Letting Girls be Girls in Kuron

LETTING GIRLS BE GIRLS IN KURON

Loge (15), Nakeno (12), and Anna (20) are Bonga girls benefitting from an initiative of the Stromme Foundation and the Holy Trinity Peace Village in Kuron. The trio is gaining valuable skills and confidence to voice their hopes for a future they can chose.

MAF transported members of the Stromme Foundation to Kuron where they provided empowerment training for young girls in challenging situations.

At Holy Trinity Peace Village Kuron, the Bonga girls gathered on a mat to talk to the Stromme Foundation team about some of the challenges they face. The informal education initiative targets girls between the ages of 13 and 19. They come together once or twice a week under the guidance of an older girl, a so-called “animator”, to talk about the issues affecting them as teenagers.

The group is a safe space to develop self-esteem and confidence, and to gain skills that will help them in their lives.

Some have received education, but not all have had the chance. The informal setting acknowledges that for Toposa girls much of their life is still lived outside the classroom. At a time in their life when most young girls are attending youth groups and preparing for exams, girls in rural South Sudan are preparing for marriage and motherhood.

Story by Jill Vine

Photos by Ide Gooden

The word Bonga literally means “let’s talk”. What they talk about varies, from managing periods to family planning, to life skills and managing a home. It isn’t a radical agenda to challenge the traditional values that anchor this community – pushing new ideas onto impressionable teenagers. Everything they learn, from bead jewellery-making to farming and baking, equips the girls to make a greater contribution in their family setting. Their voices will get louder as their confidence, value and potential are revealed.

CHALLENGING STIGMA AND WINNING OVER PARENTS

Earlier, fifteen-year-old Loge had been among the teenagers who gathered at Kuron Airstrip to greet the visitors from the plane. Each girl was beautifully adorned with traditional beaded costumes as they sang and danced, welcoming their guests.

Loge had been part of the Bonga girls for a year. She participated in the meeting arranged by the Stromme Foundation to hear feedback about the group. With the help of a translator, the teenager shared what being part of the Bonga girls group meant to her.

“I joined the Bonga girls in 2021 and am happy to be part of Bonga. My favourite thing about

the Bonga programme is the teaching on hygiene,” Loge explained. “I am thankful that we have some sanitary pads that have never been used before. This has helped us to be clean. Also, we have learned to make them and can sell what we make at the market. I have also learnt about cooking, farming and beadmaking through the group.”

Loge’s parents have been supportive and are happy that she’s part of the group. But she said in the wider community, not everyone was happy about the programme. “There are some negative attitudes toward the group from some of the older people who say that it encourages prostitution. In the Toposa culture girls don’t go out on their own. People also fear that a programme like this can lead to girls misbehaving,” she said.

Photo P.22: Community mem bers and the Bonga Girls gather to speak with the staff whom had just flown in.

Photo P 23: Communal benefi cary groups.

In a Bonga mobilisation carried out in February this year, the mobilisers reported facing exactly these issues. They encountered resistance from parents who were not willing to let their daughters receive a Bonga education. The parents were reluctant to engage with the Bonga animator to find out more. Despite the objections, the outreach was successful with 39 young girls and 29 boys invited to join the Bonga groups.

Loge encourages other girls to join the group. “What we are learning is helping us. I would say that the group has a bigger benefit for the future. You will get some skills that will help you for the future,” she said.

GAINING SKILLS AND GROWING IN CONFIDENCE

The delicious smell of freshly baked bread wafted across the area where the Bonga girls were seated. Twelve-year-old Nakeno was helping the facilitators to tip the bread onto the serving platter from the pan. It is not the only skill Nakeno has mastered participating in the Bonga programme. She’s also learnt how to garden and make mandazi, the fried donut

snack popular across East Africa that many people sell.

“My name is Nakeno Lomong and I am 12 years old,” she told Kuron Livelihoods Officer Okori Emmanuel. “I am a Toposa by tribe and a South Sudanese by nationality. I was born in a village called Gumariang, about a 30-minute walk from our Bonga Centre. I have four sisters and one brother in the family and my mother, Regina Lopem.

“I am now in the Bonga group. I am proud that I can do a lot of things very well. I am happy because I know many things that can make me self-confident and strong. I can stand alone when I grow up. I thank Peace Village for helping me develop. There are many other girls like me and I hope we can all have the chance to learn and develop like this. If not for Kuron Peace Village, where would we be?”

Nakeno told Okori how her family had struggled, “I lost my father when he died four years back. He was a good man who could help with food and other things to support the family. He was a very successful and a good man. He was called Lokeno Natyang. When he died, we really lost a lot of stability in the family.

“My mother is a hardworking woman but for a widow in Toposa Land it is not easy. After the unexpected death of my father, life became very hard. All the brothers of my father (my uncles) took everything away from my mother. Our family had nothing to survive with. We really suffered,” she said.

“When I joined the Bonga girls for the first time in 2020, I thought I could not manage what the others were doing. I was afraid of the others as they were strangers to me. I was shy around the other girls because they were unknown to me. Doing other things like baking bread, making mandasi was a problem, but now I can do all of them without any problem.”

Meeting other girls like her, has boosted Nakeno’s confidence. She has gone from being shy and fearful to being a confident girl who is keen to reach out to others. “I like helping others to be like me because I was also like them. What I don’t like is when other young girls are given to ’big’ men [as wives]. If I see that, I have to report it to the Bonga animator. We are informed that early marriage is bad for our health and welfare. Marriage is okay but not at so young an age and not to such old men.”

Nakeno’s mother is her inspiration and continual support. “My mother struggled as a great woman for her family and was finally able to join the Bonga team. My mother always escorts me to our Bonga Centre. She is also among the Bonga Support Team of Gumariang. Now I stay with the family of one of the teachers who works with St John Paul II nursery school. By living with a different family, I am learning a lot which I didn’t know before.”

Photo P.24: Just landed, and saying cheers with the little group of fans.

INSPIRE OTHERS

Twenty-year-old Anna Nadapal Meri has overcome many challenges in her life to become a Bonga animator.

She has first-hand experience facing the group of teenagers who gather twice weekly to learn life skills. She embodies many qualities, including fortitude and resilience, it takes to succeed, which makes her a great role model. Her own story is one of triumph over adversity, trying to find a place in a culture that often devalues and denies opportunities to women.

The youngest of nine children and the mother of two, Anna completed her primary education in 2019 despite having her studies interrupted by an early forced marriage instigated by her elder brothers. The teenage mother returned after each pregnancy and completed her primary education, determined to carry on her education, scoring 359 out of 500 marks in the final exam.

Anna gained valuable work experience when, soon after leaving school, she got a job with

a two-month contract distributing nutritional supplements to pregnant and nursing mothers for Andrea South Sudan, which led to an opportunity to become a Bonga animator in Napil.

In March 2020, Anna registered to continue her education at the newly opened St. Thomas, Secondary School in Kuron. At the same time, she also enrolled her two children in school and kept active. Covid temporarily prevented Anna from pursuing her studies. She remains resolute in her desire to complete her secondary education and maybe even go to university in the future.

Photo P.26: An Animator speak ing with the new arrivals.

Photo P.27: One of the Bonga girls.

LETTING GIRLS BE GIRLS

Teenagers continue to face very different prospects depending on where in the world they were born. For the Bonga girls of Kuron, the struggles of adulthood lie ahead. If they can come together, sharing what they know, others can be encouraged and equipped. New skills and new resources will help them face the future with hope.