In Pictures

Educating girls in South Sudan

Meet the girls who must overcome conflict, hunger, stigma and sexual abuse just to go to school.

Girls Education in South Sudan/Please Do Not Use — Fourteen-year-old Jessica is cared for and receives an education with approximately 50 other vulnerable girls at a shelter in Juba. Since the conflict began in 2013, it is estimated that there are more than 10,000 separated, unaccompanied or missing children. Girls in South Sudan are increasingly vulnerable to abuse and early marriage, with many living in poverty and without parents. According to the founder of the shelter, sex work is normalised among young girls, who make less than a dollar per customer. Her goal is to teach girls that “the body, it’s the one that stays” and to teach them alternative ways of generating an income. [Sara Hylton/Al Jazeera]

Unity State, South Sudan – Fierce fighting in her village in Unity State, kept 18-year-old Susan away from her school in Juba for more than a year. But even those girls who are able to attend often have to travel for hours to reach school.

And each day presents a new challenge: watching their friends drop out or get married off. Then there is the hunger. Amijong Garang, aged 14, describes the way it makes her feel. “My head is paining and sometimes I vomit,” she says.

The United Nations estimates that 2.3 million people have been displaced in South Sudan since December 2013. Forty-seven percent of those are school-aged children. Nearly one in three schools has been closed, destroyed or turned into barracks.

Girls in South Sudan are doubly vulnerable, with many being forced into early marriage and susceptible to sexual abuse and exploitation. An adolescent girl in South Sudan is three times more likely to die in childbirth than to complete primary school.

But despite these barriers, girls such as Susan and Amijong continue to chase their dreams – seeking an education and fighting for their futures in one of the world’s most volatile countries.