Ann Itto Leonardo

"Being a female politician in a highly patriarchal society such as South Sudan is never easy. But more and more women are breaking down the gender-related barriers that held their predecessors back."

"In my mind, as a child at that time, the only way to escape poverty was to go to school. It was at that time that I decided to commit myself to school."

"The support we have has to go through the national parliament; those are constituencies of the national parliament. Whatever program we get, we have to work with the national parliament."

"Our women in the rural areas will be engaged by the national parliament in Juba because we cannot work directly with them because we are a regional parliament."

"Our political parties are not creating enough forums for women to understand who they are. I am trying to say women are watching every political party in South Sudan."

"We need to provide leadership; this is number one, and also participating fully and taking care of our own interests. It is not just about our presence, but there are training opportunities in customs, trade, finance and banking system, and so forth."

"Women are very cautious in politics, so the parties must do a lot to attract more women to their membership. So what I want to start in my program is to introduce to women how political parties work and what types of political parties they can join. We need to change how political parties behave because some parties do not encourage women who want to progress in politics."

"If we train our people and take this seriously, it will save South Sudan money because you will not spend money again to train people because you will use the money paid as membership fees."