Fatuma's journey to self-reliance while displaced in South Sudan

Before sunrise each day, Fatuma Eunice lights a fire, boils water and opens her tea stall in the Ajuong Thok market. This daily routine has helped her family survive for over ten years.

Fatuma is a refugee from Sudan's Nuba Mountains and has lived in Ajuong Thok camp in South Sudan since 2014. She now supports 15 people: her five children, her elderly parents, and her brother’s eight children.

“I want my children to learn so they can escape the poverty we have lived in for so long,” she says.

Fatuma came to South Sudan when violence grew worse in her home region in Sudan. She fled with her husband, their children, and her parents, hoping to find safety. Two years after they arrived, her husband went back to Sudan to look for work and was killed in an airstrike.

Life as a displaced person is difficult, and it got even harder in 2025 when major funding cuts meant food aid was only given to the most vulnerable refugees. For Fatuma and many others in Ajuong Thok and Pamir camps, this change made self-reliance a necessity.

With help from a UNHCR-supported program in Ajuong Thok and Pamir camps, Fatuma received training in business and financial management. She used these skills to improve her tea and cafe business in the camp market.

She earns about SSP 20,000 to SSP 30,000 each day, which is around 4 to 5 US dollars. This money covers food, school fees, and other basic needs. Her oldest son is now in Senior Three at Soba Secondary School, and her younger children are still in primary school.

Years of cooking over open fires have harmed Fatuma’s health. She now has eye problems from long-term exposure to heat and smoke, and her father has similar issues.

If she had enough money, Fatuma would like to open a small shop selling basics like sugar, cooking oil, soap, and biscuits. This would help her avoid daily smoke and give her a safer place to work. She also hopes her oldest son can go to university in Uganda or Kenya one day.

While working to improve her own life, Fatuma has also welcomed others into her home. Nadia, a young woman who lost both parents to snake bites in 2017, came to South Sudan soon after and Fatuma took her in. “I encourage other women to work hard, learn skills, and start their own businesses,” she says. “It is not easy, but it helps us provide for our families.”