(UNICEF) – He was a quiet, shy boy of 14, helping his parents at the farm, sharing household work and finishing his lessons, in Bentiu county in then undivided Sudan. One day, on an otherwise a regular afternoon, his parents and uncle were dragged out his house and shot dead by plain clothes men with masked faces, while he stood there watching. Days after the incident, Matet was holding a gun and learning to shoot as a child solider with an armed group. He didn’t think twice about giving up school at grade 5. “If I remained at home, they would’ve killed me as well,” says 41-year-old Matet, his red eyes narrowing into cracks as he recounts details of that day. “I wanted to avenge my parents’ death, protect myself and fight for the freedom of South Sudan. I joined the army in 1991.”
For children in South Sudan, education offers the brightest ray of hope
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