Sr. Brigid Tunney:

That is a very good question. In South Sudan I would not think it is an issue for the President in terms of the very fragile peace agreement there. I would say that he is totally focused on that. It is more at a local level, where we are in the western lake states, that we got the ministerial decree to help us keep the girls in the school. We have spent a lot of time building relationships. It is the relationships with the chiefs, the sub-chiefs and the whole hierarchy that must be gone through. I had a conversation with the paramount chief last year when we negotiated for these girls. I asked him how seriously he was going to take it. I explained that he was negotiating for us and I asked him if he really believed in it. He sat smiling at me. I said that he was an educated man. He is educated, is a lawyer and has English. Most people in his community would not have any education. I believe that on his part he was doing this to favour us. We have a school but we also have a clinic and we employ gardeners and so on. We are very central to the community where we are. We provide a lot for the local community. Supporting us in this regard was his way of saying thanks.

South Sudan, however, is so far behind that I do not think they really recognise it, but we see the mothers changing. Mothers are the ones who push for it. Two weeks ago, 12 mothers came and wanted their daughters to be taken into the boarding school. They knew that if the girls stayed much longer in the primary school, they would be taken away to be married. They managed to get their husbands to sign the commitment form. They want their daughters to complete their primary certificate, which very few of their mothers had managed to do because they were taken out of the primary school and married off. We see a change in the mindset of the women. They will advocate for their daughters and they might have some influence. I agree with the Deputy that possibly it is a token. South Sudan is just so far behind that I do not think it is an issue yet. Many of the girls coming out from our school would be more educated than the Minister of Education in that state. In that sense, sometimes we have to be careful. The girls could be seen as a threat to the men. We have to be careful how we tread, but at the same time we are ploughing another furrow. I do not know if this has answered the Deputy's question, but it may give him some insight.