Emmy Award winning journalist Tamara Banks traveled to South Sudan in January for a three-month assignment, returning in April. The Denver-based freelance correspondent worked in Bor, just north of the capital, Juba. This was Bank’s eighth trip to what is now the world’s newest country. 

South Sudan is located in Central Africa, and is about the size of Texas. It is one of the poorest country in the world, has 27 percent literacy rate. It is so underdeveloped that it has only about 35 miles of paved road. Its economy is driven by oil exports. South Sudan declared independence from the rest of Sudan on July 9, 2011. It was considered a huge success. But its first few years as a sovereign nation have been fraught with challenges.

On this trip Banks was also a trainer, working for a Denver-based organization called Project Education South Sudan. PESS was founded by Carol and Richard Rinehart and several Lost Boys of Sudan 10 years ago. In Bank’s 2011 trip to South Sudan she followed a former Lost Boy of Sudan – who had been brought to Denver as a refugee — back to his home village.

After 10 years in the United States, Daniel Majok Gai decided to move back to South Sudan permanently to help his country and become the South Sudan Director for PESS. In this most recent trip to South Sudan Banks worked with Gai to implement an HIV/AIDS awareness and youth leadership program for primary, secondary and college-age students. The model is a Peace Corps model in which young people are trained not only on the content but also how to train others.

In the second half of the program PESS bought six sewing machines for the schools and community in which they worked. The sewing machines are a tool to make clothes, specifically, reusable washable sanitary pads. They also serve as a mechanism to empower girls and women to earn a living. 

While most of the almost 50 students were from Bor, which was nearly destroyed in December of 2013 during an attempted coup, some of the college students were from other parts of South Sudan. Two South Sudanese with medical expertise joined Banks and Gai in training not only to help with the science lessons but to also help take the program nationwide. Banks and Gai interacted with a county commissioner and university leadership, but it was her interactions with the youth and young adults about what would be sensitive topics for any young person around the world that dominate her memories and blog posts at Journey of Hope 2015. Following are excerpts.

Teacher Training
As we went through the manual (the same one we will use with the students over the next few weeks) the teachers really got animated and excited about the discussion around the cause, origin and spread of HIV and AIDS. We are fortunate to have joining our team David Majur and Rebecca Ding Mau. Both are professionals in the healthcare world here in South Sudan and were able to back up Daniel, me and the manual with more detailed science about HIV and AIDS. For example, the lack of circumcisions here in South Sudan is a real issue, as David Majur explained. The virus and other sexually transmitted diseases can be trapped in the foreskin and spread from partner to partner. We also discussed how IV drug abuse can transmit the virus. This week Daniel and I are now prepping for the students training which will begin this week.

Role Playing Leads to Deeper Understanding
Just like most of us, the students in the HIV/AIDS Youth Leadership Awareness and Feminine Hygiene Program pick up complex information when the theories are illustrated in an exercise. One of the exercises that was not only the most effective but also a lot of fun was the one in which some students acted as adult elephants, one played a baby elephant and another acted as a lion. The adult elephants, like healthy cells, protect the immune system, portrayed by a baby elephant, from antigens, portrayed as a lion, like malaria, the flu, typhoid, etc. The last character was the role of HIV. If HIV attacks the cells (the adult elephants) the immune system is vulnerable, thus becoming sick, not from HIV but from whatever antigen is attacking the body. Sound confusing? It was a little, but the young people got the idea and had a great time fighting off the lion, rather the antigen! 

Then it was on to discussing AIDS and T cells. Things got very interesting when we moved on to transmission and prevention of HIV/AIDS. The students’ eyes just about fell out of their heads when we told them we were going to demonstrate how to use a condom. I think they thought we were going to demonstrate how to use a condom! Fortunately for all of us, a clinic nearby lent us a “model.” The students acted maturely, for the most part, aside from giggles and funny faces from time to time. Although these young people, again, ages 13 to 20, have seen more in their young lives than most adults in America will ever see, they are still in many ways naive.

Many had never heard of a condom let alone seen or held one. Each student got to open a package containing a condom as we explained how it is used. We lightened up the conversation by having them blow up the condoms like balloons and then decorate the classroom with them. Soon the energy and room felt like we were decorating for prom!

