Transform a Village in South Sudan

The lives of many young people are being transformed because they are learning job skills and are able to support themselves and their families. With help from donors like you, World Concern operates the only vocational training program in Warrap State, South Sudan, which is home to about a million people. In South Sudan, 85% of the population is engaged in non-wage work, and half live on less than $1 a day.

I want to introduce you to John, a young dad whose life has changed dramatically because of your support in his village of Lietnhom, South Sudan, where the vocational training center is located.

John and his family have lived in Lietnhom for nine years. They witnessed, and survived, the brutal civil war that destroyed what little infrastructure that was there. Despite the hard life he’s lived, an immense smile spreads across John’s face. This and his lanky six-foot-five figure make him unmistakably memorable. But what’s most memorable about John is the great sense of dignity and excitement that he exudes.

Like many in South Sudan, John has spent the majority of his life struggling to provide an income for his family with no job skills. He has scarcely managed to feed his children. But because of the support of World Concern and donors like you, he has been given what every human being deserves—the opportunity to provide for himself and his family.

Through World Concern’s vocational training program, John was trained as a mechanic—and a fabulous one at that. He fixes motor bikes in a little shop in Lietnhom’s main market. He believes so strongly in the value of job skills that he’s training others in order that they too can find work and provide for themselves. His dream is to own his own mechanic shop someday and employ others like those he trains.

Empowerment to move past daily survival—this this is what John, and others, have been blessed with. You can see on his face the effect of such empowerment—dignity, self-sufficiency, and joy.