Age and Employment

While I was a communication student at Juba University in Khartoum in 2011, a lot of intense politics started happening between politicians in Sudan and South Sudan as we demanded for referendum according to the Comprehensive Peace Agreement (C.P.A). This led to led to a lot of sensitivity between the two countries, and since the Juba University main branch is located in Khartoum, the Khartoum government decided to close down the University, leaving behind almost 7,000 students who were displaced without education or graduation, as well as no further communication.

This was very traumatizing to me and many of us who were the same age, with big dreams for our future of what we want to do when we finish school. When this was all shut down, I decided to fly back to my village and find something to do.

Of course no one was ready to employ me since all I had in my CV was certificate from high school but my university level was provisional. To make matters worse, at that time I was only 18 years old.

My hometown Yambio, the capital town of Western Equatoria state in South Sudan, has immense opportunities being the main breadbasket of our new country. Due to many years of civil war in the larger Sudan, the course of development was replaced with blazing guns for over 70 years with an elusive peaceful future. This situation affected youth and farmers with very little knowledge of how build the food economy.

As a volunteering intern, I joined the radio and started program called “Morning show” at 90. MHz Yambio FM located in Yambio between 2011 and 2012. The program aims was to educate my community especially (the youth) on crosscutting issues in governance and development. the topics included strategies to fight corruption, the huge number of uneducated-unemployed youth, improving social service, helping the homeless children and orphans, and people living with HIV and AIDS among other current affairs.

This program envisions and informed society just emerging from a long-protracted war. The idea was to help youth detach from influential politicians who ‘waste’ their potential in education, after many years of wallowing in political uncertainties, and to enable them plan for their future.

I received a lot from the radio station (airtime. production support), active participation from the audience targeted (the youth), and the call-in session allowed me to create awareness on government services and opportunities while also using the platform to change their behavior for sustainable development.

Through the radio program, am able to reach many parents on the importance of enabling their girls to be educated, and then make informed decisions. Due to my popularity in my home town, I can create strategies through political networks to reach local leaders at village level with specific programs to educate the community through creation of an authority to enforce laws that protect girl child.

Through my volunteering I got a chance to work with other media houses like Gurtong Media, Advertiser newspaper as a writer and columnist, and this enabled me to rich the wider audience as a way of creating public awareness. That gave me a lot of motivation, so I left the job and decided to go back to school to continue with studies to upgrade certificate.

I joined Daystar University in May 2012 and worked towards my Bachelor of Arts in communication. The one year i spent in the radio, although I was not paid, I can’t regret because I learned a lot.  I am glad because I used my talent to serve my people.