One year after the Government of Southern Sudan launched its “Go to School Initiative”, enrollment has increased to over 850,000 and more then one third of all students are girls. During Sudan’s civil war, only 1 percent of girls completed primary schools but girls like Suku Jane Simon, 16 (center) are beginning to change that –she will graduate from secondary school next year.

Through a local chapter of Girls’ Education Movement (GEM), Suku also hosts a weekly call-in show at Southern Sudan Radio. “I advise all children, girls and boys – to go to school,” she says in the microphone. “Education is the key. When I see a girl who does not go to school, I say to her, ‘My sister, let us go to school, for you are poor in mind.’” Suku loves this work and hopes to become a journalist.  

In Southern Sudan, where two decades of civil war have devastated national infrastructure and bequeathed a legacy of extreme poverty, Suku’s words carry a special resonance. Very few girls here finish eight years of primary school. Hundreds of thousands of children do not attend school at all, while early marriage, cultural traditions and the lack of adequate school facilities pose particular challenges for girls.

Like many of her peers, Suku fled Southern Sudan during the war. Educated at a refugee camp in Uganda, she returned to Juba with her family following the signing of the 2005 peace agreement.
Click here for a photo slide show on a day in the life of Suku.