Living from hand to mouth

Jalab Yieis

Jalab sits in her modest home and prepares a meal for her nine children. It’s made from dried waterlilies she found in a river seven miles away, a trek she must make by foot.

Jalab lives in Ngop, in northern South Sudan. It is a village next to an area recently declared as in famine by the United Nations. Families have been fleeing from the area in search of food and water.  

There are no cows and goats in Jalab’s compound. Not even a single chicken. The famine has forced Jalab’s family to survive largely on waterlilies.

A large quantity of waterlilies only provides enough food for just one meal. Jalab explains how to prepare them: “It’s a long process. After we collect and dry the lily, we need to grind and clean it accurately, until we get small grains that we mix with water and we boil.” 

South Sudan’s three-year civil war has not been easy for Jalab and her family. Her husband went to Khartoum in neighbouring Sudan some years ago, and never returned. She is responsible for feeding her nine children, who all still live at home. “At least, the elders are now helping me a lot to find food,” she adds.

Sometimes, Jalab resorts to begging relatives and neighbours for money to buy some of the dried fish in the market. “It happens only from time to time, when it’s available in our small market,” Jalab explains.

Nyeyiet Jany

Nyeyiet sits next to her husband Tim as he makes a fishing net. It is a seven hour walk to the river, where he will go and search for food to feed his seven children. But there is less and less food to go around these days, as the food security situation worsens.

Nyeyiet admits she now feeds her children less. “I only feed my children when they start crying,” she admits.

Three years of war have taken their toll on South Sudan. An estimated one million children across the country are acutely malnourished. Close to 5 million people – more than 40 per cent of the population – urgently need food, agriculture and nutrition assistance.

Omer Raya

Omer is a young teacher who runs the primary school in Ngop. The school hosts around 100 students. During the rainy season, when all the cows and cattle traders are back in the village, the number of students can rise as high as 200.

Omer says that many of the boys and girls who attend the classes are in bad shape; “Some are sick and many fall asleep during the activities, because they don’t have enough food to eat at home.” 

Omer and two other teachers in the school earn around 300 South Sudanese pounds per month for their work, less than US$3. And the money is often delayed due to the Government’s constrain. “With this salary is really challenging,” he admits. Some other six teachers are just doing voluntary support.

Nyejal Poch

Nyejal is from Ngoul, a village two hours from Ngop. She walked with her elder daughter Nyabouk (5) and her newborn baby when she heard the Norwegian Refugee Council was distributing food in Ngop.

Nyejal’s youngest child is suffering from malnutrition, according to the medical officers in the clinic. Her husband is blind and she is the only one taking care of the family. “Sometimes my elder children help me,” she says. 

Nyejal is preparing a small piece land that the family has to plant some of the seeds they have left from a food distribution last year.

“I really hope the cultivation will go better this time,” she says, “because last year we nearly lost everything because of the bad weather.”

The Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC) is working in Ngop to help people like Nyejal. We have eight rapid response teams, providing food like lentils, maize and oil to over 7,000 people.