The office of South Sudanese First Lady Mary Ayen Mayardit and the Ministry of Gender, Child and Social Welfare in Northern Bahr el Ghazal State teamed up over the weekend to distribute humanitarian aid to returnees who fled the war in Sudan.
The food items were donated by the fisrt lady and the priority beneficiaries were mothers with infants, the elderly, and people with special needs who received wheat flour, rice, and cooking oil.
Speaking to Radio Tamazuj during the distribution of the food aid, the director-general at the state gender ministry, Mary Arkangelo Bak, said that initiative was launched on Friday and that 100 people received the donated items.
She said a similar exercise will be carried out on Monday to ensure that more returnees receive food.
“Today (Friday) is not the only day for the distribution but this is the launch of the event so the committee which was assigned to do the work will carry its first report to the first lady in Juba and the exercise will continue from tomorrow onwards,” she said.
Meanwhile, Achol Deng, a beneficiary who fled the Sudan conflict, thanked the first lady for the food items.
“Thank you Mama Mary Ayen Mayardit and we wanted to congratulate you for your tireless efforts in support of women’s rights,” she said. “We have faced a lot of challenges on our way from Sudan but today we have realized that we have returned to our country.”
Another recipient, Achai Dut, said their children have been starving for a long but however, said that the food they were given cannot feed a family for a week.
“Our children are all suffering and we wrap them in blankets and bedsheets. The food will get finished in six to seven days because it is not enough and I have eight children,” she lamented. “I pray to God to touch the heart of the first lady so that she can send us more food assistance.”