BENTIU – “Their laugh is my motivation.”
Captain Amber Asif is not just the leader of the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) engineering team in Bentiu, she is also the driving force behind outreach events that have shaped close connections between peacekeepers and local communities.
In an area that provides no time for relief, they also create moments of rest from the relentless swings of climate extremes.
While rainy season is a constant and unpredictable threat to Bentiu’s entire population submerging in water, dry season carries extreme food scarcity and dangerous heat waves.
Painfully aware of this, Captain Amber and her team have been working tirelessly to maintain the life-saving dykes protecting the area and keeping humanitarian assistance a possibility.
To her, working day and night in a context as strenuous as this wouldn’t be possible without their local counterparts:
“What I love the most about field work is meeting the communities around us, especially kids. Their laughter is my main motivation, my moral compass. It gives me strength to go above and beyond for them.”
The impact of the peacekeepers’ engineering activities are immediate: when a dyke holds, families stay in their tents instead of scrambling to makeshift shelters; when a plane lands on the maintained airstrip, a line of children rushes forward laughing and waving. They serve as a daily reminder why even the most mud‑filled days are worth it.
Community outreach is felt through continued interactions.
“It gives me immense satisfaction to see these women gain confidence and share their stories with our teams and each other, inspiring all of us to keep doing our best. Together, we're building more resilient communities where women play a vital role in shaping their own futures. Inside and outside the compound,” shares the passionate gender advocate.
They prove that Bentiu’s battle against climate extremes is being won not just with heavy engineering machinery but also the compassion of engineers like Captain Amber and the resilient spirit of the Bentiu community.
Their combined effort turns a harsh, flood‑prone landscape into a place where aid can flow and hope can grow.
