By Abraham Wani Alfred, Survivor Aid (GLFx Juba)
In early 2023, the chaos of conflict in Sudan forced 41-year-old Neima to abandon her home in Khartoum, Sudan.
With gunfire erupting daily and families disappearing overnight due to armed conflict, she fled southward with her four children, a small bag and fierce determination.
Her destination: the Gorom Refugee Settlement in neighboring South Sudan, a country with its own recent history of conflict.
The journey, spanning over 1,200 kilometers, tested every ounce of their strength. The family endured scorching heat, hostile terrain and dangerous checkpoints. Hunger gnawed at them; her youngest cried, her eldest bore the burden of protecting his siblings.
At the border town of Renk, the family waited days before crossing into South Sudan – exhausted but hopeful.
Eventually, they made it to Gorom, located just outside the South Sudanese capital, Juba.
Gorom is now home to over 22,000 refugees from across the region, including Sudan, Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Its residents face chronic food insecurity, limited access to water and fragile infrastructure.
Survivor Aid was an organization born out of a need to support the growing refugee population in South Sudan. We do this not through ‘Band-Aid’ support but by involving people in restoration – by reconnecting people with the land that can nourish and support them.
We founded Survivor Aid to address the interlinked crises of displacement, environmental degradation and food insecurity across South Sudan.
When Neima and her kids arrived in Gorom, she was warmly welcomed alongside hundreds of other refugees into a place of hope. She received training in agroecology, small business development, cooking and land restoration.
“When I first arrived in Gorom, I had nothing but a few seeds and a broken heart,” she recalls.
“Now I grow food, teach other women and earn enough to send my children to school. Mentorship gave me more than skills – it gave me my life back.”
Neima’s journey from survival to leadership is one of many stories that show how mentorship in Gorom is transforming not just livelihoods but identities, communities and futures.
In early 2023, as Sudanese refugees spilled into Gorom, food insecurity in the camp spiraled. Women began organizing informally – sharing seeds, cooking together and selling small portions of food to survive.
What started as a survival strategy quickly evolved into a community-led movement for food sovereignty and economic empowerment.
At Survivor Aid, we include refugees as participants in the decisions that dictate their life and well-being. We host community meetings where refugees and hosts from the area gather to identify needs, design and adapt programs and allocate resources. Women, youth and other marginalized groups also have the space for their voices to be heard.
Ultimately, we hope to foster trust, accountability and shared ownership of solutions. We do this by hosting inclusive, community-led training sessions where residents learn skills in agroecology, sustainable farming, small business management, nutrition and climate resilience.
Women, especially, have emerged as changemakers. They have taken on leadership roles and formed cooperatives, and like Neima, some have created small businesses such as seedling nurseries and food stalls.
Refugees are also building community by volunteering their time and labor in exchange for necessities – a system that fosters dignity even with limited financial resources.
In Gorom, refugees have contributed to restoring 500 degraded hectares of land by planting native trees and creating hand-dug basins to collect rainwater. Volunteers also helped mix and spread compost made from kitchen scraps and livestock manure to enrich the soil.
Through community-led efforts, refugees have helped plant more than 3,000 trees across Gorom, endowing the camp with trees like mango, moringa, neem, jackfruit, avocado, lemon and acacia. These trees provide shade for the sun-scorched camp and fruit for families.
“We planted trees to feed our children,” one volunteer tells us, “but now, they feed our hope.”
When someone becomes a refugee, their life is upended in every way. We want to support them in becoming secure.
That includes installing water wells, which not only ensure greater access to water but also support crop irrigation and prevent the spread of waterborne diseases such as cholera, dysentery and typhoid.
In Gorom, women are stepping up as leaders in implementing deep water wells closer to the town. This helps women and children avoid making long treks to collect water, when they may be exposed to violence, and enables children to spend more time in school.
To ensure that these water supplies last, it’s also important to educate Gorom’s residents on proper water use. This also helps prevent drought stress and overwatering, both of which attract pests like aphids, caterpillars and root rot pathogens.
“Before the well, our crops wilted and pests came like a storm,” another volunteer says. “Now, with steady water, our tomatoes shine and our children are staying healthy.”
We are also hosting cooking classes to teach refugee families to prepare meals safely and nutritiously using locally available ingredients.
By introducing agroforestry, creating five active plant nurseries and hosting these cooking classes with fuel-efficient stoves, we’ve seen a 35-percent increase in household vegetable consumption, a 20-percent rise in income from those selling at food stalls and a palpable reduction in child malnutrition, especially among newly arrived refugees.
Here are a few local ingredients and dishes we make with them in Gorom:
| Ingredient | Example dish | Notes |
| Okra | Okra stew with groundnut paste | Rich in vitamins, easy to grow |
| Cassava | Cassava porridge | Staple food, drought-resistant |
| Sorghum | Sorghum flatbread | Gluten-free, high in fiber |
| Pumpkin leaves | Pumpkin leaf sauce | Nutritious and widely available |
| Tomatoes and onions | Vegetable relish | Used in food stalls and home meals |
One of the most valuable lessons we’ve learned is just how crucial it is to give refugees a purpose – enabling them to shift from reliance to resilience. Viewing refugees as contributors transforms them from voiceless to vital.
The refugee experience will always carry sorrow, but by providing refugees with housing, food assistance and sanitary infrastructure, Gorom carries something more: possibility and dignity.
Security isn’t just protection from violence. It means access to healthcare, livelihoods, clean water and education. When people feel safe, not just physically, but economically and socially, they can invest in their future and that of the entire country.
Neima’s voice carries the plea of many: “We just need food, not guns.”
In other words: by investing in refugee protection as a national asset, we can unlock human capital, drive inclusive development and build lasting peace.
Refugees envision a South Sudan that no longer sends them into exile but welcomes them into citizenship. They yearn for stable governance, demilitarized communities and educational systems that nurture growth.
Every peaceful day in Gorom is a building block for nationwide stability.
If restoration efforts are expanded, agricultural programs prioritized and the rights of refugees and marginalized groups fully recognized, South Sudan could become a beacon of inclusive development and resilience.
With communities leading climate-smart farming, restoring degraded lands and launching local enterprises, food security could flourish – not just in settlements like Gorom but across the country.
We are seeing how refugees and displaced populations, when given resources and knowledge, can shift from reliance to leadership, transforming aid into opportunity.
A South Sudan that embraces restoration and equity could redefine its legacy from conflict to cooperation, where once-displaced citizens stand proudly as contributors to a nation rooted in healing and growth.
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