Monica, 12
Monica lives with her mother, two brothers and two sisters, in Rumbek, central South Sudan, but has no money for school fees. All the family’s money is going to her father, who is in hospital. Monica is sometimes able to eat twice a day, but the family is often hungry. ‘When I am hungry my stomach hurts and I feel if I eat my body is stronger,’ she says. ‘When I don’t eat it is weak.’
A survey of 250 girls from South Sudan by Plan International had some very bleak findings, with 25% having thought at least once about ending their own lives