Silent Crisis

Ayen woke up to the surprise of her life as she was being announced on the radio. It was about a wave of a new disease that terrorized the whole world. The World was once such a peaceful global village in which everyone socially interacted freely.

 

She is a young ambitious girl of age fourteen, whose dream is to build a society free from gender inequality where girls are viewed as a source of livelihood.

 

Soon after school closure was announced on the radio, on 20 March 2020 by the ministry of education. Like any other pupil, Ayen thought that could be the beginning of a new chapter for a worldwide population. Little did she know that would be her downfall.

 

"Ayen my daughter, come," her father called frighteningly. He is a middle-aged man with a handsome physique but culturally rooted lacking a modern understanding of society. 

A society where every child has legal rights at the family level. 

 

This is far from the isolated case of a girl who has been reported in the country for over a decade. That girl child education is just the tip of the iceberg since the majority thought it to be a waste of time and resources.

 

“I think you need to be married. You are growing old. I thank the ministry for the closing of schools. Schools keep girls from growing old. Now I have a plan for your marriage. You’ll be married to Lokule. He came to seek your hand in marriage. Unfortunately, you were absent” He added, “It’s better than dying to the pandemic.”

 

With her shattered dreams, she throws herself into a pool of thoughts, thinking about girls around the globe that might be going through hard times like her.

 

Girls are like goods for barter trade among wealthy people without considering the legal child’s right to be human.

 

Men who are deeply rooted in their cultures neglectingly denied their understanding of this universe that is being ruled by technology through education systems.

 

She was a very beautiful girl. A dreamer too. But her dreams of building a free equal society for every child’s voice were smashed in broad daylight. With regrets and complaints of not deserving the treatment.

 

She dwelled in tears all the days and nights. Only google was her friend.

 

Knowing that there is research that was done by UNICEF which urges that around fifteen million adolescent girls between 13 and 19 years, globally experienced SGBV during the lockdown, she wondered how heartless people can be. 

 

She couldn’t believe she is among them, children who suffer silently at the hands of their parents.

 

The pandemic had many negative impacts on girls' and women’s society. Impacting the negative education system too.

 

As the world navigates the increase in inflation, an ongoing pandemic and the harsh effects of coronavirus on children, South Sudan - which is already in a precarious state is struggling to cope with indigenous cultures that contradict the modern educational system on the girl child. 

 

Ayen was forced to marry at the expense of a herd of cattle. She was left with no option but to kill herself the very night she was handed over to Lokule’s family. 

She committed suicide by hanging herself on a tree at his compound.