Christian Mission Aid

More than two decades of war denied millions of Sudanese basic amenities, and encumbered development in South Sudan. Juaibor, located in Jonglei State, is a remote area where Christian Mission Aid (CMA) is working to improve livelihoods, enhance self-sufficiency and promote peace through the program, Sustaining Peace and Enhancing Livelihoods in Southern Sudan (SPELS). Some of the core activities under SPELS are: small scale agriculture; fishing; distribution of goats and micro trading. In just under two years of SPELS activities in the area, CMA is already noting great progress. We share a few success stories.

Baker Wichar Wiktou

With mere hints of daylight at the crack of dawn, Wichar Wiktou moves around his small shop in the small village market of Juaibor, at 4AM, lighting up his earthen oven and mixing dough to bake bread for residents of the small village. Two hours later, the dough is ready and divided into smaller sizes, ready for the well heated oven. With bare hands, Wichar and his two male assistants, Zachariah Gatkuoth and Kong Jiek, skillfully lift off the dough into the oven. It takes less than a minute to fill the air with the sweet aroma of bread baking. Four minutes later, the three men pull out golden brown and tasteful looking bread from the oven. They take it to the shop located about 50 meters from the bakery ready to be sold to customers ranging from eatery owners to end consumers who purchase the bread directly. The bread is usually available in the shop as early as seven in the morning.

Wichar, a businessman at Juaibor market, learnt the skills of baking while working at a bakery in Khartoum, North Sudan. He communicates in Arabic and his mother tongue, Nuer, as he does not know English or how to read and write. Being a member of a local business SACCO, Wichar received a loan of 800 Sudanese pounds (SDG) (About 340 US$) through the SPELS program. He used the money to buy more supplies for his bakery. The items included wheat flour, cooking oil, salt, yeast, baking powder and baking equipment. He hopes to get more funding to put up a better shop, with an iron sheet roof, and expand the oven to produce more bread. This he will only do after paying off the current loan.

The baker makes 200 pieces of bread every morning, which is not enough when more people are in the market, especially during the dry season. The SPELS team also observed that Wichar needs more tools to efficiently run his bakery. Because he does most of the work very early in the morning when the skies are still dark, Wichar needs proper lighting to enhance visibility. He also needs charcoal, kitchen tongs and proper trays to use in the oven. His two bakery assistants need aprons and gloves.

The enterprising man is very happy that the SPELS program helped him boost the business as the alternative would have been to sell one of his cows, something he, like other members of his Nuer community, agonize about. Cattle are very precious to the community.

Peace, goats and fishing activities

Tayar Kulang, a fisherman in Juaibor, says he is able to catch more fish since CMA introduced the special fishing gadgets through SPELS. “My business has improved and I am able to catch more fish for my family,” says Tayar who is also a village representative of Jeikuot village and a church elder sitting in the peace council. Tayar is not the only fisherman who has recorded great growth in his trade.

Fishing activities have increased in folds since the SPELS program was initiated in Juaibor. Due to increased supply level, the prices of fish immediately dropped from 7 SGD (3US$) to as low as 1 SGD (40 US pennies) a piece since July 2009 when CMA first distributed hooks and twines.

Nyawuor Beleng and Juang Bamuom are widowed old women in Juaibor who have been living in abject poverty since losing their spouses during the war. The two women do not have children of their own. CMA recently gave them a goat and a sheep each. “During war, we received free food and clothes, but since then no one has given us any help to ease our sufferin,” says Juang. The women were happy to receive the gifts and promised to take good care of them to ensure that they ease their suffering.

SPELS has distributed goats and sheep to various families headed by children and women in Juaibor. The project aims at improving the livelihoods of such families, most of them very poor and lacking people to assist them in their daily. The goats are aimed at providing the families with milk and offspring that can be sold.