One of the exercises in which we began to see a real shift in how girls realized their own power is when we asked the girls to explain a female’s menses to the boys. It was exciting to see the girls becoming more comfortable with talking and actually leading the discussion. The students were divided into small groups of about four or five, and we could hardly get them to stop talking when the session had run well past the allotted time!

 

Graduation Day!
The last weekend of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Youth Leadership and Feminine Hygiene Management Program was filled with high energy! The students were even excited about taking a biology quiz! Understanding T-cells, knowing the exact names and pronunciation of the parts of the reproductive system, and understanding the difference between HIV and AIDS can be a bit of a challenge for anyone. But the students in PESS’ HIV/AIDS Awareness program are getting it!

And they want to talk about it, even brag to their classmates who are not in the program. Some of the students, for example, are taking biology in school right now. Paulino Ngong Alier and Gideon Mach puffed out their chests when they told us how they are ahead of the other students in their biology class discussing HIV/AIDS at Langbaar Modern Academy. PESS wants the young students to walk away with at least some basic knowledge about how to stay healthy. And they are! They are armed with knowledge and confidence and they’re ready to pass on their knowledge to their peers, family and community. 

Controlled Chaos!
Feet pedaling. Hands dashing. Fabric flying. The PESS Sanitary Pad Production Sewing Program is off to a great start! To say the women and girls are excited about the program would be an understatement.

PESS purchased six brand new sewing machines which will be distributed between Sunlight Primary School, Langbaar Modern Academy, John Garang University and the town of Pagook (one of the villages where PESS first began building schools 10 years ago) once the sewing program is complete.

The Sanitary Pad Production Program is the second phase of the current mission here in Bor, Jonglei state, South Sudan. The first phase was the HIV/AIDS Awareness and Menstrual Hygiene Management Program. Many girls here in South Sudan, if they are allowed to go to school at all, miss several days of class a month because of their menses. Sanitary pads can be expensive and in cases some girls can’t make it to the market to purchase them because they live in the bush (the country).

PESS is committed to making sure girls get an education and providing them with the skill of sewing sanitary pads is part of that goal. Joining the team for the month every Saturday is Athiang Alier, a tailor. Thank goodness we are not relying on my sewing skills here. I staple my hems. No, seriously!

The program is so popular and the women and girls want to spend more time learning to sew so we are adding Friday afternoon to the schedule. It was like Christmas morning when the women and girls from Sunlight Primary, Langbaar Modern Academy, John Garang University and the town of Pagook arrived on the first day of sewing class. Their eyes lit up! Very few know how to sew but that didn’t stop them from jumping in and giving it a try.

In the U.S. we are lucky to have electric powered sewing machines that can do a lot of the work for us. But in South Sudan the tailors use foot-operated machines. Oh, and by the way, it’s about 100 degrees in the classroom! But the women and girls would have stayed until midnight if we’d let them.

These young women and girls have big plans for their future. For example, Kuie Achiek Anyang, senior 4 (senior year) at Langaar Modern Academy and PESS-sponsored girl is grateful for the sponsorship. She plans on continuing her education and becoming a doctor, “Because in our community there are not many doctors. I will be a doctor to support the children of South Sudan.”

Tradition vs. Human Right 

It was a very busy week as the PESS team in Bor, Jonglei, South Sudan doubled up their work.

After a lot of persistence and maneuvering we were able to schedule John Garang Memorial University of Science and Technology, JGMUST to do the theory portion of the HIV/AIDS Awareness Program. University teachers have been on strike which has hampered our planning and the students are scattered. But thanks to Daniel’s determination we finally were able to make it work by holding night classes during the week for them.

I thought since these students from the university are older than our primary pupils they would be significantly more aware and informed about HIV/AIDS, the reproductive system, etc. Not necessarily so. It was eye opening, for me at least, to see that just because the students are older didn’t mean they knew more about this deadly virus and the importance of understanding, I mean truly understanding, the reproductive system. However, these students are critical thinkers and had a lot of high level questions about the science of HIV/AIDS. 

But what really surprised me, although it makes sense, is that the older students are more steeped in tradition. For example, when discussing human rights I asked the class, “What is a Human Right?” And, “Do men and women have different rights?” One of the brightest students in the class, Morial Akoon Chok shot up his arm and shouted out the answer at the same time. “Yes!” He proudly replied.

