Stephanie Palfrey-Sneddon has come full circle in her life.

Born in Zimbabwe, she moved to Australia when she was eight years old. Twenty years later, she is back in her home continent serving as a United Nations peacekeeper in South Sudan, which is recovering from a brutal five-year long civil war.

Despite the pressures of her duties serving in the UNMISS Joint Operations Centre at Force Headquarters in Juba, the Australian army officer is using her rare spare time to lead a project to help local children access education at schools near the United Nations base.

“Working for the United Nations has been a dream of mine for a very long time. But to work for such a large organization sometimes it feels as if we are not able to reach the people that we are here to work alongside,” says Captain Stephanie Palfrey-Sneddon.

She’s produced and is selling a special book using photos and inspirational quotes from the children to raise funds to pay school fees for orphans and children in single-parent families, to provide food, books and improve classrooms.

“To be able to be involved in the community, make friends with the teachers, the staff and to get some pearls of wisdom from some of the students has been an absolute highlight of my time in South Sudan.”

Having previously deployed with an Aboriginal community assistance program in Australia, she is passionate about improving living standards in remote communities and creating opportunities for indigenous peoples.

In South Sudan, women and girls are often denied access to education, jobs, participation in political processes as well as subjected to sexual violence and early and forced marriage. Empowering them is something this peacekeeper feels passionately about.

“When I reflect on my own journey, I realize how much of it starts in the home. In my case, that started with having a very long line of very capable and determined women who helped to show me the way,” she says. “It came from parents who afforded me with every opportunity they would have afforded a son and from having a brother and sister who continue to be two of my greatest role models today.”

This year, the United Nations marks the 20^th anniversary of the adoption of Security Council Resolution 1325 on Women Peace and Security, a ground-breaking step spearheaded by women leaders and organizations. It is the first resolution that recognized women’s leadership to achieve international peace and security and their contributions to conflict prevention and resolution, peacekeeping, and peacebuilding.

“I think the 20^th anniversary of Women, Peace and Security is, first of all a huge milestone, but it’s also one that I feel particularly passionate and privileged to be able to celebrate while being deployed in a role in which its pillars have been at the forefront for so long,” says Captain Palfrey-Sneddon.

“Something I recently heard that resonated about the progress that’s been made in those last 20 years is the shift in mindset which is that we are no longer adding minority and under-represented groups to a problem but instead questioning why they were never there in the first place. And I think this points to a really crucial and powerful step in being able to amplify those voices to dismantle the systems of oppression that has silenced them for too long and to encourage us all to do our part.”

Stephanie Palfrey-Sneddon’s deployment to South Sudan has been doubly difficult with the COVID-19 pandemic severely restricting the ability to move around the country, work closely with colleagues, and to mingle with the community she serves.

The rare opportunity to connect with local children and help them achieve their dreams has inspired her to think about her own future and reminds her how lucky she is to have the support of her family during these troubled times.  

“My husband Harry always sees me as his equal and often reminds me of the strengths I can offer a team in which I might not necessarily look or think the same way that they do,” she says.

“Lately, it feels like I’m coming full circle and, for the first time, considering starting a family of my own. We want our children to be raised in a world where they understand the responsibilities that come with any privilege they might have and that, until all of us are free, none of us are. I think, if there’s one thing that I’ve learnt from my time in South Sudan, it’s that that example has to be set by us. We have to show them the way.”  

Preparing to return home after her deployment, Stephanie Palfrey-Sneddon can be confident that she has led by example and touched the lives of the others in the world’s newest nation, giving the next generation hope that they can also achieve their dreams.