Accelerating Action through Education

Flora is a learner in our Literacy Education and Gender Based Violence Programme in South Sudan. Her progress is an encouraging example of how the programme is helping to #AccelerateAction.

Flora says, “When I started, I didn’t know the abc in local dialect. I didn’t know there was a capital letter and small letter, and the difference. After this teaching, I can even read the Bible. I can read it slowly and now understand it.”

Facilitator Phoebe used the time to also teach about gender, relating to Bible studies. She taught them what gender is about, the rights that God has given them, and that men and women are created equal.

Flora came to a realisation through these lessons that women were working more than men, and because of this, there was a belief that men were superior to women. “Due to this, we lived with insults that resulted from this thinking. I realised this was also happening in my clan, and that there was a big difference between women and men. It made me want to visit them to share this learning about gender.”

Flora’s mother has six children – three daughters born first, and then three boys later. Due to the belief that men are more superior, and that the boys should have been born first, Flora’s parents divorced, with her father refusing to pay for the girls’ school fees.

“After all the teachings, I decided to call my sisters together, and to talk to my mother so we could talk to my father. We even did some fundraising to help solve these long-time problems. We even got the uncles involved. We finally managed to meet all together as a family,  and charges were paid to compensate for us being left by our father. We were officially welcomed home with a big party.”

The uncles on Flora’s mother’s side were angry that the father had left, especially as her mother struggled to survive and bring up six children alone. It was due to the father’s misbehaviour that they were recompensated. Flora wanted there to be peace and forgiveness, which was eventually given when everyone emptied themselves of the burden from the experience.

There are many stories like Flora’s that need to be resolved, with changes to the issues surrounding gender imbalance and the belief that women are inferior. By working through our Literacy and Gender Based Violence programmes, many more women are able to #AccelerateAction, for future generations to come.

To support more women like Flora, you can donate to our Literacy and other educational programmes here.