12/06/2015
Concern for Women and Children (CWC), Office of the First Lady _Republic of South Sudan 2013 Activates ,First Lady calls for charity funds
September 27, 2013 (NEW YORK)
The first lady of South Sudan has openly appealed to well-wishers in the United States to extend support to women and children in the young nation. Speaking during a televised interview at the First Ladies Alliance ceremony held in New York Friday, Mary Ayen Mayardit urged support for Concern for Women and Children (CWC); an organisation she founded. CWC is an indigenous entity with a mission to mitigate suffering, injustice and poverty by empowering women and supporting children. In her remarks, Ayen did not shy away from the problems South Sudan faces, after decades of the long civil war it fought with SudanThe first lady, for instance, told the gathering that 65% of the women in the young nation are still illiterate, an indication the vast majority of its young people cannot read or write. “There are issues related to women capacities to achieve economic independence; women are in the rural areas,
girls are either denied schooling or taken out of school at 14 years to be married”, said Ayen. These are the issues we are dealing with, she addedCurrently, South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world, with 2,054 maternal deaths per100,000 live births, statistics show.
The government, according to the first lady, has granted women equal opportunity to women through the 25% affirmative granted to them in the country’s transitional constitution. “It could be noted that women had always provided the lead in feeding their families either by cultivating or by doing marginal jobs in the towns”, she said. If women are economically empowered this could impact positively on the poverty level and the morbidity and mortality amongst children and mothers, Ayen added.
The Mother of the Nation is recently returned home from abroad.