Finding my passion as an advocate against gender-based violence in South Sudan’s communities

By Lona Tabu, Gender-Based Violence and Protection Coordinator

I was born in a small village called Payaw in Yei County located 150 kilometers from Juba, South Sudan’s capital city. I grew up in horrible situation where there was no food, no proper house for my mother, no medical service, no money for school fees and a lot of basic things that other children in other countries enjoy.

The conflict in South Sudan took most of my childhood. I did not know that there was conflict going on until a big airplane bombed our village in 1992.  Every time she heard the bombings, my mother would make us run to the riverbank for safety. She would make me and three other sisters lie down in the water.

My father eventually took us on a bicycle to a nearby village within the county and spent a night there. The bombing ended up killing my aunt’s three children.

Lona's unlikely childhood growing up in conflict and in a refugee camp did not stop her from pursuing what she wanted in life.

I grew up in Rhino Camp, a refugee settlement in Uganda called Tika 11. Before I was taken to that camp, my father made me stay with my uncle in Wajo refugee settlement while my mother remained in Sudan taking care of my siblings. I started my education in Uganda studying in Wajo primary school in 1993.

In 1995, my mother was taken to Rhino camp and I got reunited with my family. Rhino Camp is a dry desert area, with very hot weather and full of mosquitoes. My school lacked the basic facilities but I persisted. I completed my secondary education in 2003 and was sponsored by UNCHR to Ediofe Girls' Snior Secondary School in Arua District in Uganda.

I went through numerous challenges just to finish school. I supported myself and tried to raise my own children and help my parents. I remember my saddest moment was during a visiting day for students and nobody came to visit me. When it was time for me to go home, nobody came and I walked with my friend Christine for 200 kilometers back to Rhino Camp.

In all these, I always thought of what my mother used to remind me that people who struggled a lot in life would be more successful in the future. Every time I am discouraged, she would boost my morale and I always got motivated.

In the activities in South Sudan's project areas, Lona sees the realities of many forms of violence being endured especially by girls and women.

I graduated with a bachelor’s degree in social work and social administration on 2014 from St. Lawrence University in Kampala, Uganda. I gained strength and resilience from those years of suffering. I am now pursuing my master’s degree in Local Governance and Human Rights in Uganda Martyrs University.

I joined World Vision on April 2018 and I realized it was a blessing from God because every day became a learning process. Since 2008, I have worked in a gender-based violence (GBV) program from other organizations and working with vulnerable women and girls empowered me as I listened to their stories and issues affecting their lives.

As a woman, my desire to help ensure that women have equal rights, opportunities, freedom and liberty, respect. The three people who inspired me to work for the gender-based violence program Sarah Cornish, Lauren Good Smith and Chelsea Cooper who mentored me in gender-based violence prevention and response, conducting awareness activities and materials development.

Reaching out to community leaders to help in the campaign and using creative activities to get the advocacy messages to the people, Lona demonstrates them during one of the community meetings.

There is lot of work to be done to change harmful traditional practices which include forced marriages, denial of access to land and resources for women, high bride prices or the dowry tradition, domestic violence, female genital mutilation and sexual abuses where women and girls are always the ones at risk.

On my first month working with working with World Vision, I met a girl who joined one of our meetings in Aweil North in Northern Bahr El Gazal who shared her life marrying at 15 and having four children at 24. She had no idea about early and forced marriage issues until she started attending the gender-based violence activities and decided to go back to school after realizing she can still pursue her interests.

This girl’s simple dream made me realize the work that we do in the communities have impact in the lives of the people we work with and it is important for us to reach out. My two children Ayite Happy Gloria, 12 years old and Chris Assisi, 6 years old. are my inspiration for all of my struggles. My dream is to be able to send them to good schools and pursue their own ambition in life.