UNMISS donates food and nonfood items to Bor orphanage center

UNMISS Head of Field Office Deborah Schein hands over generator keys to acting director of orphanage

Sri Lankan Commander handing over items to orphanage

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12 Feb 2020

UNMISS donates food and nonfood items to Bor orphanage center

Mach Samuel

“One hand cannot make a clap. Before God, I am so happy to see the world supporting us,” said Alier Wal who lost both parents in 2013.

“This is light at the end of the tunnel,” he assured his fellow orphans.

Alier, was speaking at a donation by the Sri-Lankan Aviation section of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan. They donated food and non-food items and a generator to more than 200 children at the Blessed Home Orphanage Center in Bor.

It was to mark Sri Lankan Independence Day which falls on the fourth of February.

The children celebrated the donation with songs and messages for a peaceful South Sudan where every child would have an opportunity to be anything including flying helicopters, the main task of the Sri Lankans in UNMISS.

When asked about the whereabouts of his parents, Alier was almost at tears. The 14-year-old had lost both parents.

“My father left one morning as if he would return.  Before he left, he told me that he would come back in the evening with my exercise books. But I have not seen him since then,” Alier explained about the fate of his father.

Alier was 8-year-old when his father died. Since then he dropped out of school. He collected empty crystals of used water and soda to sell at Marol market to survive.

“Ms. Aluel Nhial came to my rescue. He said referring to the director of the Blessed Home Orphanage, who has been caring for him and others like him over the last couple of years.

The Blessed Home Orphanage hosts up to 210 children - 72 girls and 138 boys.

Forty-one have lost both parents while 100 children have single parents. 38 of these children have their parents alive but they live in the streets. The economic hardship in the country as result of war has made it difficult for their parents to provide basic needs including food. Blessed home orphanage takes care of these children without parental care. They also receive their food, education and medication from the orphanage.

Nhial sold three of her plots in Juba, the national capital to take care of the orphans. Over the years, she has been appealing to humanitarian agencies and the local authorities to support the orphanage in Bor among the supporters, UNMISS came to her rescue thrice.