MUNDRI: Joy Falatiya said her husband kicked her and five children out of their home in March 2024 and that she fell apart after that. Homeless and penniless, the 35-year-old South Sudanese mother said she thought of ending her life.
“I wanted to take my children and jump in the river,” she said while cradling a baby outside a room with cracked mud walls where she now stays.
But she’s made a remarkable recovery months later, thanks to the support of well-wishers and a mental health clinic nearby where she’s received counseling since April.
She told The Associated Press that her suicidal thoughts are now gone after months of psycho-social therapy, even though she still struggles to feed her children and can’t afford to keep them in school.
The specialized clinic in her hometown of Mundri, in South Sudan’ s Western Equatoria state, is a rare and endangered facility in a country desperate for more such services. Now that the program’s funding from Italian and Greek sources is about to end and its future is unclear.
