By Esther Aurelio Agira Lohutuhureng
Women continue to suffer even during seasons of peace as we are in transitional period, I am quite sure that many people in Juba city have seen women breaking stones or making aggregates in different places within Juba city. Nevertheless, they are working with their kids, which is so bad instead of sending their children to school, they work together.
Those children are not in school, which means they are likely to repeat the cycle of poverty. Because education is the key for success and without it it’s difficult to guarantee bright future. Besides without proper education it is very hard to get a better paid job. Therefore, they end up on cheap labor force. Every child has the right to basic needs but not in this country. In this country many children work instead of going to school.
Those women are doing works that are supposed to be for masculine gender, but due to the situation they are in, they are left with no choice. In the past women were only suppose to do indoor activities such as ran the household and take care of children. While men were supposed to do outdoor activities such as hunting, fishing, and farming among others. But now things had change, where by women have to work harder like men to provide for the family which is okay, but to the extent of during pregnancy this is unacceptable action. I have seen pregnant woman who was about six to seven months loading aggregate onto the trucks which pains me a lot. This pregnant woman is likely to experience miscarriage due to heavy weight that she cries throughout the pregnancy.
In addition, during pregnancy some women experience a lot of changes like, morning sickness including vomiting, heartburn and the list is long. However, some men don’t seem to understand what pregnant women had to go through during pregnancy? Otherwise, they wouldn’t allow their women to do heavy work during pregnancy. Nevertheless, few married men do go with their wives for the antenatal care, antenatal care is very important throughout pregnancy for the health of mother as well as fetus.
When a buyer comes to sell aggregates from those women, he/she has to give some amount of five thousand per truck to one of Juba City Council officer. For reasons known only by JCC officers. But the fact remains that, those women contribute to the economy of this country in one way or another. If we were to count the number of tracks that loads aggregate per day, are more than ten trips. This is to say that they earn fifty thousand South Sudanese Pounds from those women per day. However, they should give those women safety guidelines for them to follow; such as they should put on mask when making aggregate to prevent themselves from inhaling dust. They should wear glasses to prevent injury to the eye; which is likely to occur during braking stone. They shouldn’t work with children no matter what. Rather than just collecting money without concerning about the wellbeing of those women.
Women go through a lot to put food on the table. This is the fact nobody would argue about. For sure resources are curse, otherwise, South Sudanese would have been enjoying its natural resources such as oil, gold among others but instead her citizens are experiencing hunger, diseases, and lack of proper education.
Generally speaking, South Sudanese women deserve a better life; deserve to love and to be loved, deserve to enjoy life like other women across the world. Because they had suffered enough, from war, hunger, trauma for the lost of the loved ones.
For all married men in South Sudan, it is very important to provide for your family, even if it is small, it matters a lot. In some cases, is not because the husband doesn’t have in order to provide for the family. On the contrary, some married men have money more than enough, but they spend on mysteries (the other woman) or on alcohol with friends. Nevertheless, some even abandoned their home and stayed in hotels for some good years, without knowing whether their children have something to eat or no, whether they are in school or no. such kind of peoples their conscious are dead. We have many of them in South Sudan they are not ashamed of themselves. You can say that their hearts are made out of stone.
Our leaders speak a lot on various media channels about peace, development and love but never showed us one of them. They should put their words in action; by helping those women especially widows to enroll their kids in schools and this can be only done through free education for all children regardless of their tribes or religion. Not only have that but also better health care for all. I’m not a medical personal though but I have observed that many residents in Juba County are suffering from malaria and typhoid which is not something new especially during rainy season, and to make matter worst there is no clear plan from the health sector to fight those disease not even tiny move like distributing mosquito nets to venerable residents. Together we can make South Sudan a better place.
The author can be reached via Tel: 0921492857; Email: Esther090119@gmail.com