HOPE
Hope almost always goes hand in hand with despair. And if the second speaks for itself with suffering and desolation, the other, which lives deep in our hearts and keeps us afloat, decides at the end of the day how we look to the future.
It is not only important to give people the space to tell their story, but also to give them an image and to share their hope and despair through their eyes with us. That was the idea of HOPE, we didn't want to talk about the refugees from South Sudan, but we wanted them to share their story.
​​
​
Gloria, a young woman from South Sudan who has already experienced war, murder and despair on her way to adulthood, had to flee to Uganda with her mother and has been living in Rhino Camp on the border to her home country ever since. Her father has been missing, her mother suffers from a chronic mental illness that makes it impossible for her to look after her properly. Above all, however, the young woman is worried about the future of her generation. A future that seems unthinkable in the face of a decades-long conflict that cruelly destroys the lives of innocent children. Gloria dreams of a career as a lawyer to ensure justice in her home country. In the Rhino refugee camp in northern Uganda, she does everything she can to pursue this dream. She wants to become a role model who serves her home country and the future of her generation, to hew out her own destiny.
​
​
​
As a woman in Africa, a career as a lawyer seems unimaginable due to the absolute poverty and her status as an underage refugee. Gloria, on the other hand, seizes every opportunity to improve her education. That is why 17-year-old Gloria is currently attending a boarding school in Arua, not far from Rhino Camp. She wants to gain her university entrance qualification there and then study law.
​
​
Gloria lived with many other children in Anthony Felix's orphanage. A pastor of a local church in the camp, who himself has a moving story. Anthony was abducted from his home village in Sudan at the age of 9 and trained as a child soldier. He lived as a child soldier for several years and was eventually even assigned to the personal bodyguard of John Garang, who later became the provisional president of South Sudan. However, the discrepancy between his personal moral standards and his work as a child soldier gave rise to doubts.
When he met a Christian missionary, he accepted the Christian faith despite his hopeless life and was given the opportunity to change his life from the ground up. After John Garang was killed in a helicopter crash, he was lucky enough to leave his post and reunite with his family after decades. He was the only one of his friends to survive the odyssey. When he fled Sudan, he decided to dedicate his life to the childhood he never had, building an orphanage and taking in many children and young people who would otherwise have been hopelessly lost.
But even when children like Gloria are given sufficient education, attention and even hope, the expectations of their role as women in East Africa force them into certain traditional stereotypes. Traditionally, it is always the man who provides the family's income. But the circumstances of flight have now left many women widowed and many children orphaned. The husbands, fathers and grandfathers are either no longer alive, have disappeared or have left their families due to lack of income. Susan Grace Duku, a former radio presenter from South Sudan, adopted several orphans as her own when she fled. She was forced to break this traditional role model to avoid starvation and has set up a business in the camp exclusively for women. While one woman collects dry grass to cover the houses, others grow tomatoes, root vegetables or keep chickens. These goods are then traded among themselves, and surplus goods are sold at the market.
Women have suddenly become self-confident. There is now a way to feed their own children, their own family. A novelty as a woman in East Africa anyway. A breakthrough as a refugee. This venture led to Susan becoming known far beyond the borders of the camp.
Today, she is the spokesperson for 1.1 million refugees in Uganda and a sought-after speaker at the World Refugee Forum.She is the female voice of hope for a region that has been forgotten by the rest of the world.
Among others, an American NGO has taken on the problems of this region, which has only experienced brief periods of peace. THE SENTRY is part of the Clooney Foundation For Justice and investigates the background to the conflict in South Sudan. Almost forgotten, or at least ignored by the rest of the world, corrupt politicians are fighting each other. Unscrupulous warlords spread terror among the civilian population, raping and murdering indiscriminately.
Certain people in power are personally enriching themselves through the suffering of families, young people and small children. Dirty money, corruption, power politics and economic interests keep the conflict alive.
One of THE SENTRY's and the Clooney Foundation's heartfelt concerns is that war crimes should never be allowed to pay. There is only hope if the world community finds lasting solutions to the civil war in South Sudan. THE SENTRY's South Sudan experts JR Mailey and Brian Ababa discuss what those solutions might look like.
​
​
The story of hope is thus abstracted from a personal dream, a personal quest for happiness, to an inspiration for an entire movement, to a vision of the future for an entire country. The fate that unites people from different places, languages and cultures has already written a common story of hope. Hope extends beyond them, and it will always have the potential to influence traditions, people and even governments to create sustainable peace and prosperity.
