SOUTH SUDAN / SECONDARY SCHOOL SENSITIZATION
STORY: SOUTH SUDAN / SECONDARY SCHOOL SENSITIZATION
TRT: 01:51
SOURCE: UNMISS
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / NATS
DATELINE: 26 APRIL 2024, YAMBIO, SOUTH SUDAN
1. Various shots, sensitization of secondary school students
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Amazing Grace, Student, Yambio Secondary School:
“What they have done for us is a good thing and now I know very many things about. I learnt about the duties of children, and what they have said is that we need to respect our teachers and our parents at home. I am going to keep this lesson for the rest of my life.”
3. Various shots, sensitization of secondary school students
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Tshering Palden, Police Adviser, United Nations Mission in South Sudan:
“We come here to teach them because you know very well that students, the children, are the future of a country. If we teach the children, we are teaching their communities. They will also impact to their families to have a secure environment as well as a secure community so that they don’t involve in criminal activities.”
5. Various shots, sensitization of secondary school students
UN police advisors serving with the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) recently visited a secondary school in Yambio, the capital of Western Equatoria to talk to some 25 students about children’s rights, how to prevent and report incidents of sexual and gender-based violence, and the importance of going to school to create better future opportunities for themselves.
Amazing Grace is 15, and while she dreams about becoming a pilot, her takeaway from the interaction with the Blue Helmets was of a more grounded nature.
SOUNDBITE (English) Amazing Grace, Student, Yambio Secondary School:
“What they have done for us is a good thing and now I know very many things about. I learnt about the duties of children, and what they have said is that we need to respect our teachers and our parents at home. I am going to keep this lesson for the rest of my life.”
Tshering Palden, a UN Police Adviser, agreed that informing school children is just the beginning, with awareness of critical issues set to spread, hence promoting peace.
SOUNDBITE (English) Tshering Palden, Police Adviser, United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS):
“We come here to teach them because you know very well that students, the children, are the future of a country. If we teach the children, we are teaching their communities. They will also impact to their families to have a secure environment as well as a secure community so that they don’t involve in criminal activities.”
Girls and women in South Sudan are often disadvantaged by harmful cultural practices - not least early and/or forced marriages and pregnancies that frequently cause them to leave school – and vulnerable to all-too-common incidents of sexual and other forms of gender-based violence.