Attitudes Towards Girls’ Education are Changing

Girls’ Education South Sudan’s (GESS’) behaviour change communication activities are changing lives in Duk County in Jonglei State. These activities are helping to eradicate negative socio-cultural attitudes that stop girls and children living with disabilities from accessing and completing their education.                             

The ‘Our School’ radio programme is translated into local languages and aired on local radio stations. In the case of Duk County, most communities listen to the episodes in the Dinka language, whilst some listen in Nuer. In media dark areas, GESS’ Community Mobilisation Volunteers reach different families through family listening groups. Community dialogues also take place, in which the topics explored in the radio programmes are discussed by the wider community.  

Samuel Mawut is a 48-year-old father of eight children living in Pantiok village in Duk County. He has six boys and two girls – making a family of ten members who sit together to listen to episodes of ‘Our School’ on a solar-powered and wind-up radio that is provided by the GESS programme.  

The family is dependent on farming and rearing cattle. Over the past ten years, their livelihood has been affected by constant insecurity from cattle raiding and child abduction, which significantly reduced the level of agricultural productivity, having a knock-on effect on the education of Mawut’s children. “With insecurity everywhere, I cannot regularly go to the farm which affects my income, thus not able to provide all basic requirements, including provision of school fees, uniforms, bags and other school materials,” Mawut explained. Mawut believed that his only option was to sponsor the boys, leaving his two girls at home, helping their mother with household chores.  

In 2022, GESS distributed radios to families in Mawut’s village and that was a revelation for his family. “It was last year when GESS brought radios for listening, and my family benefited much from the programme. Through the episodes, we understood the importance of sending all children to school, something we didn’t used to do before because we did not understand the importance of dividing resources amongst every child.” Mawut as head of his family is the family listening group facilitator. According to him, they have listened to topics like: 

• Importance of parents’ involvement in their children. 

• How scholastic materials improve children’s performance. 
• Benefit of girls’ education. 
• Benefit of sending children living with a disability to school. 

Mawut reiterates that their knowledge and attitudes towards girls’ education is changing. Now, many more families are investing in girls and children with disabilities. “We have done dialogue with my neighbours and resolved that all children, regardless of gender and ability, must be sent to school if they are to have a better future. Under ‘Our School,’ we listened to and discussed different topics, which include menstruation and how we can support adolescent girls to remain in school during their menstrual period. Although we resolved to do some actions, a few challenges like getting dignity kits for adolescent schoolgirls remain unresolved.” 

Mawut’s family and their neighbours expressed gratitude for ‘Our School’ radio programme and hope that the programme will bring more radios, and that the radios can be left with communities permanently to encourage the continuity of the listening group activities far beyond the project timeline.  

 646 households have been reached through community mobilisation in Duk County, whilst almost 25,000 families have been reached in wider Jonglei State – the largest state by area size in South Sudan. In October 2022 there was only one CMV allocated to 13 counties in Jonglei State. Since the beginning of 2023, three additional CMVs have come on board to reach families in remote and media dark communities. 

To find out more about GESS’ behaviour change activities, go to our website. https://girlseducationsouthsudan.org/activity/social-behavioural-change-communication/

Categorised in: Girls' Education, Social & Behavioural Change Communication