AKOBO/BOR – Many young South Sudanese women and men are involuntarily idle and desperate for any opportunities to earn qualifications that may lead to gainful employment or enable them to start their own small businesses.

In Akobo and Bor, in volatile Jonglei State, a significant number of them were given such chances, with the graduates of three-month-long vocational trainings in both towns determined to grab them with both hands.

“Everyone should plant vegetables. If you do, you gain good health and a possibility to earn money without subjecting yourself to the risks of assaults we women run when we collect firewood,” says Rodah Nyathuok Lual in Akobo.

There, more than 100 youth, with the majority being women, have learnt income-generating skills like farming, tailoring, hairdressing, marketing and financial management.

The initiative, funded by the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) and implemented by the national non-governmental organization Community Initiative for Development, is timely as resources in Akobo, following the return of many previously conflict-displaced persons, have become scarcer than usual.

“When we work, we become role models in our communities by promoting both development and peace. When everyone is busy, there is no time or room for conflict,” says Domach Makuach Mark, another proud owner of new and marketable skills who, like all graduates, was also given a starter kit and connected to banks and other lenders for possible investments.

UN peacekeepers from South Korea have given 77 of Domach’s peers in Bor reason to be equally optimistic about their futures. In the state capital, they have learnt everything from wiring a building safely and repairing a leaking pipe to cultivating food and raising poultry.

“From now on, I hope people will buy eggs and chickens from me,” says Akuoch Mary Atem as she details her plan to open a poultry farm to support herself and her family.

More young, aspiring women and men in and around Bor are likely to benefit from similar opportunities in the future.

“In cooperation with the government, we hope that we’ll be able to expand our vocational school,” says Colonel Kwon Byung Guk, Commander of the South Korean contingent, who also revealed that his government will provide five top students with full scholarships for advanced studies in the East Asian country.