Really? How so? “Well, girls don’t have the right to inherit property or express their dissatisfaction about sex in their marriage.”

Oh. Alrighty then.

And it’s a man’s right to have multiple wives but a woman does not have the same right (and she shouldn’t have that right… inferred in the tone of discussion.) It occurred to me we were talking about two different things: cultural tradition and human rights.

Eventually, we did finally agree that there is a difference between cultural tradition and human rights. That every human being has the right to an education, to live safe from harm and not be oppressed (even if she is a woman).

Which was a nice segue into the topic of stigma and discrimination. Again, a lively discussion. And what do stigma and discrimination have to do with HIV/AIDS awareness? If people are worried about being stigmatized and discriminated against they are less likely to get tested to the virus and worse, less likely to talk about it… even when sharing their knowledge.

Putting It All Together

This past week it was time to put practice to the test. The women and girls were thrilled to finally sew their first ever reusable sanitary pads! They finally saw the practice drills we’d been running through make sense.

Langbaar Modern Academy continues to be our host for the PESS Pad Production Sewing Program. The classroom we typically use is transformed in to a sewing room for the pupils with stations set up in each corner: One area to learn how to apply the snaps with the snap tool, another area to get comfortable using sharp heavy fabric scissors and cut fabric (our ‘practice’ fabric before we cut in to the expensive material brought from the U.S.). And the sewing machines in the middle whirring away!

As frustrated as they once were the women and girls are now elated to finally start putting it all together! They finally finished their first pads and are proud of their work!

At the end of training on Saturday… one sewing student from Pagook, Ayen Gai, stood up and gave a five-minute speech (without notes) about how grateful she is for the pad production program. “We no longer have to feel ashamed when we ride a bota bota (motorcycles used for public transportation). I don’t have to throw way our underwear. I will now just add to my collection!”

The sewing pad production has been so wildly popular we added an additional day to the program: Friday evenings. There are quite a few special moments in the midst of the sweaty determination.

Saturday morning a woman came to the classroom door. She had heard her daughter Elizabeth Awal Agot was going to be learning to sew. She just couldn’t believe what a great opportunity this was so she asked if she could come in and watch Elizabeth sew. Mom just beamed as she saw how well her daughter was doing. “I never had the chance to learn,” she told me as David Majur translated. “”This is the first time (for anyone) in our family to learn to sew!”

As Abuk Ayen Ayuen (not a sponsored girl but a fine candidate) exclaimed, “If you know how to sew you can buy your own machine and sew your own clothes. Or you can open your own business which is very good. As a woman your future will become as bright as the sun!”

Last Mango in Bor

The highlight of the week of course was the last few days of the sewing program. Frustrated frowns turned into bright smiles as the women and girls developed their sewing skills. The hum of sewing machines was accompanied by singing. The women and girls harmonized and sang songs of praise. It was magical to see and hear them sewing and singing music. Their songs of praise illustrated how happy they are to be learning a skill that will transform their lives.

Then it was time for our graduation ceremony. Each woman who completed the course received a certificate and a gift bag containing brand new sanitary pads sewn by women in the U.S. and other personal items.

After the testimonies and words of encouragement each school and the community of Pagook was given sewing machines, scissors and all the notions and tools they need to continue on their own. Christmas in the springtime! Hugs and even tears rounded out the day as the sun began to sink into the horizon and we said goodbye.

At least once a week I have a mango cosmopolitan, sans the cosmo part. And at the end of this last week in Bor I relished over my last Mango in Bor, which Ayen (Daniel’s sister who cooks for me) so generously prepared for my last night in Bor. As I reflected on the past three months I thought about the work my brother Daniel and our team have accomplished here in Bor. But more importantly, I thought about how impressed I am by the work and commitment of the South Sudanese people. The world’s newest country is still fraught with challenges and a power struggle for leadership continues. But one thing all can agree on: Black lives matter, including those in South Sudan. 

Editor’s Note: The excerpts were pulled from Tamara Banks blog by Angelia D. McGowan, managing editor of the Denver Urban Spectrum. To read Banks’ complete blog, Journey of Hope 2015, visit http://joh2015.blogspot.com.  To learn more about Project Education South Sudan visit http://www.projecteducationsudan.org. Banks will use footage from the trip in future journalistic projects.