For Immediate Release
Press Release
We congratulate the 1,387 South Sudanese youths aged 15 to 29 who graduated from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Youth Empowerment Activity (YEA) training program on March 15 in Wau and Jur River Counties in Western Bahr el Ghazal.
Working with local partners, YEA aims to improve skills, expand livelihood opportunities, support positive behavior change, and improve social cohesion among youth in South Sudan so they are not pressured into joining armed groups. The youth participants completed nine months of rigorous training to improve basic numeracy, literacy and entrepreneurial skills to help them build healthier, more productive, and peaceful lives.
As we celebrate this milestone and recognize South Sudan’s future leaders, we renew our call on the Revitalized Transitional Government of National Unity to use public resources to meet public needs, including basic education. The transitional government needs to invest in its youth, female as well as male. Today, approximately 84 percent of females over age 15 are illiterate and only 8 percent are enrolled in secondary school. This must change if South Sudan is to achieve the prosperous future its people aspire to.
The program will graduate thousands more youth in Eastern Equatoria, Jonglei, Unity, Upper Nile, and Central Equatoria States in 2024.
For more information, please contact the U.S. Embassy Public Diplomacy Section: Henry Andrea, Information and Media Assistant | andreaHJ@state.gov |+211 0912152994