A well-known Malakal businesswoman and restaurateur in Malakal town of Upper Nile State has urged South Sudanese widows not to sit and lament but to do business to help send their children to school.
Mama Nyaunya Arop Tipo who owns one of the biggest and most popular restaurants in Malakal lost her husband in 2013 and says she had to start doing business to help raise and educate her children. Today, her eatery employs 15 people.
Radio Tamazuj caught up with and interviewed the prominent businesswoman in Malakal town. She encouraged women and particularly widows to be enterprising.
“My message to the women and especially the widows is that we should be enterprising. Let us do business so that we can raise our children,” she advised. “Let us not allow our children to desert homes and become bad street kids. Especially to women whose husbands have died, let us work, let us be enterprising.”
Mama Nyaunya said she took her children to Khartoum when the crisis started in 2013 and returned to Malakal in 2018 to set up her restaurant.
“I am working now and my children are dressed like they did not lose their father. I am employing all tribes and have Nuer, Dinka, and Shilluk. We do not have tribalism in business and I am uniting all the tribes in my business,” she said. “If anyone looks for a job, whether young or old, I employ them because they want something to help their children.”
Achol Ajak, a mother of eight who is employed at Mama Nyaunya’s restaurant said she was able to feed her children and pay for their education.
“We are working to raise and support our children. We have been working and staying with this mama for many years and she is our mother,” she said. “The money we get here helps us but prices of commodities in the market are now very high and that is the only problem.”
Another of Mama Nyaunya’s employees, Adieu Jane who is also a widow and mother of five children, said she is able to put food on the table because of her work at the restaurant.
“I have five children. Two girls are in school but one boy dropped out. Our work is going on well and we get our pay every day. We get 500 pounds in the morning and 1200 pounds in the evening,” Adieu said.
Malakal is among the towns in the greater Upper Nile region which were devastated by years of conflict in South Sudan and gunshot marks are still visible on most buildings in the town. However, life slowly seems to be returning to normal in the town.
Sudanese traders currently dominate trade in the town. A few Ethiopian, Ugandan, and South Sudanese traders are also in the retailing and textile business.