{"id":48100,"date":"2026-09-22T10:58:00","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T08:58:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/?p=48100"},"modified":"2026-09-22T11:07:42","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T09:07:42","slug":"op-ed-how-south-sudan-is-defined-by-its-resilience-not-problems","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/2026\/09\/22\/op-ed-how-south-sudan-is-defined-by-its-resilience-not-problems\/","title":{"rendered":"Op-Ed: How South Sudan is defined by its resilience, not problems"},"content":{"rendered":"

Writer: Catherine Lunkuse <\/strong>\u2013 lunkusecathy@gmail.com<\/em><\/p>\n

Before I came to South Sudan, I had heard many stories about the country. I heard about conflict. I heard about poverty, displacement, insecurity, political uncertainty, and economic hardship. I heard about a young nation struggling to find its footing after years of turmoil. From a distance, South Sudan appeared to me as a country defined by its problems.<\/p>\n

Then I came. I spent some months in South Sudan, and slowly, the country I had heard about began to give way to the country I could see, touch, and experience every day. I met the people behind the headlines. And what I found was far more complex\u2014and far more hopeful\u2014than the picture I had carried with me.<\/p>\n

What struck me most was resilience. I saw people wake up every morning and go to work. I saw traders opening their businesses, professionals reporting to their workplaces, parents worrying about school fees, young people searching for opportunities, and families finding ways to care for one another.<\/p>\n

Life does not stop because circumstances are difficult. People adapt, improvise, work, hope; they try again, and to me that is resilience.<\/p>\n

Resilience is not always dramatic. Sometimes it is a mother finding a way to feed her children. Sometimes it is a young person acquiring a skill while waiting for an opportunity. Sometimes it is a business owner opening the shop again after a difficult day.<\/p>\n

I also encountered something that cannot easily be captured in economic statistics: hospitality. As a foreigner living in South Sudan, I experienced moments of kindness, friendship, and generosity that challenged some of the assumptions I had heard before arriving. People welcomed me into conversations, workplaces, and communities.<\/p>\n

I discovered that behind the country’s difficult headlines are ordinary people who laugh, celebrate, build relationships, and raise families and dream about a better future.<\/p>\n

South Sudan is not simply a story of suffering. It is a story of courageous people who face challenges with hope, embrace life with warmth, and continue working towards a brighter future.<\/p>\n

Every nation faces its own challenges, and South Sudan is no exception. Acknowledging these difficulties should not be seen as criticism of the country or its people but as part of understanding the realities they face and identifying ways to support progress.<\/p>\n

The resilience of South Sudanese people should be accompanied by continued efforts to strengthen services and expand opportunities.<\/p>\n

Young people deserve opportunities to work, innovate, and build businesses. More women deserve meaningful access to finance, markets, education, and leadership opportunities. Communities deserve an economy that allows hard work to translate into sustainable livelihoods.<\/p>\n

During my stay, I became particularly conscious of the opportunities that could emerge from investing in women and young people.<\/p>\n

Women are already contributing to households, businesses, communities, and the economy. Yet many still face barriers to finance, formal employment, and business development.<\/p>\n

Young people represent enormous human potential, and if their energy, creativity, and ambition are connected to education, vocational skills, entrepreneurship, technology, and employment, they can become powerful contributors to South Sudan’s economic transformation.<\/p>\n

South Sudan does not lack people with dreams. The focus should be on creating enough pathways for those dreams to become reality.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Writer: Catherine Lunkuse \u2013 lunkusecathy@gmail.com Before I came to South Sudan, I had heard many stories about the country. I heard about conflict. I heard about poverty, displacement, insecurity, political uncertainty, and economic hardship. I heard about a young nation struggling to find its footing after years of turmoil. From[Read More…]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":48101,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[89,90,80,87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-48100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columnists","category-commentary","category-national","category-oped"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Catherine-Lunkuse-e1790067600944.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48100"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48104,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48100\/revisions\/48104"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.onecitizendaily.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}