“I have been to some of the places with the worst humanitarian conditions in the world, but even there the numbers were better than the ones we are seeing here today, particularly when it comes to youth unemployment and child marriage rates and rates of gender-based violence.”

Sunday Oyella sits patiently working away at her sewing machine. It’s an old-fashioned Singer and requires a fair bit of foot pedalling to keep it running.

But for the 17-year-old, this machine is a lifeline – a chance to build a much brighter future for her and her child. 

An inability to read, write and speak in English is proving to be a huge challenge for law enforcement officers working hard to curb crime in the town of Chimel in the Northern Bahr El Ghazal region.