Life as an internally displaced person (IDP) can be tough. But Marina Nyan, who is seeking shelter at an UNMISS base in Juba, is happy simply to be alive. For that she thanks UNMISS.

“Life in the camp is not as good as it was outside it before the conflict, but we are receiving the support necessary to keep us alive,” said Ms. Nyan. “I cannot complain.”

When fighting broke out in December 2013, Ms. Nyan and her children fled from their home in Miya Saba, on the outskirts of Juba, for safety at the UN compound in Tomping.

“When I realized that UNMISS was the only safe place in the heat of the crisis, I decided to move there,” she said, adding that the mission had saved thousands of lives.

The last few months have not been easy for her, as she tried to adjust to a new way of life without her husband, a soldier who had been deployed to the Upper Nile State capital Malakal before the conflict began.

“I don’t know whether my husband is alive or dead,” she said sadly. “I lost contact with him.”

In order to supplement assistance from UN agencies and other humanitarian organizations, Ms. Nyan teamed up with three other women at the site to start a tea and food business.

“We cook mainly beans and other vegetables,” she said. “With this business now, at least my children can have some form of balanced diet.”

Early this year, Ms. Nyan was one of the first IDPs to heed a call by the UN to move to a new protection site better suited to accommodate the IDPs than the old site, which was congested and flooded.

“It is better here than at Tomping,” she said. “Here the air is fresh, and the area is spacious and open for my children to play.”

Stephen Chieng, a 30-year old father of three, was also happy with the better facilities at the new protection site. In addition to being on higher ground and having well-dug drainage, the site also has a large football ground, a meeting hall, better water supply, grinding mills, primary school classes, garbage collection sites and enough pit latrines.

“I have not seen any congestion at toilets here,” he said. “In Tomping, sometimes I had to wait in a queue for at least 30 minutes.”

Mr. Chieng, who was a student at the University of Juba, said he has suspended his studies until peace returns. He doesn’t feel safe going back before that happens. In the meantime, he has requested vocational training programmes so that IDPs will be able to leave the camps with some new skills to earn a living as soon as peace prevails in South Sudan.

There is also a lot of trauma in the protection sites, he noted, and asked the UN to set up counseling and peace-building programmes.