On Wednesday, October 20th 2021, a group of 22 women in Renk gathered for a training on Transformational Leadership, Women, Peace and Security. The five days’ training was organised by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) and delivered by the National Transformational Leadership Institute (NTLI) from the University of Juba.
It brought together women from various backgrounds and calibre including housewives, women in organised forces, farmers, musicians, women from Abayok IDP. Most participants had an Arabic background and some basic education. With this diverse background, the training is in tune with the global Sustainable Development Goals of achieving gender equity in all spheres.
This special training was organised under auspices of the IOM Migration Management Unit’s Project on “Supporting Peace, Security and Stability in Northern Regions through Strengthening Border Management Capacities and Inclusive Community Engagement.”
It’s overall objective was to impart basic knowledge and skills on Transformational Leadership and Gender Based Violence. In particular the training covered Trafficking in Persons, Public Speaking, Economic Empowerment, Community Safety Plans and Networking and Information sharing. The end result is for women and girls to be able to engage equally with men in their community affairs, instead of being left behind as has previously been the norm.
The training was officiated by the Commissioner of Renk, Hon. Dok Guot in while the Police Chief, Col. Juma Chol Kur, Director for Gender, Mahla Ibrahim, Chairlady of the Women’s Union, Maria Ajak, IOM representative, Abdelateef Lamyaa and NTLI representative, Dr. Linda Ngira gave opening remarks.
The training which ends on 25th of this month hopes to continue engaging the women on a community safety plan based on the needs they will voice out during the training.
Progress from the current training is already ongoing. Initially exhibiting timidness, the women started to open up better on Day two when they had the training session on Public Speaking which gave them a chance to practice. Some admitted that this was their first time to speak before a crowd.
“I have never really spoken before a group of people until I attended the Public Speaking training by NTLI and IOM. The last time I stood and spoke to people was in my primary school in 2015,” said Sumia.
Another participant confessed to not speaking initially because previously, organisations have come to Renk, collected information and left without any concrete change but this time, she could see it was going to be a different story.
Now the facilitators have got themselves into a good problem. Moving from one session to another has become difficult as participants still want to share on the current topic. This is clear evidence of the transformation already taking place among the trainees and it is our hope that this momentum will be carried forward to other engagements.
Further, participants advocated for more of such trainings to target more groups of women and youth so that they can fully engage in the affairs of their community. Forward, we keep going. Women oyeee!!!!
It is worth noting that this is the first training IOM and NTLI are rolling out together in Renk county of Upper Nile State. A similar training is scheduled to take place in Geger payam a few weeks from now. Stay tuned to this website for more updates