The Jesuits are accompanying communities in one of the most isolated places in the world and for over a decade Irish Jesuits International have been transforming not only the lives of hundreds of people but the land also – sowing life into places baring scars of the past. 

A rural village called Akol Jal, in Rumbek in South Sudan is one such place. Violence during the civil war was rampant only a few years ago in this region and the surrounding villages are home to marginalized communities, mostly widows and female-headed households.  

Fr Eric Wanyonyi SJ, who is the director of the Multi-educational and Agricultural Jesuit Institute of South Sudan (MAJIS), has a passionate vision for transformation.  

Since 2014, MAJIS has addressed food insecurity to an entire county, roughly 288 villages and home to the most marginalised communities in the country. The project focuses on women and knowledge transfer for sustainable farming, good agricultural practice & appropriate land use. 

Before the project, rural women, suffered food shortages as climate change brought additional hardships and many relied solely on farming for survival – their lives have now been transformed in this Misean Cara Climate award winning project. 

The project has truly brought hope to forgotten lands. 

Atuenydelg is one farmer who is testament to the power of partnership and empowerment. Like many in her community, crop yields was often a struggle – extreme weather and no guidance left many families on the breadline, their efforts in the field cruelly unawarded.  

Famine and food insecurity is quite literally life or death for these communities, but our project has empowered and brought rural communities together with practical trainings including coping mechanisms for drought or mass flooding.  

Farming education has given these people a crucial lifeline and the farmers have grown from strength to strength – their villages unrecognisable from what they once were. 

Atuenydelg gestures outside into the light from inside her tukul (a grass roofed hut).

Around her home she grows pumpkins, groundnuts and okra. She takes produce to the town market by bicycle, and her hard work has meant she can help provide for her family.  

Thanks to your gift of a goat, Atuenydelg is not only a proud farmer but also a herder – with the means to give her six children the opportunities she missed out on. 

Her eyes light up when she explains that from four goats, she now has twenty. She keeps them in a pen when they aren’t grazing. 

The goats aren’t just a source of food, “When my children need school fees, I sell the goats to keep them in school” She explains. “My husband sees the value of education – I’m happy for that”. 

She smiles “I am happy for them” 

At IJI we want to continue supporting marginalised communities so that others can smile like Atuenydelg. 

This Christmas you can do something really special and empower women, like Atuenydelg, to continue supporting themselves and their families. 

With the gift of a goat, YOU can give a mother a chance to add goat milk to her children’s diet, use its dung as fuel and fertilizer and continue to support communities sowing life and hope into forgotten lands. 

To browse our other life changing gifts, visit: www.iji.ie/gifts