Agnes finally sees hope for her future through farming

Young mother of two, Agnes Neimat, 21, dreams of becoming a doctor someday. But she dropped out of school while in primary 8 and decided to get married because nobody could support her when she lost her father to a disease. Her mother is also jobless.

Unfortunately, life did not improve after her marriage. She says sadly, “We sometimes sleep without eating food.”

Her husband James, a university student, works on odd jobs but can hardly support their growing family. Agnes tries to bake some cakes and sell in the market with the proceeds she is able to meet their 4-year old son Allan Hussein’s needs in school.

She recently joined World Vision’s food security and livelihoods program supported by Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH) in Juba after  being selected through a community based selection process based on family’s vulnerability status.

With the cash assistance she receives in the form of food vouchers from World Vision, she is excited to start a garden and grow vegetables. The project has been going on for six months and each allocation is equivalent to USD 45.

“I learned how to properly do home gardening from the training I attended and from the demonstration farm”, she says and adds, “I believe this will sustain us while my husband completes his degree.”

“I told my husband I will go back to school someday. He said we do not have the money. I am willing to work hard and make my dream to become a doctor come true”, Agnes shares.

“I thank World Vision for introducing this project to me and the rest of the community. I will share the skills I have acquired with my neighbours”, she further says.

Lina Juan Daniel, World Vision's project staff, said the project started in October 2018 and implementation was in two phases: unconditional cash transfers through e-vouchers redeemed in selected shops/vendors and food production.

She said it targeted 2000 beneficiaries, and so far 1000 were already selected for livelihood activities. “The beneficiaries are excited about the project because most of them said they can now afford two meals per day,” Lina adds.

“We are working to strengthen the connection between communities and markets to ensure that they can access the products they need at a fair price and are able to sell what they produce”, she concludes.

“It gives me great joy and personal satisfaction to see the previously food insecure people of Juba, access much needed food commodities, in their local markets, indeed a clear demonstration of deepening our commitment to the most vulnerable people,” says Gift Sibanda, World Vision’s Juba Programme Manager.

Knowing that children who previously slept hungry are now able to access three meals a day is a demonstration of World Vision’s commitment to the most vulnerable people in South Sudan