Author: Kullein Ankunda

Fiza* fled when her home was looted, shot at and burned down during the conflict. She was so afraid she climbed a tree and hid there for three days – a lion circling below for some of it – until someone helped her. She relocated and joined the hair and beauty course at the training centre. After she graduated, she set up a hairdressing business in the market with Save’s support and it’s doing well. She used her earnings to complete secondary school, support her family with supplies and medical treatment (her father was shot during the attack on her village and needed the bullet to be removed from his leg). She’s also saving for university and wants to study business. QUOTE: Fiza*: “If I can have a business and do things that make me happy, I will have a better life. Save the Children has done a great job of helping people like me stand on my own two feet. The skills I’ve got through Save the Children have helped me improve my life and I’m still progressing – so the more I progress, the more grateful I am to Save the Children.” “At 4am we were all sleeping but then the fighters came and burned all the houses to grass and threw firebombs and blew up our houses. One night a lion came and was circling the tree because it could smell human.” BACKGROUND We spent a week at the activity centre, watching students learn and practise their trades, getting to know their plans for a positive, peaceful future, and hearing about the violence and pain they’ve all overcome. The centre and what happens there every day is a beacon of hope in the community. We wanted the photos to reflect the positivity and vibrancy of this young generation – that’s building a new future for South Sudan. Students and graduates from each discipline posed with their tools in a makeshift studio in a semi-sheltered area on site. They’re standing against backdrops of fabric finished by the tailoring class and teacher, hung on poles fixed by the welding student