Building Peace in South Sudan

Janice McLaughlin, M.M., president of Maryknoll Sisters, celebrated her anniversary by helping the world's newest nation prepare for the future, and then writing about it in the latest issue of Maryknoll magazine.

I was filled with excitement and curiosity last summer as the plane approached the airport in Juba, capital of the Republic of South Sudan. Just two weeks earlier—on July 9, 2011—this newest nation in Africa had achieved independence after 38 years of civil war. Landing in Juba, I discovered a kind of Wild West town with unpaved streets, one-story buildings and people on the move—on foot, motorbikes and horse-drawn carts—as huge trucks were bringing in supplies from Kenya and Uganda. The scars of war were everywhere—from bombed out buildings to fragments of wrecked planes. The scars were less visible in the people. Still celebrating their hard-won freedom, they exuded a spirit of hope and enthusiasm despite their extreme poverty.

The entire article is here.