Women's power:

She returned to the refugee camp to give back to society!

I was born in Kakuma, lost my father and mother (South Sudanese) when I was still young, managed to study in Nairobi, and then came back to the refugee camp to work and give back to my society. Here in Kakuma I joined Faithbook Mission as one of the editors and the only active female editor in the group. And I co-initiated the Pray and Play program where we help youth develop their sport talents. I focus especially on girls. They have so many restrictions here in the camp. My name is Sarah Nyandeng and I am 24 years of age. My mother came to the camp in 1991 to escape a great deal of hunger which struck South Sudan. Life was quite unbearable for her and those conditions certainly did not favour the growth of a family. She therefore escaped to Kakuma in the company of my aunt and left my father fighting a war that resulted from the communal scramble for the little resources mother nature had to offer. He later joined my mother in Kakuma in 1997 and went back to fighting the war in 1998 shortly after I was born. Settlement in the camp was not easy for my mother and aunt due to the ever-present insecurity threats from the local community and the scarcity of resources. My father passed away in 1998 leaving my mother to take care of my siblings and I single-handedly. After 11 years of staying in the camp, the UNHCR repatriated my mother and us back to South Sudan in 2002. I remember we were put in huge lorries in mass numbers without even considering the sick or the disabled. The journey back home was extremely long not to mention tiresome. The food supply also ran out on the way and some succumbed to hunger. Another challenge was crossing the Nile which had over flown. We had to use small boats which were overcrowded to cross the river. It was very scary. We fortunately reached our destination well and sound. Unfortunately my mother also passed away in 2003 leaving my siblings and I devastated. It was said she had developed a severe case of ulcers.My grandmother started taking care of us from then on. In 2008 my aunt who was in Nairobi requested me to go to Nairobi to study and I agreed and started my studies in 2011. I completed my studies in 2019 where I passed my end of secondary school with flying colours. I then came back to the camp to work and give back to my society through my skills and talent in writing. I joined a group of publishers known as Faithbook Mission as one of the editors and the only active female editor in the group. We publish and spread books and articles all over the camp libraries and churches to promote literacy. I also partook in and won a writing competition in the Eve Organisation For Women Development. This greatly advertised my works in writing and more people especially the youth started reading my books and poems through my website. I mainly write because I feel the need to cultivate and grow the reading culture in the camp especially among the girls. Now nobody will say that he or she cannot read due to scarcity of books. I want to act as an example to not only the girls but to also empower the women to participate in male dominated organisations here in the camp. I honestly feel that anyone with my set of skills would have done the same as an act of basic human decency. There was a time my colleague and I came across a group of children playing with a dirty ragged ball. I was fascinated by the excitement and joy the children had in playing. We gathered them and asked them to bring along their friends the following day for we would provide balls and a good net for them. They kept on coming and this prompted my colleagues and I to form the Pray and Play program where we basically grouped the youths in groups based on the churches they attended and they would compete against each other. We gather funds from donors and supporters to provide them with jerseys, balls,nets and basically the other materials they need. We have also come in contact with a group in Nairobi known as PAMIA which is a football academy. We want some of the groups here in our Pray and Play program to compete with the children there. This will open doors for them in terms of scholarships and also improving their talents as PAMIA will train some children in their academy. We greatly hope that some of our children from our program will take part in the children's world Cup this year. It greatly ignites me to be part of such a wonderful program and I cannot compare the feeling of fulfilment I have doing these things to anywhere else. I have faced a lot of challenges in these endeavors. It takes a great toll on my self-esteem when the women whom I am working so hard to empower are the same ones opposing me and telling me to stop 'joking around men' and to simply get married. Being the only active woman in this organisation and always working with men has led to some of my relatives and neighbours talking ill of me. I however try to rise above the hate and negativity and feel inspired every time I see girls and generally women from the camp achieving success in various forms such as scholarships and awards. Another challenge I have experienced is involving the girls in the Play and Pray Program. Girls have so many restrictions here in the camp. The few who are not as restricted have responsibilities elsewhere. This makes it very hard for me to engage the girls in the program. I hope this will improve in due time and I also write about it in my books. I have gotten a scholarship to Canada and will not let that stop me from participating in the program any longer. I hope to provide many more with the chance to achieve their dreams and ambitions through such programs in the future.