Giving Children a Voice: Raising Awareness on Gender-Based Violence at Lang Agaal Primary School

In a classroom in South Sudan's Warrap State, something rare happened, children spoke, and adults listened. 

The occasion was a Gender-Based Violence (GBV) awareness session at Lang Agaal Primary School in Akon South Payam, Gogrial West County of Warrap State. For many pupils, it was the first time anyone had asked them what happens at home and what they wish were different. 

“Boys feel pressure to marry too young,” shares Simon Nagor, 18, a Primary 7 pupil who has watched classmates pull toward early marriage instead of finishing school. 

Four different pupils. One truth. Childhood is quietly worn down by poverty, harmful tradition, and neglect. These are not isolated complaints, they are warning signs. Early marriage, unpaid fees, alcohol-linked neglect, each one can derail a child's future long before anyone outside the family notices. 

Mary, 15, spoke about days without school supplies and sanitary pads. “When a parent drinks, there's nothing left for us,” she quietly narrates. That is not a fairytale, but a reality faced by most girls in the communities of South Sudan.  

Akuindik 15, described watching girls in her community being pushed into early marriage before they are ready as a sad reality. “They are not given a choice,” Akuindik adds. 

By giving these pupils a platform, the session turned private struggles into a community conversation one parents, elders, and local leaders can no longer look away. 

“Sometimes school fees go unpaid, and we wonder what next because to most parents, school is not apriority,” Jacob shares 14 years old 

This session is integral component of the Enhancing Community Resilience and Local Governance Project Phase II (ECRP II), a government-led initiative funded by the World Bank and implemented by the Ministry of Finance and Planning and the Local Government Board, in partnership with World Vision in Warrap state.  

GBV awareness is built into the project's core, using conversations like this one to shift attitudes and protect children before harm happens. 

No single session ends child marriage or neglect overnight. But when a 14-year-old feels safe enough to say, “parents don't pay school fees for us,” and a room full of adults truly hears it. That's where change begins. 

That is exactly what ECRP II project and World Vision are working toward, a Warrap State where children are not just protected in policy but heard in practice. 

Story and photos by Stella Inya, Communications Officer/World Vision South Sudan