Anisia Achieng

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Anisia Achieng
Member of South Sudanese Parliament, representing Eastern Equatoria
Personal details
Alma mater Catholic University of Eastern Africa

Anisia Karlo Achieng Olworo is a South Sudanese MP and women's rights activist.

Contents

Early life in Sudan

Achieng was born in the South Sudan. Her mother died when she was young and her father died in the civil war. Afterwards she was raised in an orphanage by missionaries who relocated to Uganda. Achieng finished her secondary schooling there and insisted on returning to Sudan to look for her relatives. Following school, she returned to South Sudan to pursue police training and nursing before finding work with Norwegian Church Aid. She was forced out of the country again by the war and relocated to Nairobi where she volunteered for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and attended the Catholic University of Eastern Africa. [1]

Escape to Kenya and activism

Achieng was living in the Nuba Mountains in 1993, when the army and rebels entered the region, forcing her to flee to Kenya to escape the war. Her one and six-year-old children escaped to Uganda with her sister. [2] In Nairobi, Achieng was a co-founder of Sudanese Women's Voice for Peace, a non-governmental organisation devoted to combatting human rights abuses in the Sudan. [3]

Achieng was a delegate alongside Fatima Ahmed Ibrahim for the 1995 Harvest for Sudan: Women's Peace Initiative conference in Nairobi. [4] In 1995–96, Olworo travelled throughout Canada with Ibrahim on a speaking tour to inform people about the war atrocities and women's rights violations taking place in Sudan. [5] She informed the Catholic New Times of Toronto that children and women were being sold into slavery for as little as $35. [6]

In 1998, Achieng earned a BA in social sciences from the Catholic University of Eastern Africa in Nairobi. She also attended the Mindolo Ecumenical Foundation – Pan Africa Institute based in Kitwe where she earned a diploma in Women Leadership.

Following the signing of the Comprehensive Peace Agreement, Achieng and the Women Peace Network Southern Sudan conducted trainings to create awareness of the interim constitution's impact on women. [7]

As a Catholic Relief Services peacebuilding officer, Achieng inspired the Road to Peace project that began in May 2007. The food-for-work project involved building a road between Ikotos and Imatong. [8] She was also involved with a Center for Justice and Peacebuilding program in Sudan. [9]

Political career

Achieng became a Member of Parliament from South Sudan representing Eastern Equatoria. [10] She is also a member of the Intergovernmental Authority on Development in Eastern Africa. [11]

Personal life

Achieng is Christian and has two birth children and an adopted son. [1]

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References

  1. 1 2 Ngunjiri, Faith Wambura (2010). Women's Spiritual Leadership in Africa: Tempered Radicals and Critical Servant Leaders. SUNY Press. pp. 49–51. ISBN   9781438429786.
  2. ↑ Nebenzahl, Donna (2003). Womankind: Faces of Change Around the World. New York: Feminist Press. pp. 5–7. ISBN   1-55861-460-5.
  3. ↑ "Press Briefing by Federation of African Women's Peace Network, Sponsored by UNIFEM". UN.org. United Nations. 6 March 1998. Archived from the original on 9 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  4. ↑ Abusharaf, Rogaia Mustafa (2002). Wanderings: Sudanese Migrants and Exiles in North America . Cornell University Press. p.  104. ISBN   080148779X. Anisia Achieng.
  5. ↑ Lenard, Patti (12 January 1996). "A Fight for Equality". Imprint. 18 (22): 16. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  6. ↑ "For Sale: People – Slavery in Sudan". Commonweal. 17 January 1997.
  7. ↑ Godia, Jane (2 August 2010). "It is time for Kenyan women to emulate their Sudanese counterparts". Kenyan Woman. No. 8. Archived from the original on 11 May 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  8. ↑ Catholic Relief Services (17 April 2008). "Sudan: A better road for peace". ReliefWeb. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  9. ↑ Price Lofton, Bonnie (15 August 2008). "Peace Spreading in South Sudan". Peacebuilder. Archived from the original on 10 May 2020. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  10. ↑ Christian Aid (23 November 2004). "Christian Aid partners address the UN Security Council on peace in Sudan". ReliefWeb. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
  11. ↑ Laakso, Teija (15 May 2014). "Peace talks focus too much on the elite". Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland. Archived from the original on 7 November 2017. Retrieved 5 November 2017.
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