DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-hero

image

Photographs by Adriane Ohanesian/IRC

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-title

International Rescue Committee

In Her Words: South Sudan's Lilian Dawa

DEBUG: core/paragraph

All eyes are on Ukraine right now, but the refugee crisis isn't limited to the Eastern European country. Our #VBGIVESBACK partner, International Rescue Committee, is currently in more than 40 countries around the world, helping all people in need to recover and rebuild their lives. Here, we meet one such refugee, Lilian Dawa, who fled her native South Sudan—with her two young children in tow—due to its catastrophic civil war. She had already lost her husband to the fighting—he was taken from their home, tied to a tree and shot.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

But rather than let the grief and devastation overpower her family's lives, Dawa is fighting back… by paying it forward. Based in the Bidi Bidi refugee settlement—home to some 270,000 South Sudanese refugees—the former social worker is now a volunteer with the IRC, supporting the women in her community. "I work with the IRC team that protects women and girls from violence and abuse and educates people about ways to prevent violence," she writes. "I love my work—it’s my talent."

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-small-header

Essay

DEBUG: core/paragraph

I saw so many things in South Sudan: massive killing, cold bloodshed, death without reason. I was scared for my children to go to school. Students would run from their classrooms if they heard gunshots.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

People were panicking. You could go to the market in the morning, but by midday people would disappear: If they saw someone dressed like a soldier, they would run away. People couldn’t sleep because of the gunshots. Life was a misery.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

My job as a social worker ended because the local nonprofit organization that employed me had to close as a result of the insecurity. I managed to earn some money doing manual labor—digging—but as a widow with two children it was hard for me to raise enough for safe transportation to Uganda.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

As a result, we had to walk for ten days to reach the border, joining other people who were also fleeing. I brought water in my five-liter container and some boiled cassava for us to eat.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

There were many threats on the journey: If you left the road for a little distance to look for food, you were are attacked by the rebels and taken into the bush to be given “awareness” of their cause. If you came back to the roadside, you were questioned by government soldiers about who you met on the way.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

It was also hard for us to find food: You didn’t see any markets. And many of the houses along the road were abandoned. Only if you could reach the home of a Samaritan, maybe that person would give you something small to eat. But we never dared to hope.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

One day, suddenly, we reached a place where the government soldiers collided with the rebels. My son went missing in the chaos. I was out of my senses because I didn’t know where my child was. I was thinking, “He’s dead.”

DEBUG: core/paragraph

I thought that was the end of my life.

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-hero

image

Dawa, left, stops to help 17-year-old Jane Noka sift maize outside her home in Bidi Bidi

DEBUG: core/paragraph

When I reached Uganda, I was still out of my senses missing my boy. My friends had to force me to go to the refugee settlement and register. I stayed in the camp for one month. It was later that I found my child (he’d joined another group of refugees and eventually ended up in the sprawling camp) and started to feel like myself again.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

I saw to it that my son went back to school, because he is my future. But I myself was struggling. Not until I became a volunteer for the IRC, working with the women in the community, did my mind start to settle. I work with the IRC team that protects women and girls from violence and abuse and educates people about ways to prevent violence. I love my work—it’s my talent.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

The biggest challenge that women here face is self-doubt. Many of them are single, widowed or divorced and they don’t believe they can stand on their own without support. The women who come to the IRC women’s center for counseling and to share their experiences tell us what they need to rebuild their lives—such as literacy classes and ways to earn an income.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

As for my family, I don’t know what the future will be. South Sudan is unsafe because what seems like a permanent hatred has developed between people: They feel like killing each other. And people are hungry: They are unable to farm due to the fighting and have to scavenge crops left behind by those who fled.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

I thank the government of Uganda for the warm welcome, the tireless welcome, to us South Sudanese. And I pray for peace in South Sudan. I pray that the next generation—my children—will see peace. I don’t wish them to see the life of a refugee again.

DEBUG: core/paragraph

I want them to have a bright future.

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-hero

image

Refugees fleeing on foot Dawa's hometown of Yei, South Sudan, into the border town of Bosia, where they will be bused to refugee settlements in Uganda

DEBUG: core/paragraph

Imagery and story used with permission of the International Rescue Committee. © International Rescue Committee

DEBUG: core/paragraph

From April 1, 2022, to June 30, 2022, Veronica Beard will donate a dollar amount from every sale on veronicabeard.com worldwide, to the IRC, a not-for-profit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian aid, relief and resettlement to refugees and other victims of oppression or violent conflict. The company will also donate 10% of all retail sales made in the United States on April 7, 2022, and June 1/2, 2022 (#VBGIVESBACK) to the IRC. Company guarantees a minimum donation of $150,000 USD. For more information, visit www.rescue.org. No portion of the purchase price is tax-deductible.

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-small-header

Discover More from VB Edit

DEBUG: cgb/block-vb-related