The Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA), on Wednesday, concluded a three-day training on synergizing non-violent action and peacebuilding for the Rumbek Youth Sports Association (RYSA) in the Lakes State capital, Rumbek.
Michael Gorjin, the NPA project coordinator for youth and women’s rights in Lakes State, said the training, attended by 35 participants, was to empower youth to respond to community needs using nonviolent action.
“We have been here for three days with young activists from Rumbek East, Rumbek Center, and Wulu counties. We have about 35 participants, 15 females, and the rest of them are male. As NPA, we are here working in partnership with RYSA. Nonviolence is something new in South Sudan because people are used to violence,” he explained. There are what we call non-violent techniques, which are used when youths are claiming their rights. We believe this training and came up with some action points, like a climate change response. So, they will do a lot of campaigns on tree planting, and they will also mobilize citizens to ensure that they are aware of the effects of climate change.”
“They also want to do action on early and forced marriages, which is something very common in these areas, and they also want to work on issues of corruption and issues to do with youth participation in government,” Gorjin added.
He also said that they are pushing for the passage of youth enterprise development funds to be passed in the state so that young people can access funds to support their businesses.
For her part, Priscilla Abeny, a senior four student at Savannah High School in Rumbek who participated in the training, said they learned a lot about nonviolence and peacebuilding.
“We learned that if you see a girl being forced into early or forced marriage, then we should intervene. You can see the causes of forced marriages and how you can solve them. So, we first see the causes and then the effects, and then we will know how to solve them,” she said. “My message to girls out there is that if you are in some kind of trouble, we have NGOs and the government that you can run to for help.”
Maker Majok, another participant, thanked RYSA and NPA for the training and their support.
“I have put myself as one of the people who is going to bring change according to what they taught us about how change can be made and the effects of early marriage and the effects of cattle raiding,” he said. “I will use the root cause and how to solve them using a problem-solving analysis and use nonviolent action and tactics.”
Meanwhile, Abass Mayek Mayen, the RYSA executive director, said the training taught youth about their rights and peacebuilding in their communities.
“We want to attain permanent peace in our communities, so we talk to the youth to avoid violent clashes in communities or in cattle camps. We do not expect our youths to be involved in cattle raiding, road ambushes, and other violent criminal acts,” he said. “That is why we were here for three days with some support from NPA”.