One year after the Government of Southern Sudan launched its “Go to School Initiative”, enrollment has increased to over 850,000 and more then one third of all students are girls. During Sudan’s civil war, only 1 percent of girls completed primary schools but girls like Suku Jane Simon, 16 (center) are beginning to change that –she will graduate from secondary school next year.

Through a local chapter of Girls’ Education Movement (GEM), Suku also hosts a weekly call-in show at Southern Sudan Radio. “I advise all children, girls and boys – to go to school,” she says in the microphone. “Education is the key. When I see a girl who does not go to school, I say to her, ‘My sister, let us go to school, for you are poor in mind.’” Suku loves this work and hopes to become a journalist.  

Madinah is 25, and an agricultural extension worker. She believes that slash and burn, forest clearance and over-grazing were carried out in the past because of people’s ignorance of the consequences. Now, she says, they are forced into selling wood and charcoal through poverty.

Women suffer particularly from the effects of desertification, she says, taking on extra responsibilities as the men in the family migrate for work. However, women today have more choice over their marriage partner or the right to continue their education. At the same time, reduced income has generally meant that people marry later. When asked if this is why she remains unmarried at 25, she laughs and says “no - it’s just me!”