When the water inside her house reached her knees, Nyengieth Chol knew it was over.
For days, she and her neighbors had fought to keep the rising waters away from their village. They collected sand for embankments and dug drainage channels, but the river just kept rising.
“At first, we hoped the water would recede. But when it reached our knees inside the house, we had no choice but to flee,” says the 55-year-old mother and grandmother.
She lived with her daughter and grandchildren in a village in Baliet County in northern South Sudan. But the floods made the village uninhabitable.
“Everything was destroyed. We had to leave,” she says.
Nyengieth and her daughter grabbed whatever they could carry: a few blankets and some cooking utensils. Everything else was left behind.
“We walked through the water carrying the children on our shoulders. We left the village around 1 PM, and it wasn’t until sunset that we were picked up by some canoes. I was afraid. The water was full of animals, and the children could become sick from it,” she says.
Has lost almost everything
This is not the first time Nyengieth’s life has been turned upside down. She lost a son during the civil war about ten years ago. Later, her daughter’s husband died. For years, the two women have carried sole responsibility for supporting the family.
When the floods came, they also lost their home and farmland. Today, they are staying with relatives in the village of Nyangkuach, on the other side of the river. They have almost nothing left.
A lifesaver: cash assistance from the EU
Through DanChurchAid and its South Sudanese partner organisation Nile Hope, the family receives monthly cash assistance for three months. The cash assistance is funded by EU. The money enables them to buy food and other essentials while Nyengieth and her daughter try to rebuild their lives.
“If we had not received this support, I’m afraid we would be dead by now. Life is very difficult for us in this situation,” she explains.
If there is any money left over, Nyengieth plans to send it to her other son, who is studying in the capital, Juba. His education is the hope the entire family is holding on to.
The weather is not like before
Nyengieth has lived in the area all her life. When she was a child, the rains came regularly, and families planned their farming around the seasons. That is no longer the case.
“Back then, we didn’t worry about the weather. Now, sometimes there is far too much rain, and other times none at all,” she says.
The increasingly extreme weather conditions make it difficult to farm the land and provide food for the family.
“I don’t know why the weather has changed. But it has made farming here much more difficult. And farming is what we have always lived from.”
Yet Nyengieth refuses to give up.
“I hope the water will recede soon so that we can return to our village and cultivate the land again. I will plant crops again next year, even if they may be destroyed. This is where I have always lived, and I am proud to be South Sudanese. Nothing can break us,” she says firmly.
