RUMBEK, LAKES STATE — South Sudan is one of the worst places on
the planet to be a woman. With the highest maternal mortality
rate in the world -- often due to forced or early marriage --
and the total lack of basic services in a country devastated by
war, women have never had identity papers and control over their
fate. Slowly, aid agencies like the International Rescue
Committee are trying to get women on the first rung of the
ladder of independence through a unique banking system born out
of a simple box. Under the shade of a tree, women gather,
singing and dancing. They are waiting for the bank to open. The
bank? A small wooden box. Teresa Ajok Aduong - the only literate
woman in the group -- is the “manager” of this wooden box bank.
The women can use their household money to buy $1 shares in the
bank and the money is used to loan to members, who pay it back
with interest. Independent only since 2011 and following decades
of war, South Sudan’s development has been severely arrested.
Only about 16 percent