Planting the seeds of an education

Eleven year-old Chok and his family are among the many refugees and internally displaced people affected by the civil war in South Sudan. Thanks to the help of World Vision, families are now able to grow their own food to feed themselves as well as grow a small surplus - which in turn means that children like Chok and his siblings can go to school.

Chok seems shy when you first meet him but, after a few minutes of conversation his intelligence becomes obvious. He speaks and understands English fluently, even though he lives in a place where Arabic is predominantly spoken. It’s no surprise that he announces that his favourite subject at school is English.

“I like to read English books,” Chok smiles.

Fleeing conflict

Chok lives in a small town in the northern part of South Sudan. A year earlier, he lived in a town which was a few hours south down the Nile River. However, when violence broke out in 2013, Chok, his mother, stepfather, four brothers and sister were among the 1.5 million people who fled their homes. Many of the displaced, like Chok and his family, were absorbed into existing towns and villages; new places that they now call home.

Now they are working hard to make new lives for themselves. Chok is diligent with his homework, but that’s not the only chore he has after school. He helps his mother by looking after his one-year-old brother and by fetching water.

To understand how truly resilient people like Chok can be, you need only meet his stepfather, Jumar. “We left with nothing. Many people lost their lives and there is still fear in my heart,” he says. “We can’t go back. We don’t know what will happen.”

Having endured so much, it’s hard to imagine how anyone could be grateful, yet the family count their blessings. “We are lucky,” says Jumar simply. Chok’s mother sits next to her husband surrounded by her children. Their smiles mask their daily struggles.

“There are times when we will go to bed without food,” says his wife. She explains that sometimes, other families have shared their food with them but, when they don’t do this, they have nothing.

Getting enough nutritious food and clean water are key to a child's survival and development, which is why World Vision’s emergency response in South Sudan focuses on providing these two things to children like Chok. Food distributions are an emergency measure that help to ensure that children get what they need, but over the long-term families need to become self-sufficient. When Chok’s mother is asked about the food she has, she laughs, “You can see we have nothing except the 10kg of sorghum we bought today.”

They bought the sorghum with the proceeds from tomatoes they have sold, which were grown on a plot of donated land with seeds distributed by World Vision. Jumar sells half of his tomato crop and saves the other half for Chok and his siblings to eat.

The seeds these farmers sow do much more than produce tomatoes With an average family size of six, the programme supports over 300 children and provides a source of income and, as a consequence, stability to a disrupter childhood. These seeds are the reason Chok and other children like him can go to school.

Chok’s favourite thing about school is the teachers. “When I grow up, I want to be a doctor so that I can help my young brother when he is sick,” he says. Although it may be many years before he realises his dream, the seeds his stepfather sows are helping make another of his dreams a reality.

The thing he would like to change most right now is his family’s makeshift home - Chok dreams of being able to build a house for his family, and Jumar is of like mind. Just as soon as he completed the first hut, Jumar was saving his proceeds from tomato sales towork on a second home that will be bigger and better.

Well on their way to a better life, Chok’s mother puts it simply, “We are survivors.”

In 2014, World Vision surveyed 160 children who had been affected by conflict in South Sudan and found that children overwhelmingly wanted two things more than anything else – to be safe and to go to school. The report, Fear and want: children living in crisis in South Sudan, also revealed that those living inside camps for the displaced spent fewer hours in school. Chok has an opportunity that many other children in South Sudan don’t have – an education - and World Vision has helped him to take advantage of it.