Strengthening peace structures for peaceful co-existence

From February to April, NTLI under the Peace and Community Cohesion (PaCC) project with UNDP successfully carried out six trainings for Peace Committees outside Juba. This was done in Aweil, Bentiu, Pibor, Pochalla, Torit and Yambio.

Seasoned facilitators from NTLI guided the various participants ranging from chiefs, local government administrators, faith based institutions, women, religious leaders and youth groups

The trainings ranged between five to ten days and specific areas covered were Transformational leadership, Conflict Management, Peace-building and Sexual Gender Based Violence.

In Bentiu, 30 participants including 15 females and 15 males from Youth Groups selected from Bentiu town, Rubkona and Bentiu PoC were trained.

This unique training was a demand from last year’s training held in the UNMISS compound, Bentiu Town.  During this particular training, participants acknowledged that the previous training brought unity among the youths for peaceful co-existence because for the first time, they interacted with those from the PoC since the war broke out. 

Thus, the objective of the new training was to bring together youth from the various locations so that they continue to restore the already existing unity among the youth in Bentiu. The training was further to enhance skills on Gender/ Sexual Gender based Violence (G/SGBV), Transformational Leadership and Peace-building.

Early and forced marriage being rampant in the area, participants shared;

“When a girl is raped traditionally, you are asked whether you want to marry the survivor or not. If you don’t want to marry, they will ask you to pay two cows for compensation to the parents, and one for the court. However if you accept to marry the survivor then the right procedures for marriage is followed without consulting the girl.”

“In this community, if a girl refused to marry the man the family chooses, she is speared on the feet.” Another one said “The girl will be cursed and will never be productive.”  

“A staff member in my office has been working as a volunteer for over 2 years. I proposed her name for consideration for a permanent contract. The husband came and told her to go home and never come to work again. He demanded his name to be included in that position. I refused and threatened to take him to court if he insisted. I demanded for the wife to come back and continue working, because the husband is irresponsible and loiters around while the wife struggles to raise the children. He has threatened to take her to the village. We are waiting to see his next action,” said Kang Bol when narrating about GBV experience in his office.