FROM THE ASHES OF WAR THE MOTHERS FRONTING THIS YEAR'S TRÓCAIRE LENTEN APPEAL AWUT AND AJAH WERE STRANGERS WHEN THEY LOST THEIR HOMES AND THEIR HUSBANDS TO SOUTH SUDAN'S BRUTAL WAR. TODAY, WITH TRÓCAIRE'S HELP, THESE BEST OF FRIENDS ARE WORKING TO REBUILD THEIR LIVES. BY DAVID O'HARE 42
In
December 2013 a civil war broke out in South Sudan between rival political factions. Almost 400,000 people were killed during the war. One in every three people in South Sudan – about 3.6 million people – fled their homes and remain displaced or living as refugees in neighbouring countries. Awut and Ajah are two women who present the very human face of this vast displacement, and their story is featured as part of this year's Trócaire Lenten Appeal 2021. The two women survived the war, but every day remains a battle. A battle to earn money. A battle to grow food. A battle to pay for their children's school. These remarkable women were strangers when they lost their homes and their husbands to South Sudan's brutal war. Today, they are the closest of friends. Far away from the villages they once called home, the two are working together to rebuild from the ashes of war. Awut still finds it hard to talk about the time she feared herself and her five children would die stranded in the dangerous
REALITY MARCH 2021
bushland, trying to flee the war. "The experience of fleeing was horrible," she says. "We suffered a lot in the bush with hunger and thirst. The children and I trekked for long days and nights without food or water. The children's feet were swollen. I forced the children to drink their own urine just so they wouldn't die of thirst." She was alone with her five children. She had no home. No money. No food. She arrived into the town of Malek scared, hungry and fearful. But in this very special place, she found what she thought she had lost forever: love, hope and the welcoming arms of strangers. "I arrived in Malek and told them I was fleeing the war," she says. "The people here welcomed us. They gave us food and some land." HUNGRY MONTHS It was March when Awut and her family arrived, a time of year known as 'the hungry months' when the last harvest is exhausted
but the new one yet to bear crops. People in Malek had little of their own, but what they had they shared with this widowed mother of five. "People had to feed on wild fruits," she remembers. "Then Trócaire came in and started providing help. This help changed our lives. The people gave my family land, and Trócaire gave us seeds. Now I plant my own crops. I am working hard and providing for my family. Trócaire also helped us begin a savings and loan group. Women in the village contribute money each month. It helps a lot." Awut found a new life in this welcoming community where people fleeing war and suffering are welcomed and supported. Soon, she had a chance to pass this love and support onto others. Ajah arrived into Malek after the war destroyed her village. She had eight children and a husband who was very ill. Awut knew this was her opportunity to support Ajah
