Hajat Karama holds tightly onto her new solar radio
Hajat Karama has been relying on people around her to get news and information about what is going on in her country.
“I am an old woman who is unable to even move around freely due to limited mobility and vision,” she says.
Ms. Karama is now a proud owner of a brand-new radio – a prized possession she holds onto tightly.
“I did not have access to a radio, which left me with a huge information gap on the peace process. I remember when I left the IDP [internally displaced people’s] camp in Wau, it was a friend who informed me that peace had come to South Sudan, and so the UN was taking us home,” says the 65-year-old mother, who has now resettled in her old home in Wau’s Lokoloko area.
To keep people like Hajat Karama and her peers informed about the peace process, the UN Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), through its Relief, Reintegration and Protection Section, has distributed 700 solar radio sets to returnees and vulnerable persons in the country’s Wau town.
“Today I have got a solar-power radio that makes me want to keep listening live to Radio Miraya, particularly to the ‘Peace Makers’ programme which focuses on hope for peace in the country,” says Ms. Karama, before adding, “I really like the radio sets that we received today because they are solar power operated, and I can use it without any challenges. This will also encourage me to listen to Radio Miraya daily,” she says, referring repeatedly to the UN Mission-run radio.
In the neighbouring Kosti area, sits Zaki Ali, another returnee and a recipient of one of the radio sets.
“Thanks to UNMISS who brought us solar radio sets that will enable us to be empowered and fully access information. I was always wishing to have a radio so that I can closely follow what’s happening with the peace process, and ‘Nationwide News’ on Radio Miraya,” Ali says.
Chief Juma Mater, a traditional leader in Lokoloko, understands too well what this means, expressing his appreciation to UNMISS’ continued support to returnees.
“The distribution of these radio sets will enable and empower recipient families to listen and increase their awareness of peace and reconciliation programmes in the country,” Mr. Mater says.
Mr. Muhammad Salahuddin, the UN Mission’s Relief, Reintegration, and Protection Officer in Wau and representative at the handover ceremony, commended the continued cooperation between UNMISS and the returnees’ community in Western Bahr el Ghazal in promoting the ongoing peace process and other UNMISS activities in the Wau area.
The project is part of the Mission’s ongoing support to returnees in Western Bahr El-ghazal and other parts of the country, in line with creating an enabling environment for informed, safe and dignified returns.