Savia Juan, 24, lost her right arm in a car accident along the Juba – Kajo Keji road in 2016 at her tea shop in Juba - credit | Charles Wote/Eye Radio | March 09, 2022

Meet a 24-year-old amputee entrepreneur who has ventured in the small scale business to earn a living.

Savia Juan lost her right arm in a car accident along the Juba – Kajo Keji road in January, 2016.

After the accident, Savia said her community neglected her due to her physical disability.

“I got my disability after a car accident, it wasn’t easy. Life was so difficult, I looked at my future like I have a dark future because of the negative attitudes that people put towards me,” Savia Juan told Eye Radio in an interview.

Despite her physical disability, Savia was passionate about making home-made cakes, selling fruits and venturing into tea selling business as well.

This, according to Savia, was the only way to earn a living without depending on her family.

Six years ago, Savia started a small business with an initial capital of 5,000 pounds.

Before hiring an assistant, Savia would wake up every morning and go for her tea selling business and supervise her fruit business as well.

To sustain her business, Savia normally sits on a chair to wash the utensils and serve tea for her customer using one hand.

Savia told Eye Radio that she now earns nearly 20,000 South Sudanese pounds a day from her businesses.

This is helping her pay the tuition fees and put the food on a table for her family.

“My business is helping me a lot. I cannot stop my business because the moment I stop my business, I am not going to continue with my education and when I stop my education, my dream will fly away from me,”  she said.

Savia is a second year student at the University of Juba pursuing her career in the School of Community Studies and Rural Development.

She also says she is considering using part of her capital to help support orphans and vulnerable people.

“When you move around the town, you find that there are many children in the street. They don’t go to school, they don’t work, they are just there begging, sleeping around the shops, they have nowhere to go but what are our responsibilities, we as citizens, we as women, we as fathers, brothers and sisters,” Savia said.

“My own dream is to help those who are on the street. I want to help them. I need to send them to school. I need to assist them in any way of life that I can assist them with. I want to give them food, this is all my dream I have.”

Speaking ahead of the just celebrated International Women Day, the Vice President for Gender and Youth Cluster, Rebecca Nyandeng urged women to empower themselves financially to give them a voice in the society.

Savia Juan however said: “Let us be self-independent, let us not depend on our husbands, brothers and wives, mothers and fathers. Let us also help them, they have already done their part by taking care of us, and you also need to do it for yourself. So I am just encouraging them to work hard.”