I Am Here Because Silence Failed Us—Choosing to Speak and Amplify Silenced Voices.

I Am Here Because Silence Failed Us—Choosing to Speak and Amplify Silenced Voices

I am here because silence failed us.

It failed the girls who learned early that endurance was safer than expression. It failed the women whose pain was normalized, dismissed, or buried beneath culture, fear, and survival. And it failed me—because I was raised in spaces where silence was taught as strength, not as the absence of choice.

My name is Akuot Sarah, a South Sudanese woman, advocate, and founder of EmpowerHer Nile Foundation. My journey into advocacy began early—at just 14 years old—when my family and I fled the war-torn region of Abyei in South Sudan. Displacement forced me to move to Uganda to pursue my education through hardship and endurance. That experience shaped my understanding of vulnerability, resilience, and the urgent need for protection and opportunity for women and girls.

My work is guided by a strong sense of patriotism. I believe that true patriotism is expressed through service, accountability, and effective delivery, especially to women, children, and marginalized communities. When we act from love of country, our advocacy becomes purposeful and our impact sustainable.

For a long time, I survived quietly. I learned how to carry responsibility early, how to protect others before myself, and how to endure injustice without naming it. But with time, I realized something important: silence does not keep us safe—it only keeps harmful systems comfortable.

I also learned that poverty creates unnecessary suffering. It increases vulnerability, erodes confidence, and compromises personal safety and self-esteem. Economic hardship opens doors for exploitation, making it easier for women to be taken advantage of and harder for them to refuse, report, or leave harmful situations. Poverty does not only limit income—it limits choice and voice.

Between 2020 and 2022, I co-founded Women Voices of Hope for the Vulnerable, where we worked during the COVID-19 pandemic to support highly marginalized communities. Our work focused on people affected by leprosy, orphans, street-connected children, sick children, elderly families, and other less advantaged households whose needs were intensified by lockdowns, loss of income, and limited access to services. That period grounded my advocacy in compassion, community response, and practical action during crisis.

Building on those lessons, I am now leading EmpowerHer Nile Foundation, where my work focuses on protecting girls and young women, challenging gender-based violence in all its forms—including digital harm—and advancing women’s economic independence as a foundation for dignity and safety. I aim to engage women in small-scale business, industrial development, and value addition, supporting them to move beyond survival into sustainable livelihoods. When women control income and add value to what they produce, they gain confidence, bargaining power, and the freedom to speak.

I joined World Pulse because I believe change happens when voices and solutions connect across borders. I am here to learn from women building power in difficult contexts, to share honestly from lived experience, and to collaborate with those committed to gender justice, economic empowerment, peacebuilding, and community-led development.

Most importantly, I am here as a woman who learned early that speaking is not always easy—but it becomes possible when survival is no longer at stake.

I look forward to learning from you, walking with you, and amplifying voices together—until no woman has to choose between silence and survival.

In solidarity,

Akuot Sarah

Founder | EmpowerHer Nile Foundation