Benjamin Lokoya, Education officer,  UNICEF South Sudan

My name is Benjamin Lokoya. I am the education officer for UNICEF.  I was in Leer last week and, when I went there, I found the situation was horrific.  I found people struggling to get food. There was no food. Women and children starving, people were surviving on water lilies. 

The women were telling me that they were worried about their children because there was nothing for them to feed the children on. They had no hope. They had malnourished children. They have sick children. Nobody was there to attend to the children.  

But when UNICEF and the World Food Programme went there, it gave them some glimpse of hope. They were grateful that the WFP was registering for food aid and UNICEF was there to give vaccinations to children and to do nutrition screenings to malnourished children - they were very grateful when UNICEF and WFP went to Leer. 

I was born and brought up in this country but I come from Western Equatoria and I have been on very many RRM missions for long periods of time since 2015. But this time around, when I went to Leer it was different. I went and I found human skulls lying on the ground which is something very disturbing. I had never seen that. 

I am happy I am part of these great activities, services that UNICEF is rendering to women and children in this country. I admit that it’s a very hard, difficult, and emotional situation but I’m also grateful that UNICEF has given me the opportunity to take part in helping my fellow countrymen so I would like to say a very big THANK YOU to the donors and the people who give money to UNICEF to help the women and children in this country. Thank you very much.