Radio Paradise

This woman spoke about how she had been visiting her sister in Juba when the fighting broke out, and had been unable to return home. To make matters worse, she had left her older children behind in her village, because she thought it would just be a short trip. She had not seen them in nearly a year. As I was interviewing her, she kept a very resigned, unsmiling, faraway look on her face, which can be seen in the previous post. But when we finished, my translator asked her what village she was from. When she told him, he pulled out his phone. "I've just been to your hometown on an aid mission," he said, "I can show you photos." As he scrolled through photos of her village, her expression suddenly changed.

"The army asked for donations. I was the smallest one in the family, so I was given. I was seven or eight. I heard my parents arguing. My mother didn't want me to go, because I was her only child. But a few nights later, my father brought me a new white robe, and told me I was going to go to school. When I first arrived at the military camp, I was scared to see the guns. In the morning we would go to school, in the evening we would train with the guns. But there were many children there who I grew up with and played with, I eventually felt more comfortable. After a few weeks, they marched us to Ethiopia for training. We never made it there. We ran out of food and water on the way."
"Are you angry with your father?"
"I speak with him regularly now. I've forgiven him. And in the end, I would have never been educated if he hadn't sent me away. But I was very angry with him when we were dying. While we marched, the children who gave up would sit down in the shade. We would tell them not to sit but they'd say, 'I'll catch up later.' And they never would. I saw many of them get eaten by wild animals."

"After we were rescued, I ended up studying in Kenya. I joined UNICEF and began to work in child services. My goal was to never let anything happen to children that happened to me. When the most recent fighting broke out in South Sudan, I was in Lebanon working with displaced Syrian children. I was helping to conduct psychological assessments and provide trauma counseling. I was on Facebook one night when I saw my newsfeed fill up with reports of fighting. I called all my friends and family, and told them: 'The fighting is between military men, stay in your homes.' Then I started seeing reports that the fighting was turning ethnic. So I called everyone back, and said: "Find the nearest UN compound and take shelter." A few days later, I requested to be transferred to UNICEF South Sudan, because I knew I was needed at home."

If you're not following Humans of New York as the photographer/interviewer travels on a UNICEF mission to Africa, you're missing some stunning stories.

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Pregnant Sudanese Christian woman sentenced to death #shariasucks #therealwaronwomen

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