“The future is for girls”
Her father insisted she cannot go to school but stay at home to help her mother. School is only for her three brothers. Despite the changing perceptions of sending girls to school in South Sudan, Nyanyok Thon, the youngest of four siblings and an only girl, is still faced with this challenge.
World Vision worked with women in South Sudan’s Melut County supporting children to go to school and promoting child rights. Nyanyok’s mother participates regularly in World Vision’s projects which help promote these rights and uphold the welfare of girls and women.
Nyanyok’s father was a soldier who died during the fighting in 2014. The family got displaced and lost everything they own but Nyanyok’s mother is a strong woman who rose to the challenge of raising her children singlehandedly.
Her mother, Achol Thong, has a different belief than her father that girls also deserve to be in school. Her belief was further strengthened by what she learned at meetings with World Vision at Dengthoma camps.
In 2015, Nyanyok enrolled in the school established by World Vision in the camp. She joined the increasing number of girls in Melut became aware of her rights as a girl especially in getting an education.
“My mother supports me and encourages me to read at night after supper. I share my dreams with her and she believes in me, more than my brothers do”, says Nyanyok who now believes education will lead her to more opportunities in the future.