Author: David Gama
My name is David Gama and I am an alumni of Harvesters’ Primary School and Hannah Scholarship Program. Through these programs, I was afforded the opportunity to attend university and graduate with a degree in Community Health in 2015.
In July 2016, I left my home town of Yei for Juba to visit with my relatives after nearly four years of living apart. During my short visit, my plan was to tour the city and enjoy the little signs of developmental progress being made. Little did I know that the devil was acutely at work.
On the evening of July 8th, as we were riding home with my elder brother along a popular street, I noticed it was heavily guarded by young men. Little did I know that 15 minutes after we passed from that section of the road, more than 100 of those young men would be lying dead. Likewise, a number of civilians passing along the same route were killed as the fight raged on. Only God knows what would have happened to us if we had delayed our return for just a few minutes.
As it turns out, the ripple effects of this same incident reached every corner of our beloved country and forced many of my friends and relatives to leave for refugee camps in search of a peaceful place to stay. As many have left the country, some remained in the country including myself despite the crippling economy, increasing insecurity, and worsening humanitarian situation. With God being our only hope, we are and will continue serving in the various areas of our gifting to help those that need it most. As such we ask all friends and well-wishers to keep on hoping with us that soon this will come to an end and we will celebrate and live in harmony. Also, my humble appeal to friends and well-wishers across the world is to keep on praying with us that our leaders will come to know Christ and lead as He would do so. God bless South Sudan!