When an actor is acting very well, it is sometimes difficult to see him beyond the character he plays. That is the case with Forest Whitaker who visited South Sudan. We know Forest from the movie ‘The last King of Scotland’ where he was transformed to Uganda’s dictator Idi Amin. He played that role so well that one almost would believe that a cruel man is in front of you when you meet Forest.

But that is not the case. Forest Whitaker is UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Peace and Reconciliation and his Peace Earth Foundation has launched the Youth Peacemaker Network in South Sudan. With 72 percent of the South Sudanese population under the age of 30, a peaceful future for the country is in the hands of the young. “Peace is an enabling factor for the development and prosperity of South Sudan and to the building of a national identity, said Mr. Salah Khaled, UNESCO Juba’s Head of Office. “It is essential to empower young people and train them with the skills they need to be tomorrow’s leaders.”

Forest Whitaker: “Peace Earth is an organization that works in areas of conflict for peace building and community building. We do that through education, through information, through social media. One of our core methods is training in which we bring individuals together who generally are women to teach them conflict transformation, leadership skills, social media tools and life coaching in regards of how to deal with stress and other issues.”

When SHE asks Forest about the importance of women he says: ”Women do amazing work. They are the ones dealing with the family, they look after the community and they are the network builders.” We wish that all dictators could be transformed into actors…

SHE magazine and the Corporate business newspaper (also publisher of Kick Off, South Sudan’s sports weekly) are joining hands. The most important reason for a more intensive cooperation is to tackle the depriving economic media sector in South Sudan by cost saving operations, as well as to boost the quality of media content by combining sources and to diversify the media offer.

With their collaboration they are the biggest player in the private media print sector. The Corporate is South Sudan’s largest business newspaper, Kick Off is the country’s only sports weekly and SHE is the biggest magazine in the country and the only women’s magazine. The media titles remain with their own publishers. Since February 2013 the media houses are operating from one office, located at Bakhita Radio Compound.

It is not too good to be a woman in South Sudan. That is in short the outcome of a yearly report by Save the Children. Out of 42 least developed countries, South Sudan ranks 36 with mainly Islamic countries like Afghanistan, Sudan, Yemen and Niger ranking even lower. The result is a combination of health status (risk of maternal death), political status, economic status, education and children status. In the mother’s and children’s index rank, South Sudan scores slightly better, respectively 33 and 30 out of the 42 least developed countries. (State of the world’s mothers 2012 report, Save the Children)

Only 6 percent of the women in South Sudan use modern contraception. South Sudan has the highest maternal mortality rate in the world: 2,054 per 100,000 live births and there is a one in seven chance of a woman dying of pregnancy related causes. Giving women in conflict or disaster-hit communities more control over when and whether to have children will be key to the success of global efforts to reduce maternal mortality in developing countries, say development organisations. On a positive note, in 2011 alone, 71,000 women across a number of crisis-affected countries including Chad, South Sudan and Pakistan, started using modern contraceptive methods.  (source: UNDP, IRC, Save the Children)

Waakhe Simon Wudu from Gurtong.net reported that the Miss Malaika South Sudan beauty pageant will be held on 10 November, a week from now. That has been announced byLam Tungwar, the SSAA Chairperson organizer of the event. The event is obviously sponsored by Vivacell as all the contestants lined up are wearing a ‘charming’ Vivacell cap. South Sudan has seen an explosion of beauty contests over the last years, especially since this year -after Atong deMach reaching a 4th place in the international Miss World contestant- the country considers beauty pageants as a way to market the country. Atong deMach has been appointed to the Ambassador of Beauty and the winner of Miss Malaika will be appointed to Ambassador of Culture and Peace. An overview of all the beauty contests in South Sudan can be read in SHE edition 4 as well as an interview with Atong deMach and an interview with Nyanut, the woman behind the Miss World South Sudan pageant.