Thirty-nine-year-old Abuk Buol, a mother of six from Bor, is among the many women in South Sudan who endured the horrors of conflict-related sexual violence (CRSV). Now a participant in a transformative workshop, she is rebuilding her life and helping others do the same. The workshop, part of a broader initiative supported by the UNFPA, UNMISS, ITC, and South Sudan’s Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare, aims to promote the socio-economic empowerment of CRSV survivors through access to justice, livelihood skills, and psychosocial support.
Through this program, survivors like Abuk receive vital services from Family Protection and One Stop Centers, including medical care, legal aid, and economic training. Abuk has channeled her resilience into small-scale entrepreneurship—engaging in retail trade and soap-making—demonstrating how economic independence can be a cornerstone for healing and reintegration.
The workshop also served as a platform to amplify survivor voices, identify obstacles to reintegration, and drive policy reforms. It encouraged collaboration among national and international actors to improve support systems and ensure survivors are at the forefront of both response and prevention efforts. The initiative not only seeks to restore dignity to those affected but also to build a more inclusive and just society in post-conflict South Sudan.