What do you do in your home country and what do you hope to do upon your return? In particular, with the integration of your experiences here?

In my home country I work as a youth activist with a special focus on sexual reproductive health rights. We have an issue where our numbers of HIV/AIDS and teen pregnancy  are rising in the country, so I am advocating for the right access to information, the right access to sexual reproductive services with a special focus on youth between 15-35 years old.

Having this opportunity makes me feel I can do my job even better than I have been doing it. I am hoping to do big things and that after attending this fellowship, my plans are that as a country we should be organizing big conferences. It is a dream of mine to pass on the knowledge from this experience to initiate these conferences, or at least annual events, to bring together young people from across the country to talk about their experiences and how to they can tackle these experiences and advocate them themselves together.  

What is your favorite thing about your home country? How about Philadelphia?

I think my favorite things about South Sudan are the culture, the diversity. I come from a country where we are 64 different tribes. I like seeing this cultural diversity represented in different ways.

So far, my favorite thing about Philadelphia is independence hall and seeing the declaration room and having the opportunity for seeing where George Washington was. Today’s present on effective communication was also good. Also, the people and the diversity of the people, it makes me feel like I could stay here for longer, but I have work that is important that I want to do back home.

Do you have any hobbies or an interesting fact you wish to share about yourself?

My hobbies are I like listening to news, exploring and reading about upcoming events, listening to public speakers. This motivates me.

If I were to come to your home country, what is the first thing I should eat?

A pepper food –  Kisra. It is so delicious. It is one of the favorite kinds of food. It can be eaten with different sauces.