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.