But once outside, they risk harassment, abduction, rape and even death.

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Inside the camp, women do almost everything. “[Women] are the ones protecting the family … but services are mostly structured for adult men,” said Masumi Yamashina, a gender-based violence specialist for UNICEF.

“If the women are distressed and stop taking care of the family, there would be no more life-saving in this country.”

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'We come to this women-friendly space because here we have some time to breathe,' said Abuan Odok, a mother of four. 'We can get away from the mud; we can talk to each other, share our problems, support our sisters, and for a while, we can forget our life in the camp.' [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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Of the 45,000 people sheltering in Malakal PoC, more than 25,000 are women and girls. They often care for their own children as well as children who are unaccompanied and were separated from their families during the conflict. Working-age men are conspicuously few inside the camp. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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UNICEF, which has its biggest gender-based violence (GBV) project in Malakal, supports training for women living in the PoC to spread awareness of GBV. It also offers resources on where to report violent incidents and how to seek medical help.[Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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A young girl leads a small group of children in song at the Sunday morning service in one of Malakal's mainly-Shilluk makeshift churches at the camp. Due to ongoing inter-ethnic tensions, the camp neighbourhoods are separated, with Dinka, Nuer and Shilluk communities occupying different sections. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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There is a steady stream of newly displaced people arriving at the PoC gates. They come fleeing violence and hunger. In a tiny clinic by the entry gates, Bakhita Ramjuok is in the middle of a painful labour with her first child. She is 20 years old and suffers from eclampsia. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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Young boys play in ditch-water. Living conditions are grim. For lack of space, families are often forced to live 10 people to one tent. When it rains, the site becomes a putrid swamp and a breeding ground for waterborne diseases like malaria, which infects and kills thousands. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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A small group of women in the Nuer section of the camp are learning to earn and manage their own money. Most cannot read or write, and most of these women's husbands are absent, leaving them to raise their families alone. They help each other to start small businesses in the camp – selling charcoal and chillies or baking bread. Group members also contribute to a 'social fund', from which money can be borrowed to pay for emergency expenses, like child medical treatment. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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Wanding Galuak is the group's secretary. She keeps a metal box containing the pool funds and account books. The box has three padlocks kept by three different group members to prevent theft. Galuak is raising four children alone in the camp. 'The man cannot control the money; he does not know the needs of his children. It is important for women to learn to earn and save their own money because only we can support our children,' she said. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]
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'Women do everything in South Sudan. They are the ones protecting the family … if the women are distressed and stop taking care of the family, there would be no more life-saving in this country,' said Masumi Yamashina, a gender-based violence specialist for UNICEF. [Ashley Hamer/Al Jazeera]