The Poor Help the Poor

The world's largest refugee camp is being set up in Northern Uganda. More than 1.2 million South Sudanese have already fled across the border

The way to freedom leads over a narrow wooden bridge. Stella Akita, 19, and her three sisters are among the first to reach it this morning, here at the Busia border post in Northern Uganda. Packed with what they can carry, the young women cross the Kaya river. It meanders so peacefully through the idyllic rolling hills as if the war on the other side of the river would not exist.

The siblings look confident, despite their exhaustion. None of the women look back. Two weeks earlier, they had turned their backs on their village of Payawa, south of the South Sudanese capital Juba. They took cooking utensils, food, five chickens and their mattresses with them. The war is now also devastating Payawa. Therefore they have run away. Towards the south, to Uganda, like so many refugees before them.

Emmanuel Emulit stands at the wooden bridge over the Kaya. The tall man with the stature of a bodybuilder is in charge of the border post on the Ugandan side. He has a few words of encouragement for every refugee from South Sudan. He laughingly greets the young women with a handshake and gives brief practical instructions: ‘’Put your bags in the shade, get some rest! The bus will be here soon, then you're off to the reception centre!