Gatkuoth and Nyawine’s daughter Nyayang was only 15 days old when fighting broke out in Dec 2013, forcing the family to move inside the UNMISS compound in #Juba, #SouthSudan, seeking spontaneous protection along with tens of thousands of other civilians. A few months later, baby Nyayang’s head started unexplainably swelling. The camp clinics couldn’t do anything, and ongoing fighting made it too dangerous for Gatkuoth to go outside as a Nuer man. So 21-year-old Nyawine took her baby on a boat trip to Bentiu, joining five other women who were trying to flee to their home villages. N’s mission was different: to find a traditional healer who could heal Nyayang’s disease. They reached her hometown of Leer after 12 days only to find that vicious fighting had broken out, with mass killing, rapes and no doctors to be found. When Nyawine returned to Juba, she found that her original registration as an IDP in the UN camp was no longer valid and that intl agencies were no longer registering new arrivals to the camp. Gatkuoth’s brother and his family had also arrived at the camp in the meantime, so they were now seven people living in the tent with only one registered person – that meant they all had to survive on one person’s allotment of food and water each month. Gatkuoth started driving a rented motorcycle to the camp entrance every day, charging 5 pounds per passenger and making 100 pounds (about $3 USD) on the best days. Nyayang is now 3 years old, and her parents still don’t know what her condition is or have the means or money to get her treatment. But their daughter is smart and happy, Nyawine said – she laughs and babbles plenty of words, her parents kissing and holding her. Only when the camera appeared did she freeze, scrunching her face in fear. “She thinks it’s a gun,” Nyawine said, rocking her daughter close. “Shhh, my baby, don’t cry.” #displacement #IDPs #mother #father #daughter #aid #survival #disease #deformity #family #war #crisis #medical #baby #beauty #iwmffellows ?: @aliceatlarge